Not much to say about the last day. I simply drove home from my mother-in-law's house in NW Ohio to home, about a 3-1/2 hr drive. I was pretty dang tired, but I did have some time to reflect on my trip. So in this post, I want to share in some of those thoughts, relate how Ansel performed, and post some additional photos.
First, I want to share a few things that I forgot to include in previous posts:
- In one of the first posts I had an asterisk (*) where I mentioned something about bears. Did you notice? Well, I forgot to add a footnote that I had seen a black bear cub on the road. It was right in the middle of the road, and when it saw me, it started to run to the right but then turned around and scampered off to the left and up the adjacent hill. Cute little guy (gal?)...glad I was in the van, though.
- On the way from Knoxville to Ohio, I took Ansel to what I assume was a brand new Bucc-ees in Richmond, KY, my 8th Bucc-ees of all! What is Bucc-ees some of you may ask? Well, to quote one of their ubiquitous billboards, "If you know, you know." It was absolutely packed....I couldn't believe how many perople were there (likely because it was new). I picked up some Bucc-ees pork cracklin's, a frozen bacon-wrapped stuffed pork tenderloin (we've bought these before -- delicious), a pack of gum (hey, I needed gum), a bag of addictive beaver chips, and then quickly got out of there! Madness!!!
- I had a few occasions where people acknowledged Ansel's license plate. While in Cade's Cove a women who had pulled over with her family yelled and waved, "Hello Ansel Adams!". Cool. At one stop, a fellow photographer jokingly asked me if I was related to Ansel, and I said, "no, just a fan". He then went on to tell me how he had reproduced Ansel's famous photo at Canyon de Chelly. I asked him how it turned out, and he said, tongue -in-cheek, "mine was better".
Ansel performed extremely well, as expected in fact. I had no major issues, but I had to learn to remember to secure things before driving off. On a few occasions I had cabinets fly open and things slide off the countertop. Nothing serious, though. And, I had to get used to the work flow of things, such as during cooking, washing dishes and the morning routine. Overall the electrical system performed very well (I never got below 60% battery charge, which is at least a day's worth of energy), the refrigerator worked great and had ample space (though sometimes I had to dig to find what I was looking for), the stereo system was awesome (I even watched a few movies), and the bed was super comfy. Does that mean everything was perfect? No, of course not. I have a running list of things I want to improve upon, and there are things that I didn't get completed before the trip, like build the upper cabinets (I discovered they are very much needed). So, overall Ansel was great!
As far as the trip itself, I would say it was successful. The places I visited were beautiful, and for the most part the colors were at or near peak. And, the waterfalls were excellent...I was actually quite impressed. As is usually the case, I didn't hit all of my "highly desirable" locations (in part due to some of the challenges and issues I experienced, which is par for the course), but that's okay. My intent for this trip was to go with the flow and not try to highly script what I would do. To a large extent this is how it unfolded. After all, this was part of the idea with having my own campervan...I didn't have a rental contract that ended on a specific date, nor did I have a return flight to catch.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) was beautiful, and part of me wished I could have spent more time there. However, I had other places to see and the crowds were a oppressive. (No wonder: GSMNP is the most visited National Park -- in 2021 it had over 14 million visitors -- and October is one of the two busiest months). Of the two National Forests that I spent time in, I liked Nantahala the best. It seemed to be more scenic to me, and it was more conducive to free-camping. In addition, there were great scenic opportunities outside GSMNP and the National Forests. Bottom line: the Appalacians are a gem!
With that, I will leave you with some additional photos, some of which I simply forgot to include with previous posts.
Thank you for reading my blog! Till the next adventure...
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Another black & white shot of Hyatt's Lane in Cade's Cove in GSMNP. This is similar but technically better image than the previous one I shared (it's focus-stacked). I like it better.
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Close-up of the "splash down" area of Dry Falls
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Another shot of the reservoir on the Cullasaja River
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The fog along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway
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Sunburst Falls in black & white
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Shelf mushrooms and fern-like moss on a fallen log at the Blue Valley Campground
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Colors at the Blue Valley Campground
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Log Hollow Falls in the Pisgah National Forest
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Close-up of Looking Glass Falls
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The stream along the Smokemont Campground in GSMNP
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The Appalacians
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Scene from Cade's Cove in GSMNP. There was a photographer here doing a portrait session with a family that was taking an extremely long time to move on, which I found to be quite annoying (yes, I know it's her business, but this is a public place after all). I eventually gave up and took the shot when they got up up by the tree. I then Photoshopped them out! So there!
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