10 August 2009

Mountains to Sea - 368 miles

Not so early start today. Even though we had a long way to go.

Out of Cherokee, we headed away from the well trodden path. There were certainly Interstates and US highways that would quickly get us to the coast, but we opted for some back roads - at least to start with.

Our track led us down out of the Appalatian Mountains to Rosman, NC through some very twisty roads. It was a lot of fun even though we again were a little slowed by the trailers.
Then more mountainous roads into South Carolina and through an area called Rocky Bottom.

Things flattened out a bit after that and we took mosly followed Hwy 178 through several towns. Nice to see the real coutryside rather than the closed-in major routes. Lotsa churches!!

In one place we called in for fuel and there was quite a furore happening. Another vehicle and trailer had pulled in and in the trailer was a black bear. It was the South Carolina DNR re-locating a bear that had been attempting to get into someone's house. At first it was just lying in the cage looking dopey, having been tranked. But while we were there the drugs wore off and it got up and paced the cage anxiously. Lots of people taking photos, so it was a good thing the cage was quite strong. We could see the bear had worked out which was the door and was trying to find a way to get out.
We certainly hope they take it to somewhere it can be happier.

After that it was quite a long day through farmland and light housing estates. Blocks are quite big, even in the towns and everything is well spread out. A vehicle would be necessary to live anywhere in th countryside or the towns.

We finally hit I-95 - once again - haven't seen it since New Jersey - and headed south and in to Georgia. A stop at the State Welcome Centre gave us plans of where to stay and we pulled off the highway in South Savannah into a wierd Motel Precinct. Every major chain is represented here in a sort of park-with-motels. In between is every major franchise eating house. Most of the motels and eateries have massive 50 metre (160 foot) signs outside their doors, so they can be seen from the highway. The whole area is clean and tidy with nice landscaping and lawns. Needless to say, with this kind of competition, rooms are cheap. Meals were pretty good too. Under $50 for a very nice room with spa bath and about the same for a slap-up dinner for two.

Photo time:

Pretty lakeside living

Pretty fun road

Pretty sad bear

Pretty typical house

Pretty roadside flowers

Pretty large number of stop signs

Pretty strange row of trees

1 comment:

  1. Pretty impressive pictures Clint I reckon you'll be pretty good at that pretty soon

    cam

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