Mountain Lakes and Frozen Feet

Wednesday, March 30th – Devil’s Fork State Park, South Carolina to North Carolina to Fort Yargo State Park, Atlanta, Georgia – Day 50 

 In the middle of the night, we were awoken by noise in the campsite next door. There was some rustling and then our neighbours started banging pots. We opened the zippered window on the trailer to see what was going on. Aisling woke up and joined us. In the faint light we made out the shape of a good-sized bear in their campsite. Aisling was excited to see a bear up close. We watched and a few minutes later the bear ran off. 

 We woke up in the morning and opened the window to lay and look out on the lake. The mountains rose from the lake edge and stood out in the distance. I reflected on how fortunate we were to be doing this trip. We ate some breakfast and helped the kids finish South Carolina junior ranger level 3. Mary and Gen took the kids to the shower while I packed up the trailer. 

By the time I finished with the trailer I had a sweat worked up and the mountain lake looked pretty good. I let Gen know about my desire for a swim and went down to the small beach. The water was cold, really cold. I got into my knees and it was quite pleasant after I lost feeling. Gen came down to watch my suffering. Eventually I dove in for a very short swim. When I started to come out of the water to dry off Gen asked me to wait for her to walk up to the trailer and get her suit to join me. I dutifully waited. She returned with the rest of the family. Everyone got ready for a swim but the kids only got into their knees. Mary, Gen and I swam again. It felt warmer the second time. 

 We went to the ranger station to get some badges and get a shopping fix at the gift store. They recommended a nearby waterfall, Whitewater Falls, to see on the way out. We drove 20 minutes uphill along windy roads. Just as we were about to get to the falls, we entered North Carolina - state number 11! The falls were a short walk up a gentle hill with a very steep side. The view was spectacular. 

 Back in the car, we drove to another water fall along the road to Atlanta, Toccoa Falls. When we arrived we found it that the waterfall was on a Christian college campus and the route to the falls was closed. We looked through the fence from quite a distance. It looked nice but nothing like Whitewater Falls. On the way out we had a washroom (or restroom as they are called here) request so we stopped by the student centre. When everyone went in, Mary found out that the student buffet would cost us $5 per adult and the kids were free. It was quite good. 

 We finally left to start heading towards Atlanta with only one more stop along the way. We had found out about a town that had a scale model of the solar system you could walk. The centre square of the town had a scaled down model of the Sun that was about 60 cm in diameter. Mercury was five metres away and was smaller than a pea. Venus, Earth and Mars were all located in the square. We walked along the road but couldn’t find the asteroid belt. Eventually, we got to Jupiter that was around 8 cm in diameter. By this point John was melting down so we drove along the rest of the route and missed the rest of the planets. The town was beautiful, and it would have been a gorgeous walk through wooded, leafy parks to see the entire solar system. Maybe sometime without the kids. 

 The downside to this experience was that when we pulled into the town to see the model of the Sun, a person sitting at the restaurant let us know that our back tire in the trailer was locking up when we braked. I had noticed a tension with one side of the trailer occasionally but it didn’t really seem to be an issue. Upon closer inspection, the tire had gone almost bald in certain sections. The problem with this is we are either living in the trailer or driving to another spot to live in the trailer. Getting a mechanic to look at the brakes will be tough. To the park, set-up and off to bed.