From High Falls State Park (Georgia) to Smokemont Campground (North Carolina)
Travel Dates: 7/3/2020 to 7/5/2020
Drive Time: 4 hours 3 minutes covering 213 miles (342 km)
Today I traveled from High Falls State Park to the Smokemont Campground in North Carolina at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. The day was not too long, though I did have a bit of traffic while I was going through the town of Cherokee, as it was very busy with families picnicking, swimming and tubing along the River.
When I finally arrived at the campground I was greeted by a very friendly park ranger who filled me in on where to go to get to my campsite as well as where the dump station was. He recommended I go fill up my tank before driving to my site if I thought I didn't have enough, so I wouldn't have to leave my spot during my stay.
Since the campsites didn't have water or electric hookups, I took his advice and headed over to the dump station. When my tank was full, I made my way to my campsite which was easy to find and right at the beginning of the F loop. I did have a little bit of trouble backing into my space but that was because another camper had their car parked in front of their trailer very near the road, limiting the amount of room I had to get the angle correct. It only took me about three times backing up and pulling forward before getting it right and making my way in the parking area and setting up camp.
As you entered into the F loop, you drive over a small culvert allowing for the river to pass under the road. I walked over after settling in and took the picture above. It's so nice to hear the sounds of water so close to my campsite!
The park was quite busy and full as this was 4th of July weekend and there were many families with their children. In fact, I was super lucky to even get into this campground as I hadn't thought ahead and reserved a spot weeks before. Instead, I was constantly checking out the website on 6/29/20 to see if someone had canceled before snagging this spot when it opened up. I had a scare as someone seemed to have gotten it when it disappeared as I was checking out, but it popped back up as available about 20 minutes later. Lessons learned. If it's a holiday weekend, book well ahead of time and not just a few days before!
Waking up this morning I was still very exhausted haven't not slept well because it was very humid inside the RV. I'm not sure exactly when it was that I discovered it, but it seemed like my refrigerator had stopped working and I couldn't figure out why that was. All I knew was that the temperature inside was getting warmer and warmer throughout the day and I tried my best to limit the amount of times I was opening the refrigerator door to keep the food fresh. I also didn't have any ice to keep things cold!
I tried looking at the owners manual to see if it would help but I still couldn't pinpoint what was going on. I tried resetting all of the fuses in the fuse box, but still no luck. The other problem I had was that this campground did not have any mobile signal or wifi whatsoever and so I wasn't able to get on the internet for help on diagnosing and fixing the problem. In order to make dinner that night, I turned on the propane for the first time and decided to make a large meal to cover a late lunch, dinner, and possibly breakfast the next morning.
I spent a good portion of the day outside sitting in my chair under my awning enjoying the weather and watching the people going by. Some I spoke to, others I nodded my head at and a few I waved and said hello to as they passed by. It was very nice to feel a part of the community even as I chose to distance myself from everyone else due to covid concerns. In the early afternoon I decided to go for a little walk around the campground, however not too long after I started it started too sprinkle rain and not wanting to get caught out in a heavy rainstorm turned around and went back to my RV. Of course by the time I returned the rain stopped!
Around 8:30 pm, I walked down to the dump station before turning around and following the far loop back to my section of the campground. Upon returning it was completely dark outside and I decided to get ahead on preparing to leave the following day by getting my dishes done and putting away as many items as I could. I set my alarm for 7:30 with hopes to leave by 8:30 and went to bed, but it was very humid and took me along time to fall asleep again.
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