North Carolina - Day 1 - getting there

Murphy KOA, Murphy

Thursday, 1 June 2023

Google said today's drive would take 2½ hours, so I figured on an all-day drive.  I knew we'd cover mostly local roads, where I can mostly equal Google's estimates, but I also knew it would cover mountainous areas, where I've found I can rarely drive as fast as the speed limit.  I usually take those curves much more cautiously than someone local would do.  So I left the Anderson, SC, campground at 8:40.

today's route

Not far down the road from Anderson we came to the town of Townville, which indicates a lack of imagination on the part of the early inhabitants, though I'm sure the current residents like the name just fine.

We passed a sign warning "School Prayer Zone" with 2 stick figures: a girl reading a book and a boy kneeling with hands folded in prayer.  It seemed odd to me because why would anyone think passing drivers needed this warning sign?  I just couldn't imagine 2 kids beside the road doing either of these activities (though I used to read books while I was walking home from high school).  So if no kid was expected to be kneeling beside the road (or in the road) why was that sign needed?

South Carolina has a town named Fair Play.  The local myth/history is that the town's name came from a fight between 2 pioneers, when a bystander shouted, "Play fair."  Which of course suggests they hadn't been and isn't much of a character reference for the early folks.  But that's the story.

Westminster seemed a much larger town and labels itself "historic" and the "Gateway to the Mountain Lakes Region."  I see on the map there are several large ones not far from here.

We passed through a massive area of kudzu draped all over everything in its path.

An online photo of kudzu -
kind of creepy, isn't it?

In the small town of Long Creek, I saw a business sign that said "☾ Shine Whiskey."  It took me a minute.

Crossing the Chatooga River put us into Georgia for a short distance, not far from Tallulah Falls where we camped last month.

A sign told us we were passing the turn to Black Rock State Park, saying it's Georgia's highest state park.  At 3,640' elevation, it's got a genuine claim to Georgia fame.

We found ourselves once again on the Blue Ridge Parkway and came to the Continental Divide.  I missed the elevation posted on the sign and can't seem to find it online, but the Black Rock State Park straddles the Continental Divide, so I guess that gives an approximate elevation for this pass.

At the town of Dillard I saw a sign that said:

   Keep America Great

   Trump 2020

   Let Trump Be Trump!

Considering the current criminal charges against the former president for unlawfully retaining top secret documents, including nuclear secrets, I'm sort of hoping Trump decides to become someone else for a change.

And then "Welcome to North Carolina!"

North Carolina
my 48th state

At the town of Franklin we passed the Scottish Tartans Museum, which seemed unusual to me, but maybe this area was colonized by a batch of immigrants from Scotland.

I'd found a dog park in Franklin online, and we found it in reality.  It was what you might call out of the way from any but local traffic, but Google's directions worked out fine and Dext enjoyed the break.

Sadly, Google's directions for how to get back to the highway were abysmal and I ended up wandering around and finally finding the roads I came in on that Google's leaving directions completely missed.  So we're not still wandering around Franklin.  Seemed like a nice little town, but not where we were headed to.

At Franklin we switched to US-64 for the rest of the drive.  Signs told me it was designated a North Carolina Scenic Byway - and it certainly was scenic.  Lots of trees, lots of lupins and paintbrushes along the highway - very pretty.  Very scenic views, too.

And we were back on the Appalachian Highway, driving through the Nantahala National Forest which is so big it seems to cover most of western North Carolina, as you can see from all that green on the route map above.

We passed through the Winding Stair Gap, elevation 3,820' (already higher than Georgia), followed by a 5% grade for the next 2 miles.  Somewhat ominously, a sign there said that by law, all trucks must enter an information area.  From what I could see, NC wanted truckers to be prepared for how to drive on the road ahead.  And that 5% grade was followed by a 7% grade for the following 2 miles.

And we got to Murphy campground at 12:50 - just more than a 4-hour drive.  More than Google said but not as much as I was expecting, which is a good thing.