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| Corn, airport, mountains, clouds. Andrews NC 24 Aug 2020. |
It's the second full day of our vacation in the mountains of far western NC, and so far it's going well.
Except I can't walk, but more on that later perhaps.
Yesterday we travelled to Franklin NC, a trip that we were told would take about 25 minutes in an easterly direction on the Wayah road. It's a commuter road, we were lead to believe.
I suppose that if you're FROM these parts, it is. If you're a flatlander with a distinct fear of falling off the side of a mountain on your way to get groceries while navigating a road only 1/2 step less challenging than the Tail of the Dragon, then it's not, at all, a commuting road.
Start at about 15:30 in this video to get a sense of what I'm talking about. The lovely lake you see in the first couple of minutes is Nantahala Lake, which we will be boating on come Wednesday. It's quite the drop from the road to the lake, without a guardrail to be found. I, as passenger, was not very amused. Wern, on the other hand, seemed to find the constant back-and-forth swaying of the van around those hairpin turns quite soothing, and fell asleep.
We did make it to Franklin (in about an HOUR, not 25 minutes!), and had a nice couple/few hours there poking around, shooping for stuff at the WalMart (eeech, but needed to purchase some swimmies bcs we BOTH forgot ours), hitting up the grocery store, walking a little bit on the greenway. Wern got to meet a few doggos on the walk, which was the POINT of the walk (in my mind), and I crapped out early because my left knee was getting in the way of perambulating. Posterior popliteal tendonitis, most likely, which hurts like a bear unless you stay the hell off your legs in order to rest and heal. So of COURSE I tried to take a walk. Yeesh.
Today we went the other direction (westerly) toward Andrews NC. Andrews has a grocery, a liquor store, an airport, and a fort-adjacent type of historical site. It had restaurants at one time, but only the McDonalds and Subway seem to still be open. Town's been hit hard, which is a shame, because it's kind of charming and on a major highway and reasonably easy to get to. We took Junaluska Road to Andrews, and it was a lovely drive. No death traps atall! The fort installation at the Cherokee County rest area (right on 74/19) tells a factual and brutal story of the unfortunate history of the Trail of Tears, and just how shittily we treated the indigenous people of this area. Absolutely horrible.
Incidentally, the Wayah Road, on which our cabin is located, was part of the Trail of Tears, taking Cherokee from eastern portions of the SE native areas and shuttling them to Fort Delaney in Andrews before force-marching them through brutal conditions on to Oklahoma. So many died. I can't imagine being a Cherokee from this area and trying to understand how to 'work' Oklahoma.
It's been an experience, getting acquainted with the history of this part of my lovely state. Even after the indigenous had been ousted and the white settlers moved in, a lot of history happened. I've been getting wrist-deep in the history of the Nantahala area, and it's fascinating. These hills have stories, believe you me.
Tomorrow we welcome new guests. Wonder if babies like pontoon boat rides? We'll find out and report back.
Tiff out.
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