3 States, 1 Day

I continued traveling in Tennessee as far east as Erwin (for you map followers). This is the mountainous part of the state and the scenery is beautiful. The towns, however, are older, industrial towns, often a bit ragged around the edges. I decided I had probably seen what I wanted to see in Tennessee, so I headed south to North Carolina. The scenery in the western mountainous part of the state even beats Tennessee. I drove onto the Blue Ridge Parkway at Asheville. This is a 45-mph road running from Virginia to North Carolina. You travel above towns and places, attain great heights (6000 feet) and have incredible views. Here is a picture taken at about 3800 feet. At about 4000 feet, I was in the clouds (so to speak). Actually, I was fogged in and the drive became very dangerous: I couldn't see but a couple of feet around me; I was trying to contend with other cars and bicyclists; and it was very cold. So, I decided to turn back and go down to a blue highway going west across this portion of the state. This was windy, mountainous driving, but gorgeous. A lot of people have found the beauty of this region, as the population is pretty dense. Big-time money is here, evidenced even by an office/gallery of Sotheby's along the road. I ended in Highlands, an artsy community dripping in dollars. I got out of there pretty quickly.

My third state that day was Georgia. I arrived in the old town of Clarkesville, which has a rectangular town square of old shops. I must go back there someday. Instead, I headed to the library to check my email. Coming out, I discovered I was only a block from the Episcopal Church whose last priest had been Barbara Bradford Taylor, so I had to go see it. I've written about Barbara before and how much I have appreciated her writings. The church is so New England Unitarian, that I can't believe it could have been built for an Episcopal church. It has a very high center pulpit, boxed pews, and a Henry Erban (New York City mid-1800s) one-manual pipe organ in the rear gallery. I'd like to go there someday to see how worship works in such a space. I then found a lovely private RV camp for the night. I think I'd seen a lot that day.