Mount Mitchell State Park - The Highest Point East of the Misssissippi River

On our way home from Chimney Rock State Park in North Carolina, we moseyed up the Blue Ridge Parkway.  (See our post http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/07/flowers-of-blue-ridge.html.) This 469-mile roadway was built by several "alphabet agencies" beginning in the Franklin Roosevelt administration: the CCC (Civilian Conservatin Corps), the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the ERA (Emergency Relief Administration), and the CPS (Civilian Public Service - made up of World War II conscientious objectors).

The Parkway literally runs across the top of the mountains from the Great Smoky Mountains, thru the Blue Ridge Mountains, up to Shenandoah Valley and the beginning of Skyline Drive.  The views are wonderful.

Remember, there are almost 500 miles of these views - each spectacular in it's own way.

It is also possible to hike the Parkway and Skyline Drive.  Some folks have been known to toss a backpack on and spend a whole summer hiking from one end to the other.   Other folks just make a day of it.  Hiking it allows you to get up close and personal to sights you can't see from the road:

This is Glassmine Falls.  It is found at an elevation of 5,200 feet, and the waterfall itself is over 800 feet high!

But the highest point along the Parkway, and the highest point in America east of the Mississippi River, is the 6,578 foot peak of the Black Mountains.  Go back to the first picture.  You can see rows and rows of peaks - there are numerous different mountain ranges separating the eastern seaboard from the interior plains of America.  Geologists say that more than a billion years ago, the Black Mountains were as high as the Himalayas.  Time has worn them down (just like it's worn me down - I think I've lost an inch, and I didn't have an inch to lose!)  Even so, six of these peaks are among the ten highest in the eastern U.S.  It's because of those elevations that the flora and fauna here is more like Canada than the rest of the middle-eastern seaboard.

And here at the top of the world we find a grave!  This is the final resting place of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, the science professor who was first to measure the mountain.  In 1835, he calculated the highest peak to be 6,476 feet high.  He re-calculated it in 1844 and came in at 6,672 feet - just 12 feet off of what today's most precise instruments have come up with.  So they named the park after him, and eventually he was buried here.  That's pretty cool.  Better than the pig pen on the back of our land in Texas that I want to be buried in!

Tobacco Plant

Friday Granpa went out and took pictures of the beautiful flowers atop the tobacco plants.  

  

That was a really good idea, because on Saturday they came along and cut off all of their heads!

  

Before:

After

I wonder if they were harvesting tobacco seeds? or extending the growing life (and therefore the number of leaves to dry and sell to manufacturers)?  or both?

To read more about the tobacco plant, check out one of our earlier posts:  http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/10/huron-indian-myth.html

Flowers of the Blue Ridge

Yup, the flowers of the Blue Ridge have been around for a long, long time.

Tom Landry

One of our sons got this genuine official Tom Landry hat for Granpa.  He likes it so much I thought he was gonna sleep in it that night.

Tom Landry was an awesome man, and Granpa has always admired him.  He was a football player and a Pro Football Hall of Fame coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Landry was born in Mission, Texas in 1924.  Mission is over 500 miles from Dallas, about as far south as you can go in Texas and right on the border with Mexico.  He served in World War II as a B-17 bomber pilot with the United States Army Air Corps.  He flew 30 missions out of England including one that crash landed in Belgium when they ran out of fuel.  When he returned to Texas he finished his interrupted college years.

Tom Landry was a Methodist Sunday school teacher who would not even skip out early on game day.  He would get to the field with only minutes to spare when the Cowboys played in Dallas and had a noon kickoff.  Landry was a quiet man, calm in any storm.  He was active in the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), and a friend of Reverend Billy Graham, the humble yet larger than life evangelist, who had Landry speak at many of his crusades.  Landry was even featured in a comic book in 1973 promoting Christianity.

Some people think Christians are weak and need to lean on someone or something.  I think Landry proves that there is no truth to that misconception.


Landry's first year as a pro-football player in 1949, was with - of all teams! - the New York Yankees of the All-American Football Conference. (What's a Texan doin' playin' with those Yankees?  Ah!  Texas didn't get it's first pro-football franchise until 1952.)  From 1950 to 1955 he played professional football with the New York Giants.  In 1954, he played AND was a defensive coach for the Giants.  His on-field career ended in 1955, but he stayed on as a coach for another season.  Guess who the offensive coach was at the time... Vince Lombardi.  That's pretty cool.

In 1960 he was appointed as the very first head coach the Dallas Cowboys ever had.  He was pretty good at it, too, taking the Cowboys to - are you ready?  are you sitting down?  not just 20 winning season, but 20 winning seasons in a row (1966 - 1985),  including 13 division titles, 5 NFC titles, and 18 playoff berths!  He also, through his amazing coaching, took them to multiple championship games and five Super Bowls.  He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1966 and NFC Coach of the Year in 1972.  And you wonder why Granpa admires him...

Only George Halas and Don Shula have more career victories than Landry ( he compiled a 270-178-6 record), and nobody tops his mark of 20 playoff wins in a row.  Landry also mentored two future coaches:  Super Bowl head coaches Dan Reeves and Mike Ditka began their coaching careers on Landry's staff in Dallas.  To be a Super Bowl coach you have to be an "innovator, motivator, tactician, and teacher."  Or so says ESPN, and Landry was certainly all of those things.  Tom Landry died in February, 2000, at the age of 75.

I think all of these things are the reasons Granpa is and always will be a Dallas Cowboys fan, in remembrance of Tom Landry.  I'm certain that when Landry got to heaven the Lord said, "Well done, My good and faithful servant."  (I think He'll say the same to Granpa, too.)

I Love Lucy

I'm so glad that there was an "I Love Lucy" show because there are so many times in my life that I've had those "I Love Lucy" moments.

The most recent was last week.  I had to have a few days to put it all in perspective because, you see, it was a Granpa-induced event...

We drive a van that has what I call wing-windows at the very back.  The way far back.  So far back that you almost have to open the hatch to get to them.  Granpa likes to open those wings up to improve the flow of fresh air.  He never tells me that he's done that, and he usually forgets to close them.

Last Monday, after our trip to Chimney Rock, I decide to fill up the gas tank and run the van through the car wash.  Mmm-hmm.  You guessed what happened next, but let me play it out for you.

When you pull into the bay, a sign lights up telling you it's time to stop and put the car in neutral.  This is when I usually start cleaning the steering wheel and dashboard, etc. with my handy-dandy baby wipes that no car should be without.

The mechanism that sprays water and moves itself around the car kicks on, and high pressure water begins to bombard the car.  I'm scrubbing away when I think I feel water coming at me from somewhere.  Granpa also has a tendency to lower all windows just a tad during the summertime because it can get so hot in Texas that if you don't, the windows may break.  (Our son sent me an iPhone photo yesterday of the reading on his digital thermometer that he had pointed at the ground on our lil' hobby farm back home: 157.  The weatherman only tells you the ambient air temperature not the ground temperature...)  So, guessing that's where the water came from, I hit the electric window buttons to make certain all windows are up tight.

I go back to my cleaning; the high pressure spray is now putting out soapy water.  Suddenly I'm being hit with globs of soap!  What in heavens name?  I twist in my seat and realize that Granpa has done the wing-window thing again!  Good grief!  I can't get out of the car, open the hatch and close the windows while that thing is moving around the car, not to mention the tons of water spraying everywhere.  If those windows are going to get closed it's going to have to be from the inside.

I shut down the engine (because I can just see me hitting the gear shift when I try to climb over the console and through the front seats...), unbuckle the seat belt, shove the seat all the way back, and try desperately to twist my enormous ol' buttinsky out from under the steering wheel and over the console.  I essentially fall headfirst through the two front seats onto the back floorboard, all the while trying not to think of what the guy monitoring the security cam for the car wash is seeing.

As I raise up, my head smacks the clothes rod that our hanging clothes go on when traveling.  It falls, and as I try to step to the back of the van, I trip over it landing in a heap on the back seat.  Just then the rinse cycle of water sprays in under high pressure from both wing-windows, and I'm drenched - as is the whole interior of the van.  The cup holders now have a half-inch of water in them...

I know that what comes next is the wax, and I must get those windows shut before that stuff gets all over the upholstery!  The problem is, I never can get that silly latch to un-latch so that the window can close, and this time it's covered in slippery soapy water!  It's a race against time, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna lose.  Granpa is in SO much trouble!!

I clamber back to the front of the van to grab the roll of paper towels we keep under the console, then back to the windows.  How does this latch work!?  Truthfully, I still don't know, but somehow I manage to dry it off enough to get a grip, release one and close it, but by the time I get to the next one - whoosh! in comes the rainbow colors of the foaming wax right in my face!  He's gonna pay.  Granpa is gonna pay, and pay, and pay for this one!

More paper towels to wipe my face enough to see, close the window, try to get as much wax as possible off the upholstery, ceiling, side panels, and floor.  Then back to the front seat before the rinse cycle is done and the "go" light comes on.  My blouse catches on the arm rest, flipping it down so that my behind lands on it as I try to straddle the console and slip under the steering wheel.

The light goes green.  I have to start the engine!  Put it in gear, calm down, and inch forward (no easy task since I'd been on an adrenaline rush the last few minutes...) so that the monster blow dryer could dry the van on the outside.  I suppose it's up to me to dry it on the inside since Granpa doesn't get off of work for another eight hours!  Trouble.  The man is in trouble.

* * * * * * * *

I am so tempted to call him at work and give him a scolding as only wives can, but that's not something to do when he's at work.  Besides, I need a lil' distance from this event before discussing it with him.  I need a lil' perspective...

* * * * * * * *

About noon-ish my phone rings.  It's Granpa.  He very, very rarely calls me during the day.  I don't even remember what he called about, but I begin telling him about my morning.  I choose to give him the "I Love Lucy" version because, no matter how much trouble he's in, he doesn't need to get chewed out at work.  By the time I'm through he's laughing pretty good.  I calmly tell him how much trouble he's in.  I can still hear a big smile on his face - but he knows he's done a bad thing.

* * * * * * * * 

Throughout the evening, after each string of conversation, I end by saying, "Oh, by the way, I'm not talking to you."  After I say our bedtime prayer to the Lord out loud, I pause, and quietly say to Granpa, "I'm still not talking to you."  Granpa hugs me tight and kisses my ear.  "I know," he says, "I know."

Skunked!

Granpa was on call yesterday and had to go in about 4 p.m.  When he got home about 6 p.m. - still plenty of daylight left - he came in the house, grabbed his camera, and went back outside for what I thought was a long time.  When he came back in, he seemed very pleased with himself - but not for the reason I suspected.  He was pleased because he got lots of pictures of a new critter - and came away unscathed - or should I say, un-skunked!

 

Now, that's a pretty big skunk!  But, what's it doing out in the daytime?  I thought skunks were nocturnal critters.  Being rabid makes animals behave out of the ordinary.  Jeepers, I hope that's not the case.  So I do a lil' research...

Yup.  They are nocturnal.  Yup.  Rabies makes them mis-behave.  What's this?  As baby skunks realize that they have a built-in defense mechanism they run around squirting stink at anything and everything just because they can.  That's just like a bunch of teenagers, eh?

But why is this rascal coming around here?  We don't put out cat food, or dog food, or leftovers.  What else do they eat?  And the websites say:  bird seed.  Uh-oh.  Who?  Me?  With a bird feeder?

"Now, let's see.  Exactly how do I go about stealing some bird seed???" says the little squirrel.

"Mmmm.  I think this will work."

"Yeah, yeah.  I think so...."

"That's a stretch!"

"No sweat!!"

We attract every kind of bird you can imagine:  Bluejays, Cardinals, Purple Finch, Chickadees, Nuthatches (They're fun.  They don't move like normal birds do.), Woodpeckers, Dove, Brown-headed Cow Birds, Mockingbirds...

They all knock seeds on the ground so we also get:

I don't even KNOW what this is!

But this is one of many cottontail rabbits we have hangin' out.

 

And the cutest lil' chipmunks!

The big ol' turkeys are attracted by the bird seed, too, but also the deer corn we put out.

I call this one, "A Lady In Waiting."

Which brings us back to the skunk, because I think the corn brought it in, too.  So, at bedtime last night, I suggest Granpa go out and at least bring the bird feeder in overnight.  He dutifully grabs the spotlight and heads out the door.  In a flash he is back!  Hehe.  The spotlight only worked long enough for him to see the skunk standing underneath the bird feeder.  LOL!  No, ROFLOL!

Eventually I got hold of myself and suggested he turn the car headlights on and make a lot of noise to scare the skunk away and then go get the bird feeder.  Granpa is such a hoot!

Back to Chimney Rock

Before we go any further, I have to go potty.  I step into the restroom and am totally surprised by the fact that the walls are painted in the most beautiful scenery:

Can you believe it?  In a toilet?  I like it!  Every inch of every wall was a continuous mural.  When I came out I asked Granpa if the men's room was painted also.  He grins kinda sheepishly and shows me the pictures he took.  LOL!  He even got the fixtures in the picture!  Can you find the door handle?

Whew!  Now that we got that out of the way...

The next thing up is the tunnel into the mountain to the elevator that goes up, literally, inside the mountain to the next level.  If we were young and spry we could take a trail that leads up the 26 stories to the same spot.  Make that young and foolish:  26 stories?  Mercy me!  After that, the only way to get to the top of Chimney Rock is to climb.  Why waste yourself on the bottom half only to realize you're too pooped to get yourself to the top half?

I can't say that this graphic is an encouragement, however to take the elevator:

It lets you know that if the elevator breaks down you can exit out the back side of it and take this stairway.  That doesn't seem terribly important - until I realize that there are no other openings, like in a skyscraper where there is another floor to get off on about every 15 feet.  That elevator door isn't going to open again - can't open again - until we ascend over 200 feet.  Yikes!

So we mosey down the 198-foot tunnel hollowed out of 509-million-year-old Appalachian Mountain granite toward the elevator ...

reading interpretive signs about geology and the mechanics of creating first the tunnel and then the elevator shaft.  The miners accomplished their feat in just 91 days in 1947.  They brought their equipment up to this location by using a bridle trail developed in 1938 for the first visitors to get to the Chimney on horseback.  (Twenty-six stories up an almost vertical incline on horseback?  Not me, baby!  Not even on a Grand Canyon mule would I do that!)

The first thing we see as we step off of the elevator is, woo-hoo! Daniel Day-Lewis.  Well, his picture anyway.

(Sorry about the glare.)  And his clothes - that he wore in the making of "The Last of the Mohicans."

(What's Madeleine Stowe's hat doing in there?  She was his love interest in the movie.)  Aren't the shoes great?

Ok.  We can go home now.

Granpa says, "Not so fast, sugarbunch!  You dragged me all the way down to Asheville and over to this mountain.  We are climbing to the top."

Hmmm.  I was afraid he might say that.  Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.  (Took me forever to know that they were talking about the British pound/dollar, not the weight of a pound.  Kinda like hearing "chester drawers" instead of chest-of-drawers.  Diction is so important.)

And so we climb...

Very Interesting Response to Prayer Request

I posted someone's true need for prayer, and I posted the outcome of those prayers.  There were more people reading the results than the prayer need.

That says to me that people are still wondering if God answers prayers, or maybe they're wondering if God is real.  Well, of course He does, and yes, He is!

For those of you who say you have personal experience proving that God does not answer prayer, I say, read the Bible.  It says in the New Testament Book of James, chapter 5, verse 16, that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  The key word there is righteous.  That word means that you are acting in accordance with divine law, that you are free from guilt or sin.  The only way we can be free is by accepting Christ as the one and only Son of God, confessing our sins to Him, asking His forgiveness, and submitting to His will.  If you say your prayers are not answered, perhaps you should review those simple steps.

Going through the motions does not make you righteous.  God knows your heart.  There is absolutely nothing that you can hide from Him, so if you are just following the "how to" steps, your prayers will still not be heard by Him.  Again in the New Testament, Matthew 7:21-23 says:  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but (only) he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’  You may say words, but in your heart you don't really mean them or believe them.  God knows your heart, God knows the truth - and so do you.

Look again at those steps.  They can also be an outline for prayer.  We should begin with humility and submission.  Now, I am not a very submissive person - unless there is someone worth being submissive for, like God.  Then we should confess our personal sins to Him and ask His forgiveness.  Always remember to thank Him for His goodness, and then petition Him for your needs.  These things must be done in the name of Jesus, because, even with all of our confession and humility all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Old Testament Isaiah 64:6).  Only Jesus is sinless enough to carry our prayers and to stand before God Himself.  And so end your prayers with, "It is in the name of Your precious and Holy Son, Jesus, that I pray these things."

Also know that God's answer to your prayer may not be exactly what you were looking for and may not come as quickly as you want.  Well, if you believe that God is omnipotent (that means all-knowing and all-powerful) then you should believe that His timing will be perfect and His response will also be perfect.  If you are not hearing back from God, perhaps that is because he wants you to be still and know that I am God. (Old Testament Psalm 46:10)  Can you do that?  Do you have so much faith that you can go against man's nature and just be still?

For those of you who are searching, God has already found you.  All that is left is for you to accept Him and follow those steps.  Each day you will sin again, but if you become a true follower of Jesus, each day you will sin less.  Your joy will grow, and more importantly, your peace will grow, too.  Accept our God of love, not a god of hate, not a god of earthly success or money.  Your prayers WILL be answered in God's time, in God's way, and in every circumstance.

The Response to Your Prayers

I just received word from R. D. that Oscar's brothers have been SET FREE!!!!  As of this morning, as I understand it, Oscar was still short on the ransom money the kidnappers were demanding.  Apparently they decided to settle for what he could offer them and they, amazingly, released the two men unharmed.  As of now, the brothers are on their way back from  Honduras to be reunited with their family. 

Although the kidnappers released the men, we know it is the LORD who deserves the glory for returning them to their families unharmed. A day that could  have ended in death has ended in freedom and reunion.  Praise the Lord. 

Thank you for praying and for all those you shared this urgent prayer request with. 

Pastor Danny

Fervent Prayer Needed Immediately

Immediate and fervent prayer now! Oscar, a guide for Christians on mission in Honduras, has called his friends here at our church in Virginia and asked for prayer. His 2 brothers were driving from Honduras thru Mexico, and they were kidnapped and are being held for ransom. They will be killed this morning if the ransom doesn't reach their kidnappers. The Mexican government is telling Oscar to NOT send the ransom because they will probably be killed anyway, and it will encourage more kidnappings. Please pray for the kidnappers to release these two men - even if the kidnappers don't understand why they are doing it. Pray for their release and safe passage out of Mexico.  I will update you when I can.

"Dirty Dancing"

We drive up a twisting, turning road to the base of Chimney Rock, take a short walk past the Visitor's Center, and climb a few stairs to the top of Vista Rock.  From here,

we're looking down on Lake Lure.  This is a surprise!  Lake Lure is where actress Jennifer Grey practiced with Patrick Swayze to do the dance lifts in the 1987 movie, "Dirty Dancing."  They even included some of that footage in the movie.  That, too, was a movie set up north, but it was filmed here in North Carolina, just like "The Last of the Mohicans."  (Seems there's a terrific film industry going on in North Carolina!)  "Dirty Dancing" was released 25 years ago;  "Mohicans" was released 20 years ago.  I like both of those movies - a lot.

Dr. Lucius Morse came to this area as a young doctor from St. Louis around the turn of the 20th Century.  (That's like 1900 for all of you centurion illiterates.)  He decided Chimney Rock was spectacular and would make him some money if he turned it into a park.  In 1902 he bought the first 64 acres, and over the next 100 or so years the family put together a 1,000 acre preserve.  Through their stewardship, this area has literally been preserved, so you see things in the very same way that Dr. Morse first saw it.

In 2007, the family sold the 1,000 acres of their Chimney Rock park to the state of North Carolina who has since added 5,000 or more acres.  (As a Texan, I'm not so sure what I think about the government owning any more land in America.  That's what folks came to the New World for - land.  Seems all the land in Europe was owned by the kings, queens, or rich people.  Us little peons could never get ahead because those folks didn't want us to, and all they had to do was not let us get our hands on any land.  To all of you young people across the world, it's never too soon to begin putting together a heritage of land ownership.  Just start with a few acres, add a few more every few years.  It's important.)









But today we're here to climb to the top of Chimney Rock and see what there is to see.

 

A Slight Disappointment

It's 6 a.m., and I'm wide awake here in North Carolina.  Once I'm awake I might as well get up and do something constructive.  How do I know that, if I were to lay in bed, I wouldn't go back to sleep?  I usually give it 20 or 30 minutes to convince myself otherwise.  When I realize that my brain is working overtime and my body repeatedly tenses up so that I have to consciously tell it to relax, that's how I know. It's time to rise and shine!

To determine what time the Chimney Rock State Park opens, I decide (belatedly) to check out their website.  Uh-oh.  The trail that leads to the 404 foot high Hickory Nut waterfall depicted in "The Last of the Mohicans," has been demolished by a landslide.  It's closed until further notice.  What a bummer!

Well, we're already here; we might as well give it a shot.  The website says there's a ton of other stuff to see and do.  So, after a Continental breakfast here at the hotel, we head over to the town of Chimney Rock.

A couple of miles on the Interstate, off to a state highway, and then down to a narrow, winding country road.  There's a billboard for the Park:  8 Miles, and Beyond Your Imagination.  I like that!

Here's a country lane that wanders off up the mountainside:  Bearwallow Mountain Road.  Cool!

There's a sign for an "Original Carolina Hillbilly," and, what a hoot! there's a barefoot, shirtless guy with a grey beard down to his belly-button stepping out of the front door of an ancient log home here on the side of the country road and taking a seat in his well worn wooden rocker!  Our timing could not have been more perfect, eh?  (But a flannel shirt would have been nice on this ol' feller...)

Now we're coming into the little village of Bat Cave, North Carolina.  Granpa asks if this might be where Batman comes to vacation.  He's funny!

Well, here's a place our fishermen sons and grandsons would love to come spend a couple of weeks:  Creekside Mountain Camping and Cabins.  Since getting on this small country road, we have seen trout fishermen fly-fishing up and down the beautiful mountain stream.  Here's a place where you don't even have to get in the car and drive from, just step out the back door and you're in the water.  It's beautiful!

We see over and over signs for a place called Manual Woodworkers and Weavers.  Not sure what that's all about, but when we get there it's someplace worth the stopping - but Granpa doesn't stop.  Like most men, he's all about point A to point B, the only reason to stop is to pee.  Well, that and photo ops.  Here's a covered bridge going over the Rocky River Road that he thinks he has to get a picture of.

It seems to be surrounded by power lines.  (He detests that!)  But when that happens there's usually other things he feels are worthy of getting a shot of:

 

And, of course, there's always the mountain stream itself:

Hmmm.  Here's a business for sale, the Old Mill Inn.  And it is old, but looks to be in pretty good shape.  It's right on this river and apparently really was an old mill that has been added on to and turned into an inn.  If I was a innkeeper lookin' for a place to retire, I'm thinkin' I'd be checkin' this one out!

Finally, (I don't know why I say finally, because it's only been 20 minutes or so since we left the hotel.) finally we arrive at the village of Chimney Rock and the State Park.  We cross the river, and we're almost immediately down to, well, less than two lane road.  This is gonna be a good day!

Charming "The Travelers Two"

Now why didn't I think of this earlier?  Several times I have suggested that you check out one of my earlier posts and left it to you to search for it.  Then it dawns on me that, since I know our blog better than anyone, I could find that post much quicker, copy the URL and put a direct link to it in the new post.  Take yesterday for example:

We visited Asheville when Granpa was contracted with Danville Regional back in 2011.  Go to our earlier posts (http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/12/asheville-north-carolina.html) and read about the origins of Asheville, their role in the Civil War (or lack of it)... and then check out the posts about the Biltmore Estate...

Now, the posts about the Biltmore Estate are a different matter - there's about a half-dozen or so.  Hmmm.  Well, try this, I say to myself, and it works like a charm:  go to the "Search" field in the top right-hand corner of the blog, type in the word "Biltmore" and it will give you a cascade list of all the posts mentioning that word!

Wow.  If you were to type the word "Union" or "Rebel" it must give you a list a mile long!  The lists for "French and Indian War" or "American Revolution" would be much shorter.  With over 500 posts to search it could take you awhile to find what you might be looking for - unless you use the Search field.

So I went back to yesterday's post and updated it to include the URL and information about how to search for a particular subject.

My, my.  I learn something every day!  I love it!!

Going to Chimney Rock

Our reservations are made for our trip to Chimney Rock, North Carolina.  Our best option was to get a room in Asheville which is about 15 miles west of Chimney Rock.  Using our Hotels.com Welcome Rewards we booked with one free night - which cut our hotel cost in half.  (Woo-hoo!)

We visited Asheville when Granpa was contracted with Danville Regional back in 2011.  Go to our earlier posts (http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/12/asheville-north-carolina.html) and read about the origins of Asheville, their role in the Civil War (or lack of it), and then check out the posts about the Biltmore Estate by going to the "Search" field in the top right-hand corner of the blog, type in the word "Biltmore" and it will give you a cascade list of all the posts mentioning that word.

While you do that, I have to go prepare to get outta town tomorrow.  Granpa usually gets off early on Thursday of his three-day weekend, so I won't have time tomorrow to do much of anything but load the car.  If you believe future weather forecasts it should be an absolutely stunning weekend to go clamber up some mountains and check out the waterfalls.  Should be a ton of fun!

Europeans Settle Into North Carolina

I'm prepping for our trip into North Carolina to visit the Chimney Rock area.  Now, the setting for "The Last of the Mohicans" story was in what would become New York, but the film was made in North Carolina.  The backdrop for the story was the French and Indian War, so that's kinda what I'm gonna focus on here.

Just after the death and resurrection of Christ people were known to have been living in the area we now called North Carolina.  By 1000 A.D. the Mississippian culture was established.  They were not nomadic Indians, and over the succeeding 600 or so years they built large cities.  They weren't sedentary, though, because they had huge networks of trading contacts they maintained.

Some of the individual tribes were the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Pamlico, Machapunga, Coree, and Cape Fear Indians.  These tribesmen spoke Algonquin.  The Meherrin, Cherokee, Tuscarora, Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Waccamay and Catawba spoke Iroquois.

Then in 1584, ol' Sir Walter Raleigh shows up and establishes two settlements (one of those being the famous "Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island), but both attempts end in failure.  Over the next 50 years, European Virginias began moving south into the Albemarle Sound area along the coast.  In 1663 the King of England, Charles the II, granted a charter to begin yet another settlement named Carolina.

The population didn't start to grow until the 1730's when folks from other colonies up north began to look for more land to settle.  Getting into the Piedmont area of Carolina wasn't too easy, though, because the rivers were shallow and full of waterfalls.  They were good for farming and powering mills, but not for travel.  Most traffic was on the Great Indian Trading Path that started in Petersburg, in the colony of Virginia and ended in what is now known as Mecklenburg County in the Piedmont area of the Carolina colony.  Otherwise, settlers used the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road that came down through the Shenandoah Valley.  (See one of our earlier posts about the road.)  They were the American descendants of original German and Scotch-Irish immigrants.  They came to the Carolina colony in such numbers that six new counties were created in the Piedmont between 1746 and 1763.  Throughout the French and Indian War, the English descendants (Quakers and Baptists) also came from central Virginia to the Carolina colony.

The French and Indian War lasted from 1754 to 1763.  It was all about the King of France and the King of England trying to end up with the most land in America.  (They were already at war with each other in Europe in what is known as the Seven Years War.)  Right off the bat Carolina raised an army of 2,000 men to fight.  (That was a lot since estimates on the population of the Carolina colony was only 36,000-ish.)

On the 4th of July, 1754, George Washington had to surrender Fort Necessity in the Pennsylvania colony.  A force containing men from the Carolina colony marched north and joined up with Washington in the Maryland colony where they built Fort Cumberland.

By 1757, the English and colonists weren't faring too well against the French and those Indians that had chosen to side with the French.  The Cherokee sided with the English because the English promised to build and supply forts in an effort to protect the Cherokee settlements from Shawnee attacks.  One fort was built at Bethabara (see our earlier posts about Bethabara), and others built around Carolina were Fort Prince George, Fort Loudoun, two forts named Fort Dobbs, and Fort Granville.

Late in 1758, some Carolinians and Cherokee helped capture Fort Duquesne (what we now know as downtown Pittsburgh.)  The Cherokee felt wronged somehow in the way they were treated in that campaign and over the next several months decided to switch sides

1759, saw Cherokee raids on Carolina settlements on the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers.  Folks in the southern Carolinas made the Cherokee accept a treaty, but (duh) it didn't last.  (How can you force someone to make peace?  You can make them stop warring, but that's not the same as peace.)

1760 could be known as the year of massacres.  In January and February the Cherokee raided throughout the Carolina backcountry and killed everyone they found.  They laid siege to Fort Loudoun, and an attempt by English forces to reinforce the fort in July failed.  The fort was surrendered to the Cherokee in August - resulting in its commander and most of the garrison being massacred.  THIS sounds like the movie version of "The Last of the Mohicans."  (Again I say, all Native Americans were NOT kumbaya kinda Indians.)

Actions by the British in 1761 - like destroying 15 Cherokee towns and 1,400 acres of their corn - caused the Cherokee to want the peace this time, and by December they signed the treaty.

Ultimately, the British won the French and Indian War, and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 officially ended it and the Seven Years War in Europe.  The huge financial cost of these wars resulted in England levying what colonist's thought were unfair taxes on them - ultimately leading to the colonist's war for independence from England.

Luray Caverns

I have a follower that is so faithful she knows more about our trips than Granpa does !!  Hi, Marie!!

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Another long weekend; another road trip!  This time we're on our way up and across the Blue Ridge and Skyline Drive.  This will be a double bonus trip because after we see the caverns we will have a chance to visit the New Market Civil War battlefield and the famous Field of Lost Shoes.

The remnants of tropical storm Andrea drop rain on us all the way up this side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The rain slacks and stops as we turn west to cross over Skyline.  I love the skinny little side roads.  We're surprised around every twist and turn.  Now we're surprised by a detour.  (Oooh, I bet lil' Miss GPS is gonna have something to say about this!) 

The road they divert us onto is definitely skinny.  The twists and turns come more often as the road climbs the side of the mountain to the pass.  The sights and homes and vistas are fabulous!  I love detours - as long as the sun is up and there are other folks following the detour with us.  I just wish we could stop and take some pictures, but the only place to pull over is someone's driveway.  I don't particularly like people stopping in front of our home in Texas - even though we know log homes invite that kinda thing - so we're not doing that to others.  Just trust me:  detours in life can bring wonder and joy if you will simply go with the flow.

Ultimately we end up back on the main side road.  (Is that an oxymoron:  main side?)  We cut through the pass and are kinda surprised when we are then directed onto Interstate Highway 81.  Faithfully following lil' Miss' directions we exit at New Market and start another short climb up Massanutten Mountain to Luray. 

Massanutten is kind of a stand alone mountain rising out of a long, wide valley between the Blue Ridge mountains and the Shenandoah Mountains.  The three major cities in the valley are Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Lexington.  THIS is the famous Shenandoah Valley!  This is the inspiration for that beautiful song, Oh Shenandoah.  Wow, the stories behind THAT song are fabulous - especially if you're an old romantic like me.

The area surround Luray Caverns is really nice.  Blue sky breaks through just as we reach the top of Massanutten and see the parking area for the Caverns.  Boy, there's lots to do here besides spelunking:  there's the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum with things dating back to 1725, a ropes course, a Garden Maze that covers an entire acre, and the Luray Valley Museum that exhibits the Shenandoah culture back to the 1750's, as well as miles of hiking trails!  This is a two-day trip for sure if you want to do it all.  Caves are my thing, battlefields are Granpa's, so we're going to cut things really short but do both.

However, the entrance fee is $25 apiece.  The price includes everything though: car museum, the maze and the ropes course.  Hmmm.  Well, we'll pony up the cash and then decide what to do after we climb out of the cave.

As we wait in line there are display cases of artifacts from way back when.  This photo shows the actual guest register from 1879.  That's how long folks have been coming here to see this wonder.  Think about it:  there were no electric lights in 1879 to light this cave.  Can you imagine how spooky and dark it would have been?  And ladies didn't wear britches back then.  How crazy must it have been to crawl down into a cave with those long skirts?  (I woulda loved it!!)

After some legal wrangling, the caverns ended up belonging to the Luray Hotel and Cave Company, a subsidiary of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad.  The railroads were super powerful influencers back then with lots of money.  Hmmm, I wonder how they managed to win ownership?

In 1901, a Colonel Northcutt bought some land next door and built a home and sanitarium, Limair, a hospital for recuperating patients.  Accessing the cool, purified air from the caverns, he literally air-conditioned these buildings and claimed the title of the first air-conditioned house in the world. 

Then it's down into the cave for us - and about 20 other people in our group!  Concrete stairs, soft lighting, the cool clammy cave air so familiar...  And immediately we are in a huge area filled with stalactites and stalagmites.  (Stalactites hang "tight" to the ceiling, stalagmites grow like mice from the floor - at least that's how I remember which is which.)

The "x" back there shows the small crawl space original explorers used to get down in here in the beginning.  Now, there are absolutely no tight spaces and it's not really a cave so much as it is a series of caverns - reminds us of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. 

To appreciate this scene you need a full size computer screen and maybe some muted lighting around you.  If you study it, and can do a little mind control on yourself, you will realize that what you're seeing is the ceiling reflected in perfectly still, perfectly pristine water.  This underground lake covers about an acre I think the guide said, but it's only a few inches deep.

They call this formation "bacon."  (Which reminds me, I think I'll have a BLT for lunch!)

The walkways are brick and there are handrails all the way.  These caves, er, caverns have been owned and successfully operated by the same family for over a hundred years.  I surely HOPE they've invested some money into making things nice and safe for their visitors!  However, it was right about here that the lights went out.  No.  Really.  Out.  As in original-cave-pitch-can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face-black!

It was so black-out dark that this is the best picture I could get of Granpa, even with a flash!  Amazing, huh.  Well, the poor tour guide keeps it together.  He's only in his 20's maybe and suddenly he's got twenty tourists with small children and feeble old folks to worry about.  They've not been too cooperative so far, and he doesn't know if any suffer from achluophobia (fear of the dark), but he keeps telling us not to worry, not to panic, the lights will come back on in a minute.  And he keeps telling us.  And keeps telling us.  

Finally the tour group guides in front of us and behind us get together with our guide.  Seems the phone lines to the top don't work either.  By this time everyone has their cell phones out using them as flashlights.  (Everyone but me that is, I happen to carry a flashlight in my purse... Mommas are like that.  Yeah they are!)  They decide to turn us around and head us back the way we came.  The only near-panic person was the tour guide.  I'm certain he suddenly felt a great weight of responsibility in a way he'd never experienced before.  He was a good guy and took this very seriously.

So we came out on top and they were giving vouchers for a return visit, but when I said we were from Texas they offered a full refund.  Granpa's really grinnin' now!  It seems the power was out throughout the entire town of Luray.  We never did find out why.  We just hopped in the car and drove down the mountain to the battlefield.  Granpa grinnin' all the way.

Virginia Museum of the Civil War, New Market, Virginia

The Museum in the Round is what this ought to be called, but it is the Hall of Valor at the Virginia Museum of the Civil War.  It's located in New Market in the Shenandoah Valley, but it's not just about the New Market Battle.  (Don't you love the mountain in the background?  That's where Luray Caverns is located.)  This museum isn't run by a bunch of "squints" (like in the TV series, "Bones.")  This museum is administered by the Virginia Military Institute, so I dare say it is done in love and reverence, not just as a job.  Maybe that's why I think it is so excellent.

Positioned out front are the original headstones for the cadets killed during the fighting at New Market on May 15, 1864:

Inside is a tribute to all those who have given everything in defense of the country they love:

This is by far the best bronze I have seen of Robert E. Lee and his beloved horse, Traveler.

Artist Frederick Volk's attention to detail in the veins in Travelers face, the buckles of his tack, the folds in Lee's gloves and coat, the concern and burden shown in Lee's face...  Excellent!
 

In this one location you can get the best overview possible in such a limited space of the Civil War in Virginia.  The aerial photo on the right shows the entire Shenandoah Valley; the diorama on the left shows the New Market battlefield.  As you circle these levels, if you read the information presented and ponder the artifacts, you will come away with a really good understanding of what was going on.  We HIGHLY recommend this museum.  It would be a good place to come and stay for several days - especially if you have a whole family, because you can take the kids over to the Luray Caverns and do all the touristy stuff there, too.  I'm a minimalist at heart, so I truly appreciate this presentation.

We had a really, really good time on this little outing of ours.