Last Thursday we took an opportunity to drive to Highlands, NC, to visit an old friend and to meet her husband. The drive took us through more spectacular countryside.
The town of Cashiers (pronounced Cashers hereabouts) and Highlands have proven to be a mecca for Easteners escaping the heat of summer. Coming mostly from Florida, the sleepy town of Highlands swells from it's normal 900+ population to over 20,000! Highlands was established in 1875 by Samuel Kelsey and Clinton Hutchinson, who drew a line from Chicago to Savannah and from New Orleans to New York. The point where the lines intersected was believed to become a world class trading and economic center. Well....not so much.
In the 1930's Bobby Jones founded the Highlands Golf Club, and today it is one of seven successful residential golf communities in the area. Highlands is typically 15 to 20 degrees cooler in the summer than the lowlands, but it is also known as North Carolina's Rain Forest, receiving 87 inches of rain typically, with over a 100 inches not uncommon.
After lunch with Jan and Richard and several hours of catching up on old times, they told us of an alternate way to return to Asheville that goes through "The Gorge". Highway 64 was a beautiful drive and the waterfalls were great to see!
Bridal Veil Falls is only 45 feet high, but has the distinction of being the only waterfall in the state that one can drive a vehicle behind.
Dry Falls is a 65 foot waterfall that allows hikers to walk behind the falls and remain relatively dry, hence the name.
Quarry Falls is a small waterfall in the Callasaja River that is known for it's large, deep pool at the bottom. The rocks are slick with algae, and so the locals call this "Bust Your Butt" Falls, because so many people slide down into the pool!
The shadows were growing long, and Richard was having a bit of trouble with his vintage Russian motorcycle, so we parted ways.
Having had such a good time with Richard and Jan on Thursday, we made plans to meet with them again on Friday! This time they drove "down the hill" to our rv park, where we talked until the wee hours of the morning! A stop mid afternoon took us to lunch at Little Pigs BBQ for some Carolina BBQ, and then to the Western North Carolina Farmers Market. This market is open seven days a week, with both wholesale and retail areas. We bought vegetables and cantaloupes, tomatoes and honey, Amish home made bread and peaches. Wow!
Today, Saturday, we had plans to hang around the motorhome and relax after a late night yesterday. We needed to clean the coach, take a nap, walk Sasha, take a nap.....
During our cleaning phase, the bedroom slide out needed to be moved to retrieve one of Sasha's toys that had become lodged under the bed. As the slide moved, loud banging noises came from the drive motor, scaring us half to death! Investigation and a call to Newmar's 24/7 customer team resulted in a diagnosis of a broken gear. We found that the part is roughly $500 plus shipping, but we can't get it until next week. We probably will need to modify our plans a bit.
As if that weren't enough, the coach power began to intermittently go off and come back on. Now, the day was warm, and a lot of air conditioners were running, but nothing particularly unusual. More investigation, and a call to the park electrician revealed that instead of having 120 volts on both sides of the 50 amp service, we had 120 on one side and 106 on the other. Just enough to play tricks on the Energy Management System. Net result? The main control board in the washing machine shorted out because of the "dirty" electricity, right in the middle of a load of clothes! D is not happy! The laundry room is right next door, which has been a bad thing since we've dealt with most of the campers in the park using our site as a route to the laundry room all week, Today, however, it was a good thing we were close!
So.....we have slide out issues and will probably need to get a new washer, since the control board costs about 1/2 of the cost of a new one. We'll do all of this while we're sightseeing, of course...
Hey, every day it's something new.....You'll never get bored traveling in an rv!.
No comments:
Post a Comment