Skip to main content

An Appalacian Hipcamp Road Trip: Tennessee to Too Much Rain in Indiana

Well, we wish we could've stayed in North Carolina for days, but we had to start heading home.

Hikers Blue Ridge Mountains North Carolina
As we drove into nearby Hot Springs we saw a lot of hikers from the Appalachian Trail coming down. I hope someday Meadow and I can go on a mother daughter hiking trip.

Octagon House Blue Ridge Mountains.
An octagon house...next to the Blue Ridge Mountains? Yes, please.

Blue Ridge Mountains North Carolina
As we turned on the highway we saw the sun peeking through the lifting fog. This is probably one of my favorite photos ever.

They didn't believe me that it was worth getting out the car, but I persuaded them to come out to see the view.

Brooke only wanted to see two places along our trip: a mansion in Asheville and the Lodge Factory Outlet. We made it to the latter.

When I saw that we would be driving through Pigeon Forge I knew we had to stop at the Lodge store.

The Lodge store just so happened to be next to a Coleman Outlet store. Score!

We got just a few things. Some new bakeware including a 9x9 baking pan, 9x13, casserole dish, wok and a lighter skillet for camping. We were getting tired of carrying around our heavy 10" skillet.

At the Coleman store we got new warm weather sleeping bags, ours are 30 degree bags. For Meadow we got her a cool weather bag, her current one is really made for sleepovers and doesn't keep her very warm. We had a few chilly nights on this trip.

I figured we'd be using them a lot this summer.

We were only 10 minutes away from another Lodge Factory store so we figured why not. At this store we got a good deal on a smaller size dutch oven. Driving through Pigeon Forge reminded me of Wisconsin Dells. Too bad we didn't have time to go to Dollywood.

I saw this Fiestaware outlet along the road and we had to make one more pitstop.

They had lots of discontinued colors, but everything was a bit pricey.

Knoxville World's Fair
Driving through Knoxville I had to see the Sun Globe from the 1982 World's Fair.

She does love the World's Fair, but I'm guessing this is why America hasn't hosted one since.

We were all getting really hungry and I quickly looked on Google Maps to see what was available. We ended up at Full Service BBQ just outside of Knoxville. It's in a defunct gas station and even has a smoker that looks like a gas station tank.

Full Service BBQ
This was probably the best bbq on the whole trip.



A few days ago we were discussing where we would stay on our way back home. I asked Scott if he could see if there were any locations on our route.

With the time change we arrived at our next location right as it was getting dark. As we were setting up camp it started raining and tornado sirens were going off. Our hosts didn't seem to worried, but mentioned we could go in their basement in case the weather turned bad. As we were setting up our beds and trying to relax, Scott got a notification on his phone that a tornado warning had been issued. 

We went inside when the rain kept on getting heavier and heavier. Once there we chatted with Missie's husband Daniel, who's also a photographer. I even showed him my 360 rig and tried out a few of his cameras.

The tornado warning had lifted and the rain had slowed down. Meadow and I and eventually Scott headed back to the tent to get some sleep.

The rain never stopped and actually got worse in the middle of the night. We decided to take up their offer and sleep inside for the night.

In the morning I met up with Daniel in his neighboring photography studio. It was still raining and I couldn't scout the camp until it passed.

They had a really nice property once we could see it all in the daylight.

Their little lake had grown in size.

15 Acre Wood on Lake Hipcamp
Our tent was also drenched and all the bugs thought it would be a good place to keep shelter.

Meadow didn't mind the rain.

15 Acre Wood on Lake Hipcamp
I had left my raincoat behind on accident in North Carolina. Bad timing. I borrowed Meadow's hat instead.

15 Acre Wood on Lake Hipcamp


15 Acre Wood on Lake Hipcamp
Once the rain stopped we tried out the canoe on their little lake.

15 Acre Wood on Lake Hipcamp
Meadow actually said she didn't want to canoe with me. So, I stayed ashore.

15 Acre Wood on Lake Hipcamp
Everything was so green and lush here. It actually felt like summer.


15 Acre Wood on Lake Hipcamp


Once I got my chance to canoe, you know I had to try out some of my new lures. Unfortunately my Mepp's didn't catch anything on the lake.

After we stopped canoeing, on to Illinois we went.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An Appalachian Hipcamp Road Trip: A MKE and O-HI-O pitstop on the way to Tawney Farm, West Virginia

Day 1  Scott had gotten a lucky gig to check out some off the beaten path campsites for Hipcamp. Our trip was going to bring us to the Appalachians. We packed our car full and headed east "early" Friday morning. Early for us is never that early, but at least we got out on the road at a decent hour. While driving through Madison we stopped at Cabela's to pick up a few more supplies that we would need. Our original plan was to make it to Indiana Sand Dunes tonight. Scott mentioned that if we drive through Milwaukee we could skip the Chicago tolls. I agreed and then he asked if we could stop in Cudahy to say hi to the folks. I said we might as well stay the night.  When we got there we went to Tsing Tao with my dad, my childhood favorite restaurant. It's in an old Ihop and has a great buffet at any time of the day.  Sorry Scott, I wasn't impressed. That's because your pretentious. Anyways, Meadow decided she didn't want t

Post Vaxx Memorial Day Weekend Fun in Three Lakes

  We went up to the cottage for one our never-miss weekends, Memorial Day. We got to the cottage at night and in the morning I made some crazy bacon-pancakes for the family and Brooke's parents. This weekend was my annual deep clean of our car. The amount of crumbs and food under the kids seats was pretty disgusting.   

A Northwoods Mother's Day

My mom had texted me last week asking if we wanted to go to the cottage for Mother's Day. Scott didn't have any work on Monday so we headed there for the weekend. I was able to get off work a little early so we didn't have to get there so late.  Driving through Lindstrom Scott wanted to get donuts at the bakery. We didn't have any cash so we settled on ice cream at the Cotton Candy Ice Cream Shop  in Center City. About 20 minutes before we got to the cottage Meadow threw up all her milk. Soaking herself and her carseat. She never threw up like this before. It was kind of scary. She kept asking for milk. I guess I should've known better.