Rich Mountain Drive --Part II

UP--UP--UP we went!!! We took a gravel road across Rich Mountain (between Cades Cove and Townsend) on Thursday, September 9th. IF you missed Part I of our journey, click HERE. Today I will share with you some more pictures from our little trip. The picture above shows the road below us ---as we take the switch-backs up that mountain... This is an incredible area!!!! Below are more!

We stopped along the way ---and in this particular area, we took a little hike. We were looking for another overlook --so that we could see more of Cades Cove, but we didn't find one. It was a nice little trail though ---and we enjoyed the hike.

While on the trail, I saw this adorable little purple flower. My Sweetie put on his macro lens --and took this great picture. Isn't this a gorgeous little wildflower?

George can tell you how much I love Fall ---especially RED trees.... Not many trees had turned in the Smokies when we were there, but I got very very excited seeing this gorgeous red leaf.... Fall is truly coming!!!!! Yeah!

The dogwoods were beginning to 'turn' ---so we captured some pictures.

In the last Rich Mountain post, I mentioned that George had to climb up a bank in order to get some pictures of Cades Cove above the trees... There's some old girl watching him climb that bank making sure that he didn't take a tumble. (He stayed on his feet really well!!!)

Like I said, we do want to go back up that mountain when the leaves are off the trees. I think we'll get many more pictures showing Cades Cove then.

I'm sure that some of you bloggers know what these berries are. I have no idea--but I was hoping there would be some little birds around grabbing them. But there were no birds in sight at that time.... Sigh!!!! (UPDATE: Thanks to LINDA from PA for telling me that they are Elderberries!!)

Eeee Yi Yi..... A very pregnant tree!!!!!! ha ha ha..... OR---if not that, it's the biggest WART I've ever seen!!!!! Yipes!

Well--this concludes our little trip across Rich Mountain... I'm sure we will go back --and then you will be the lucky one to see more of our crazy pictures!!! (Tee Hee)

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Some of you may notice that I changed from the pull-down comment menu to the full page one... The pull down form has been causing trouble to people trying to post comments on my blog. Either the menu comes up blank, or you get "Service Unavailable".... I don't want my wonderful commenters to have that kind of problem.

I love the pull-down one ---and hope that Blogger will eventually get it fixed.. I will admit that the pull-down one can get frustrating when I hit the PUBLISH button--and then don't have a clue whether my comment published or not... That's why I do multiple comments at times --being impatient waiting for Blogger to tell me that my comment was published.

Have a great Thursday!!!

Hugs,

A Big Red Truck Came to our Home

Hmmmmmm.... A big red truck pulled into our yard yesterday.... Wonder why????

NO----the men in the little white coats didn't come after me!!!!! And NO---I don't have the flu!!!!!! Hmmmmmm---what were they here for????? Come inside!!!

Wow.... Our fireplace got some new clothes... Do you like them????? Seems like they could have chosen a fancier color!!! Actually, if you haven't figured it out yet, this is the annual job done by our Chimney Sweep company.... And NO---little tiny men don't climb up in the chimney and sweep it... These days, they use a huge vacuum --and suck all of the grit and grime out of the fireplace and chimney!!!!!

This is the big vacuum--- which had a nice lunch of grit and grime from our chimney. NO--there were no small animals involved!!!! ha ha .... A big tube hooks into the fireplace/chimney and then comes out of the front door and hooks onto this vacuum.... Too bad they didn't stay awhile and vacuum my home too. Darn!!!!

Here's one more picture of how they cover the fireplace. You can see the black tube coming out in the middle... You can also see some beautiful roses sitting on our coffee table. (I didn't notice this until I looked at the pictures.)

Chimney sweeps do a great job these days --and believe it or not, it is a very clean job! They cover everything --and the entire cleaning takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

Can you hear our chimney/fireplace purring tonight???? Mr. Chimney got his back scratched and got a make-over.... Wow!!!!!

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Several of you have asked where we live. We are on a side street --with very little traffic (thank goodness) ---and we live on a golf course. Enlarge this Google Earth picture ---and look for the red print with an arrow --showing "Our Home"....

This is a 'protect the trees and wildlife' area... If you cut down any trees, you have to get permission --and then replace them with new trees. That is one thing I love about the area. It is truly like 'living in the woods'.

We have an empty lot (wooded) next door and there was one across the street until they built another home over there. We had almost total privacy until the house across the street was built... Grrrrrr!

You can barely see our home because we are surrounded by trees (except in front) ---but you can see a few of the homes in our area ---where there aren't as many trees. We love our little home --and it's perfect for a couple of retirees!!!!

My only regret is not buying somewhere where we had more land --and more privacy. But--we are very safe here; so overall, we truly are blessed.

Have a great Wednesday...

Hugs,