A weekend of super-duper redneck camping fun!

With summer fast coming to an end, and the waning-fun alert meter furiously ticking, we decided to go camping this past weekend.  Brother R says it was Jackson Island.  The map says Wolf Creek.  But hey, he got the name from the locals - and who does one trust in matters as weighty as this?  The locals, of course!  No matter that it was NOT an island, but a peninsula!  There is no running water, no electricity, and only porta-potties for ablutions. Kinda like drive-in wilderness camping - redneck heaven!

Here are some pics of our wonderful weekend. It was mostly very peaceful and we were far enough away from the country music coming from various campsites.  On Sat. night, though, we heard, loud and clear, a country music concert and hotrod races wafting across the water from somewhere??

The weather was glorious - cool and dry mornings and evenings with warm, sunny, breezy days.

We camped on the tip of the peninsula

The sun coming up on Sabbath morning

Enjoying the fire on a cool morning

Hanging around

The kids found a baby snapping turtle - and I mean BABY.  This one is about an inch long.

That long neck gives him away

Never mind the snapping turtles, the kids have fun on the lake

Soaking up the sun on a lazy afternoon

Caridee was so thrilled to have her own bed here.  She had a blast and especially enjoyed visiting and playing with some other canine friends.

Doughboys and roasted mielies - give it a try!

Truly delicious

And now for a taste of redneckville:

We saw a vehicle backing up toward the water.  Oops, someone is drunk and they're gonna end up in the water!  (The edge over here at the swing is about 10 feet up from the water - a cliff.)  Well, no, we see they're just going to use the car to stand on to make the rope swing a little higher!  Unfortunately I didn't catch a photo of them actually using the car although I did see it from a distance.  Interesting!

At about 11:30pm, seemingly in the dead of night, we hear two loud diesel vehicles huffing into camp.  After some shouting and manoevering around we hear tree branches cracking and snapping.  Someone found a resting place for their camper!  Whew, what a relief!

Can't leave the monster truck behind!  This is down the road a little.

A great assortment of vehicles and gear.  Most people did a lot of fishing and we all had a blast. As S says, you get what you pay for! (This campground was free).

Hope you enjoyed the tiny glimpse into the fascinating lives of us rednecks.  I could tell you more, such as about the icecream truck man who asked us if any TVA police had been by lately as they didn't like him driving around (shame!); and the TVA police coming around to check for alcohol, dogs on leashes (and of course, icecream trucks) etc...but I won't bore you with those details.

Happy Autumn!

A Gory Story

Thanks to pine sap, this story ended in glory - as in, praise God it healed nicely! Story begins with a slice/stab on the right forefinger with scissors.  Moral: don't try to stab a tough plastic orange juice jug with scissors.

Cut was deep and 1 1/2 cm long. This is the day after the cut, I believe, maybe evening of the first day.

Out of focus second day

More in focus.  I can't emphasize enough the healing power of pine sap!  You can buy it in little bottles - I got it from a friend - not sure if it's available in regular pharmacies.

At the campground over the weekend. I don't think it likes camping (and I couldn't bring the pine sap along - it's in a broken bottle!)

Other than a small complication of (maybe) impetigo ('caught' by camping with no running water, swimming in a dirty lake, and having to use porta-potties, etc, last weekend) this has healed nicely in less than a week, and sensation is returning to normal after being numb in places for a while.  So, if you get any kind of cut, try pine sap.  It really works!

 Well healed a week or so later, but here a bit swollen after a naughty ant stung me!  There's a slight bump on the top side of the faint scar - hoping it will go away as it's more sensitive there.

Second field trip of the year

Our second field trip of the year was to the Chattanooga Zoo.  A little gem of a place that has grown and changed in the last 20 years to something unrecognizable from its stark and grim beginning. I'm especially impressed with the effort to create beautiful natural habitats for all the animals...they're not 100% there yet but definitely heading well in that direction.

About to start the journey. Two little girls in their natural habitat!

Largest type of rodent in the world, the Capybara.

Some type of spider monkey

Coati (co-AH-ti) snuffling around looking for bugs

Two male jaguar. Click on the link below to see them playing.

Two Jaguars playing

Some kind of collared Tamarin.  These are amazingly smart, observant little monkeys.  They immediately noticed a big bandage around my finger (cut it earlier this morning) and looked at it most curiously. They must have thought I was a related species to humans but not quite the same! (that might be true....)

Chimpanzees bonding

A couple monkeys from Asia, eating Crepe Myrtle which that one stole from through the fence. Click on the link below to watch him do it.

The Monkey Stealing

Great Horned Owl

Nicely coiled up like a hose pipe.

A treat of a carousel ride at the end after a picnic lunch.

And a lovely day was had by all. The end!

Our TN sunset today

On the way home we saw this awesome sunset!

From the car while driving along...

So we stopped and watched it go down, getting a very deep red as it did so.

Do you see the grasshopper in the picture who wanted his pic taken too?

It went behind a little cloud then emerged, very red, on the other side.

Like a copper penny dropping down

dropping.....

I wish my camera could do this one justice.  Thinking back, maybe if I'd had the flash on....

Driving back through Etowah.  A quaint streetfront. We also passed a Mennonite family driving their horses and carriage home...missed a pic!

On the upper Tellico River and Huckleberry Knob.

Just 3 of us went out today and enjoyed the water and fish on the upper end of the Tellico River.  No-one else was around and we had a fun time, especially running the raft down a little cascade and through some rapids at the bottom.

Our set-up

Getting used to the cold water (yes, quite a bit colder than the Conasauga a couple weeks ago!)

This is our waterfall/slide - lots of fun.

Getting ready to "fly"

Hitting the rapids

Riding the waves

Most everything still green at the end of August.  Usually we see a bit more colour at this elevation by this time...?

Advertising for "Little Debbies" as she comes back upstream.

Refreshing!

After this we still drove up to Huckleberry Knob area and hiked the mile or so to the Knob itself, going via Oak Knob.  It goes without saying that at this time of year, we each ate our fill of Huckleberries!

We passed into North Carolina for a short time (The two "knobs" are in NC)

And they tasted as good as they look.  We kept a watchful eye out for bear too!

Someone had bushwhacked the road very recently so it was a pleasure to walk straight up it.

Hiking via Oak Knob - again, freshly bush-hogged.  There was a lovely, sweet smell of fresh mown hay in the air!

At the top of Huckleberry Knob

Ooo, yummy blueberries for supper!

While huckleberry picking, C came across a geocache!  That was an unexpected surprise.  We did another one on the trip back along the Cherohala too. (a mini one!)

A few out-of-focus berries....

On the drive up we also saw several of these poles set up for the Northern Gray Flying Squirrel.  The distance is too great for them to glide normally across this road so they've set up these special poles with thingies to land on...quite ingenious in my opinion! I wonder who trained the squirrels to use them?? ;-)

A closer look at one side

A view on the way down

I'd love to live in the wilderness like this and have enough cleared land for sunshine and gardens.  Isn't Tennessee beautiful?

Well, that was our afternoon today!  A lovely way to spend a Sabbath afternoon - enjoying God's creation!