Georgia to Florida

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Our stop in Tennessee came to an end, leaving us with 7 nights to work our way back to our lot at The Great Outdoors in Titusville Florida. The most direct route was south on Interstate 75 through Georgia. The only problem with that plan was needing to drive through Atlanta. Way back in the summer of 2013, years before going fulltime, we were on an 18 night trip with our small travel trailer and one of our travel days was right through Atlanta on a workday. That was such an unpleasant experience that since then, we have gone out of our way to avoid needing to repeat the frustration. Maybe a dozen years allowed our memories to fade because we decide to drive through town, but this time we had a plan. We had timed our stops before and after Atlanta to permit us the best possible scenario by driving on a Sunday. While we weren’t positive it would work, we were optimistic. To get the timing right, we had booked a state park about 50 miles south of Atlanta to come in on Sunday.

To make the travel distances reasonable, we would stop one night at the Dalton Elks Lodge about 80 miles north of Atlanta. We came in and found the small camping area about 100 yards from the lodge. There were a couple other RVs parked but they didn’t seem to be occupied and we were able to get the one 50 amp site. After going in to the lodge to register, we headed out to get a cache in a couple of these northern Georgia counties we haven’t been to previously. It was a quiet overnight stop and we got out early to attempt the drive through Atlanta. Our Garmin routed us around the western loop instead of straight down I-75 but we were pleasantly surprised to find the traffic was flowing just fine. I guess our planning worked or we got lucky? Of course that meant we would be getting into the campground well before the check-in time but we stopped at a Walmart 20 miles from the state park so we could pick up some supplies and plan our arrival time more accurately.

When we booked a site at Indian Springs State Park, we saw there was a brand new camping area that offered full hookups and seemed to be slightly larger sites than those at their original camping area so we reserved one of these new sites. When we arrived at the northern gate, we were told we needed to go to the visitor center to get our camping pass. Unfortunately the visitor center would have been better reached by coming in the South Gate to the park but they don’t provide that info in advance. Chris got us checked in but our rig needs to be facing the opposite direction to make it to the campground area. We were told we might be able turn around at the museum parking lot just down the road so we unhooked the car and I tried to make the U-turn only to realize that even without the car, I couldn’t get our size of motorhome to turn that sharply without hitting a tree or guard rail. So out the south entrance and back in the north entrance but now waving my vehicle pass at the ranger in the guard shack. We finally make it to our camping loop but it’s behind an entrance gate. Without a keypad up at my level, Chris was forced to open the gate, drive the car through and then come back to open the gate for me. Fortunately we only needed to deal with that once. Our site worked out well but being brand new meant that there was no grass growing yet so it was a bit muddy around our site. The following day would be quite rainy so the mud only got worse.

We haven’t been to this part of Georgia before, so we can head in any direction and find geocaches in what are new counties for us. We study our caching map, find a couple of old ones placed in 2001 and formulate a route. One of our first stops was at High Falls State Park to the southwest of our camp. To find the desired cache, we parked and walked up a trail that follows the Towaliga River. The cache was near a viewpoint and there was a skeleton guarding it although I suspect it’s only there because it’s a few days before Halloween.

High Falls State Park

Skeleton Enjoys the Falls Too

Spillway Over Dam

As we made our loop, we visited the town of Griffin. We had selected a hide near a business called The Sock Shoppe. It was a very busy place and seemed to be too large to just sell socks so we head in to check it out. It was more like a real department store than just a place selling socks. We wandered around and found a few things we could have used. Working around our big loop, we ended up northeast of camp to look for a cache hidden in March of 2001. Today there are fewer than 300 geocaches that are older than this one so it is somewhat of a rare cache. The trailhead has a pay parking area that only takes cash. Fortunately we had the required $2. The trail follows a river and is fairly pretty. We knew the cache was going to be well off any trail based on the description so it took us a little bit of debate before we cut into the woods. The good thing was the forest floor was pretty wide open so we didn’t need to bushwhack the whole way there. We finished the day driving a fair distance but gathering 7 new Georgia counties in the process.

River View on Way to Old Cache

We only had one more day left in the area and decided to stay closer to camp. This state park doesn’t have a lot of hiking trails or geocaches but just a few miles away is the Dauset Trails Nature Center. A portion of its 2000 acres is setup to provide homes for around 70 native Georgia animals that have some sort of issue that prevents them from being able to survive on their own in the wild.

Entrance to Dauset Trails Nature Center

We start at the visitor center and find the reptile room. There was a nice collection of animals on display and many of them were fairly active.

Turtles Under Heat Lamp

Snoozing Snake

Copperhead

It was a dreary overcast day with a chance of sprinkles but we came prepared with our rain coats and headed outside to follow the Animal Trail. There was a large group of noisy schoolchildren ahead of us and we picked our route based on going where they weren’t. Our first find was a river otter. It could hear the nearby kids and was constantly looking up the walls of its enclosure hoping to see them.

Prepared for Sprinkles

Inquisitive River Otter

The Barnyard Exhibit seemed to be void of visitors so we head that way. It is a large area with lots of buildings for equipment and the farm animals.

Barnyard Exhibit This Way

Nice Area for Goats

Large Barn

They have a decent variety of animals to check out and they too were fairly active.

Burros

Horse Looks Through Barn

Cows

Of course Chris liked the goats. I found the hogs interesting with their multicolored coats that were reasonably clean given their muddy conditions. Since it was a cool morning, maybe they didn’t feel the need to roll around in the mud.

Goats Out and About

Fairly Clean Pigs

The timing of our visit was pretty good. It appeared that volunteers were out cleaning up enclosures and also setting out the food for each of the animals. In some cases it was clear which ones had just been given breakfast. The bobcat was keenly interested in what looked like a chicken leg.

Bobcat Eating Breakfast Chicken

Tortoise Heads Out for Lettuce

Bison in the Distance

The bears have a nice habitat with a small pond and a hammock. Based on how they were pacing the perimeter of their enclosure, I suspect they had not been fed yet. There were a couple of coyotes nearby that were very active and fund to watch. But they were behind two layers of chain link fencing so none of my pictures did them justice.

Bears Pacing

We spent around 90 minutes exploring the grounds and found it very enjoyable. There are some trails just outside the main fence line that actually has a dozen or so geocaches hidden but with the on and off sprinkles, we decided to just head back to camp to dry off and warm up.

Bald Eagle Calling

Eagle Poses with His Sign

With just two more nights and three travel days to make it to Titusville, we rely on a couple of Elks Lodges for our stops. The first one is about 180 miles down I-75 in Valdosta Georgia - about 20 miles north of the Florida state line. The lodge wasn’t open but they were having bingo later that evening. They do not have any RV services so we had parked in the far corner of the parking lot where we figured we would be out of the way. A local lodge member had stopped to pick up something, saw us and suggested that we should move over onto the grass since they get quite busy for bingo and the lot nearly fills up. Since the ground was dry and firm, we shifted over without concern of sinking in. When bingo players started to arrive that night, the lot did fill up.

The next day was a 122 mile drive to the Orange Park Elks Lodge near Jacksonville Florida. We have stayed at this lodge before since it is right on our route to Titusville. They have a half dozen sites with water and electric and a dump station. The next morning we head south the remaining 137 miles. It felt good to be pulling back into The Great Outdoors after being gone for 190 days. In that time we camped in 13 states, found 643 geocaches and picked up a decent number of new counties - 170 counties spread across 12 states.

Life definitely changes when we come back to TGO. We still have things to do but instead of fun stuff like hiking or sightseeing, we have tasks to take care of. Admittedly a large number of the tasks are specific to owning an RV lot. There are palm trees to trim and weeds to pull and other general maintenance around our small lot. There are also things to take care of on the motorhome. If we didn’t have our lot, we would have needed to fit in these jobs just like we did in the early years of full time travels. One very critical thing we needed to deal with was getting new tires for the Jeep. We have purchased tires for our motorhome and previous Jeep while traveling the country, but it’s easier to do it from a location we will be for months on end. Last spring, we had joined a company called National Tire Concierge Service. Our one time $90 membership fee got us a great discount on our 6 motorhome tires. But the membership also includes tires for passenger vehicles. Not every brand of tire is included in their system, but there are quite a few options. I did a little bit of research on what tires would work well for our driving style and called NTCS to get the ball moving. In a day, I received a call back with the price and a nearby tire service center that was able to get me in yet that afternoon. I saved enough money with just those 4 tires that it would have covered the membership cost if I hadn’t already been a member. I was just glad that we now were riding on tires with tread again!

Getting Four New Tires

In the middle of November, we head over to the nearby Orlando Wetlands in Christmas Florida. This is one of our favorite places in the area for lots of nature viewing. We were pleased to find that the visitor center, that has seemed to be mostly complete in the past two winters, was now fully open - as of early April 2025. They have lots of nice displays mostly explaining how these wetlands were designed and constructed to filter waste water as it slowly flows from one side of the 1650 acre property through a series of holding ponds. While this is interesting, the real reason we like it here is to watch birds. It was a little bit too early in the season for there to be many birds. We did spot a few gators and turtles. Its only a 15 minute drive so we can come back frequently during our stay to see how the bird population changes.

Visitor Center Finally Open

Ibis on Bridge

Turtle Warms Up in the Sun

One of the other aspects of staying put in one location for an extended period of time is that we can get in some doctors appointments. I had been going to a hematologist last year for anemia and I did some intermediate bloodwork while we were in Michigan this summer and things were looking promising. After returning, I had more bloodwork done and had a follow up with the nurse practitioner. She was pleased that all measured results were in the green. Last year we had selected a primary care physician but hadn’t been real pleased with her. We asked some of our neighbors at TGO for recommendations and we picked a new doctor. We got in an initial visit and feel much more comfortable with this doctor.

TGO is surrounded by lots of conservation lands but also has a lot of undeveloped land within its boundaries. Being surrounded by so much nature is beautiful but also can be a fire hazard during the dry season. To help mitigate this risk, we had the Florida Forest Service, local fire departments and many volunteers come in one day to do a prescribed burn in a dozen or so acres on the south side of the resort. That morning, the main parking lot was filled with all sorts of fire truck, bulldozers and other equipment. The area being worked was near some of the homes or RV lots but over a mile from our site. We knew they wanted spectators out of the area during the burn but a couple days later, we hit the trails on our mountain bikes to see what it looked like. They definitely got rid of a lot of the understory in the woods and only charred the trunks of the oak and palms. There was still a heavy smell of smoke in the area but didn’t actually see anything smoldering.

Some Equipment for Prescribed Burn at TGO

Along the Nature Trail a Couple Days After Burn

Understory Burned Away

Touring Tennessee

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With just over 2 weeks before returning to Titusville Florida, we leave southern Indiana, drive through Kentucky and stop just north of Nashville at the Madison Elks Lodge. The 173 mile drive is uneventful and we pull into the lodge to find several of the RV spaces available. They actually have several full hookup spots but they aren’t particularly level. We plan to spend 2 nights here before going into the mountains further southeast in the state. We head into the bar to register and pay. We talk to some of the locals about must see sights in the Nashville area since it’s less than 10 miles to downtown. We’ve camped in the area back in the spring of 2019 so we have already visited some of the suggestions but there were a few other suggestions that sounded interesting so we came up with a plan for our one full day in town.

We picked three places to see all within a few miles of one another on the southwest side of town. We start out at the Parthenon. This is a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek temple. Originally built in 1897 for Tennessee’s Centennial Exposition, the first building was intended to only be temporary so it was built of plaster and wood. It became such a tourist attraction in the early 1900’s that when the plaster began to deteriorate, the city commissioned a more permanent replacement which was completed in 1931.

The Parthenon in Nashville

We arrive to find the place very busy on a Friday morning. We wander around the outside before heading in to tour the interior. Tickets were $10 per person with senior discount. There are two floors and many galleries to explore. One of the newer features is the Athena statue on the second level. This was created by a Nashville artist and completed in 1990. It’s an impressive sight. Standing at almost 42 feet tall and covered with 8 pounds of gold leaf, it is one of the more popular attractions. We waited for the group of schoolchildren to move out before we could see it up close.

Athena

Closeup Detail

The other room on level 2 is the Treasury. This holds plaster casts of the original figures seen in Greece. These casts were taken well after a lot of deterioration - like missing heads, arms and legs. A smaller version of the figures was sculpted to show what they probably looked like.

Plaster Casts of Figures from Greece

The first level has a large number of galleries. Some explain the history of this building in Nashville as well as the creation of the Athena statue. Others have a large number of paintings, gifted by a wealthy benefactor. We probably spent an hour touring the museum.

One of Dozens of Paintings

The Parthenon is in the very large Centennial Park. We have an Adventure Lab that tours us around the park to see some of its monuments. They were getting setup for some sort of event at one end of the park and had temporary fencing installed that kept us out of some of it. It was definitely a pretty day for a walk.

Pond in Centennial Park

John W. Thomas Monument

As we leave the park, we across the street onto the Vanderbilt University campus. This is definitely a big place. We limited our walking to some of the sights highlighted in another Adventure Lab. They were preparing for a home football game tomorrow against LSU so there was a lot of activity near the stadium.

SAE House on Vanderbilt Campus

"Flying Torso"

Mechanical Engineering Building

Our next goal was to find a place for lunch before heading to Music Row. There were almost too many options being so close to campus but we finally settle on Torchy’s Tacos just off campus and had a good lunch. From here it was just a few blocks to the beginning of the Music Row.

Music Row Plaque

"Musica" Statue

Owen Bradley - Music Producer

A third Adventure Lab helped us tour the various studios. Chris had also found a walking tour that was more comprehensive at describing the many recording studios in the area. We walked 1.5 miles just seeing famous studios. Many of them have ads for their top stars out front but I’ll admit, most of them were artists we were completely unfamiliar with. For all we know, we walked by some famous musician and didn’t even know it.

RCA Studio

Curb Word Recording Company

Guitar Sculptures

It was close to 3 PM when we finished our musical tour of Nashville studios. We headed back across the Vanderbilt campus taking a slightly different route to see other parts of it.

"Zerogee"

Zeppos Dormitory 

Intricate Stone and Brickwork

Centennial Park seemed to be even more crowded but that might not be surprising since it was a nice Friday afternoon. We had a fun but short stop in Nashville.

Colorful Planting Bed along Centennial Park Walkway

Our drive to our next stop on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains near Tellico Plains Tennessee was a bit of a long one - coming in at 212 miles. Most of it was on interstate highways so not too bad but the last 30 miles up into the foothills was a narrow winding road for the majority of it. We had reserved a site at the Top of the World RV Park mostly in the middle of nowhere for a week. It is a smaller place with less than 20 campsites but the view from our spot was pretty incredible.

View from Campsite at Top of the World

We had a rather rainy the day after we arrived. We head to the small town of Coker Creek where there is a welcome center - it’s less than 5 miles southwest of camp. There weren’t many visitors and I think the volunteer may have been a bit lonely so she talked quite some time about what we needed to do to do since we have the remainder of a week to explore this part of Tennessee. She ends up giving us quite a few options, probably more things than we will have time for.

The skies cleared the next day and was looking to be glorious fall weather. We begin by heading north into the town of Tellico Plains. Our mission it to drive some of the Cherohala Skyway. This 43 mile road goes between this town in Tennessee to Robbinsville North Carolina. There is a nice visitor center with all sorts of information about the drive, things to see along the way and lots of shirts, hats and other souvenirs for those coming to complete the drive. It’s definitely a very popular destination for motorcyclists and owners of sports cars. In fact, just after parking, three Aston Martins came rumbling into the lot. I was a bit surprised to see such high end cars on the road together. Before I got to the visitor center, several more pulled in as well. Some of the, were fairly new models but some looked to be quite old. I’m not sure if any of them were modified to have some of the features that were in the Aston Martin that James Bond drove. As some of the owners entered the visitor center, I asked about their group and he told me that the other half of the cars were still 15 minutes away but there were 33 of them traveling together with plans to drive the skyway today. It looked like their rides would be much more fun than our Grand Cherokee!

We mange to get on the road before they have all arrived and start their drive, but I suspect we will see them again since we will be stopping at many of the overlooks and pullouts along the way. Sure enough at the Oosterneck Overlook, I hear several of them coming our way and zip by us quickly.

Pretty Stop Along the Cherohala Skyway

Aston Martin Cruises By

I would love to be able to say that through careful planning of our trip this fall, we had hit near peak colors in this part of Tennessee. But the reality was we simply lucked into experiencing great fall colors.

Another Nice View

Our first lengthy stop was at Indian Boundary Lake. This was one of the suggested hikes we received the other day at the welcome center. It’s about 1.5 miles north of the skyway. I was expecting it to be a dirt road to the recreation area but was pleased to find a nice paved road. Listed as a 3.2 mile loop around the lake with little elevation change, there doesn’t seem to be a preferred direction. There are several parking areas around the lake but we pick the closest one on the way in at the boat ramp and head clockwise.

View on Hike

Indian Boundary Lake

It was a very nice hike with good views of the lake and mountains. The northern edge of the lake has a walkway over the dam that helps create this body of water and even a nice looking beach area that was pretty deserted today.

Bridge Over Dam

Beach on Lake

After the hike, we drive back to the skyway and continue to the east. There are many pullouts with nice views. We stop at many of them to take in the beauty of the region. We wanted to do one last hike along the way. Fall Branch Falls Trail had been recommended plus we discovered there is a geocache hidden near the falls, giving us added incentive to complete this hike. There is a fairly large pullout and parking area for the trailhead a couple miles before crossing into North Carolina. There are two trails that start from this lot so pick the proper one. Our intended hike is on the western edge of the lot. This trail is an out and back hike of 2.5 miles total with just over 500 feet of elevation change with it being downhill to the falls.

Fungus on Fallen Tree

Washed Out Area of Trail

We ran into a couple of other hikers on their way back up and they were wishing they had hiking poles for this trail because there are some steep and muddy sections to contend with. We made it to the falls which were pretty even though at this time of year the water wasn’t flowing very fast. We found the geocache after a brief search and was happy nobody else was in the area when we were looking for it. The trail section with ropes tied to trees to help get up and down the steep hills was appreciated. It was a nice hike.

Getting Near the Falls

Fall Branch Falls

Rope Helps with Steep Climb

We could have continued driving east but decided it was late enough in the afternoon that we should just head back to camp since it is a fairly long drive from the trailhead. A few more stops on the drive home will help us remember this beautiful drive.

One Last View from Cherohala Skyway

One of the other suggestions we had gotten for a day trip was a tour of Mayfield Dairy. It’s about a 40 minute drive west to the town of Athens Tennessee. They only offer tours certain days of the week so we plan our visit accordingly. You receive a ticket for a free ice cream with each tour so the $9 per person tour price is pretty good.

Mayfield Dairy Visitor Center

They do not permit photography so I have nothing to show from inside the factory. We start out with a video that explains the history of Mayfield Dairy which dates back to 1910 when T.B. Mayfield Jr starts selling milk from his 45 Jersey cows to local residents. We head into the factory and see all the lines packaging milk in all sorts of different form factors from gallon jugs down to the cardboard containers sold at many local schools. We also saw ice cream being packaged in a wide variety of sizes depending on the end user. It was quite enjoyable to see how a large dairy factory works. During the tour, our guide also mentions how one of the local farms offers tours of their milking operations. It was too late to get a tour today but we put a trip on our itinerary for the rest of our stay.

Cow Art

Ready for a Parade?

The town of Athens wasn’t in a new Tennessee county but we only needed to drive another 5 miles or so drive into the town of Decatur and wandered around the town square for 10 minutes while we solved a multi-cache and made the find on our drive back to camp.

The next day we set off for another hike. Bald River Falls is a very popular destination in the area. It is accessed from the Cherohala Skyway about 5 miles from Tellico Plains on River Road. From the turn, it’s another 6 miles to the falls and the trailhead. While the road was paved and in decent shape, it is fairly narrow and winding so there was the fear some large vehicle would come from the other direction and make passing difficult. Fortunately we didn’t experience that problem. The parking area may have room for a couple dozen cars and it was nearly full when we arrived. At first I figured the trail was going to be quite busy until I realized that the main falls are visible from the road near the parking spots and most of the people are simply here to walk the few hundred feet from their car to the falls, take a few pictures and move on.

Bald River Falls Before Our Hike

We knew there is a viewpoint of the upper portion of the falls that’s only a tenth of a mile up the trail. We expected that at least a few people would venture that far to see them from a different perspective but we were the only people heading this way.

Start of the Trail

Walkway

Upper Falls Area

The trail is nice and generally follows the side of the Bald River - sometimes well above the water and other points fairly close.

Trail Along River

Another Section of Falls

This trail continues for a little over 4.5 miles before ending at another road through the forest. If we had another vehicle we could have made this a nice hike without any backtracking. But we were going to be forced to turn around at some point. There aren’t any geocaches along this trail so we didn’t have that as an incentive to go to a certain point.

American Strawberry Bush

Rock Outcropping on Trail

Even More Cascades

We had seen a side trail at the 1.5 mile mark and knew it would take us back to the main road where our car is parked but over a mile east of the car. We decide to turn around about 2 miles out and start to head back taking the side trail (#173)

Mushrooms on Bottom of Fallen Log

It turns out that this side trail has much more elevation change than the main trail. We start with a fairly decent climb for the first quarter mile. After cresting the hill, it’s all downhill to the road dropping 450 feet in the half mile or so. There were some challenging sections and since this is a minor trail, it wasn’t in as nice of shape but still manageable. Once at the road, we head west. It follows the Tellico River and we see decent views of it now and then. This section of road is also fairly narrow and there isn’t much of a shoulder so we did need to be careful when the occasional car comes along.

Cascades on Tellico River

About a third of a mile from the car, we discover there is a much larger pullout with vault toilets and picnic tables. The Baby Falls Day Use area would have been an alternative parking spot for the main falls if you’re willing to walk along the road for the short distance. There are some falls at this spot and it worked well for a snack stop on what turned out to be a 4.25 mile hike. The main falls was still quite busy when we returned and new visitors we happy to see us pull out so they could get a spot. All in all, a very nice hike.

Baby Falls

Bald River Falls After Our Hike

The next day, we took it easy and headed south into Georgia. We knew we would be traveling through the state on our way to Florida but there are a couple of northern counties we still haven’t found geocaches in and our current location would be our best option. It was a pretty drive on the twisty mountain roads as we head to the towns of Blue Ridge and Ellijay Georgia. It’s around a 60 mile drive each way. We found the desired caches but didn’t do a whole lot of sightseeing along the way. As we head back to camp around 5 PM, we decide to turn off to see a place named Buck Bald. There is an EarthCache located there for us to even realize the place exists.

It turns out that the road up to Buck Bald starts out paved but that doesn’t last long. It’s 2.5 miles and rises a little over 800 feet. The last 3/4 mile is on a road that just barely qualifies as one. There are large ruts and even in the Jeep, it’s a slow drive that jostles my body nearly more than I can take. But when we make it to the top, we are greeted with an amazing 360 degree view. While we are relaxing up top and not looking forward to the drive back down, we hear vehicles coming up. As they got closer, it sounded like several motorcycles. There was a group of six guys that we started talking with and offer to take a group photo for them. They explained that they were on a long journey, mainly traveling on lesser roads and camping along the way.

Atop Buck Bald

The next day was Friday and Sweetwater Valley Farms is open for tours so we plan a day trip to tour the dairy farm. It’s a bit north of where we toured Mayfield Dairy. It would be convenient if we could have done both tours on the same day but it isn’t that far from camp.

Entrance to Sweetwater Valley Farm

We pulled in and there was a large tour bus in the parking lot. Fortunately the group had gotten their own tour ahead of the one we planned on taking. We arrived early enough that we could check out the large barn where the tours start from but there is also a cafe and lots of souvenirs. Another building nearby houses the cheese shop which has a nice selection of cheeses.

Main Visitor Barn

Impressive Roof Framing

Cheese Store

Our tour included 18 or so other visitors and the farmer giving the tour. This is a family run business and has been in the family since the late 1980’s. They have roughly 1500 cows. The facility they show on the tour is the robotic milking building. It’s a very large building - approximately 500 feet by 125 feet and covering 1.25 acres.

Robotic Milking Facility

Inside is where the magic takes place. Each of the several hundred cows in this building wear a high tech necklace. It first of all identifies each cow to the robotic equipment as well as keeps tabs on some of its health information. These cows never leave the barn to graze in fields. Instead, they have their food and bedding and can walk over to the robotic milking machine whenever they want and be milked.

Owner Explains How Cow Collar Works with Robot

There are large windows at each of the milking stations. When a cow enters, it is identified and the robot first uses water and brushes to clean its udders, then the suction system attaches and the cow is milked. While this is taking place, the cow is presented with some treats which incentivizes them to come into the milking stations. Apparently some of the cows abuse the system just to get treats so the software recognizes these offenders and doesn’t always provide the treats. If an unhealthy cow is on some sort of drugs for an ailment, the system knows this and will still milk the cow but will not send it along to the main holding tank and is discarded. This was a very fascinating thing to watch and hear about.

Robotic Milker Does Its Thing

Inner Workings of a Milker

Another window looks over the main living area. It looks quite crowded compared to what we typically see with a huge field of cows out grazing on the land. It sounds like from a production standpoint, this system produces more milk per cow than typical dairy farming. It is weird since we saw no human intervention except for a service guy checking out one of the robotic milkers.

Cows Inside Facility

We had found a few other things to see in this part of Tennessee and headed next to the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. We had stopped here to wander the grounds with the help of an Adventure Lab explaining some of the outdoor exhibits.

Sequoyah Birthplace Museum

Blacksmith Shop

Cherokee and British Soldier

It is dedicated to a Cherokee member who lived in the late 1700’s to mid 1800’s and is credited with producing the written Cherokee language. We didn’t feel the need to head into the museum.

Inside Log Cabin

Main Museum Building

Just a couple miles from this stop on the same island is the Fort Loudoun State Historic Park. This place explains the history of this fort built by the British way back in 1756. There is a large visitor center and the reconstructed fort on the tip of the island overlooking the Little Tennessee River.

Entrance to Fort Loudoun State Historic Park

There were school buses in the parking lot when we first arrived and we could hear the children from a distance as we approached the visitor center. It looked like they were just getting ready to leave so we sat on a bench overlooking the river and enjoyed the view while the children left. Inside the now quiet museum were lots of displays and a couple of workers that looked like they had just experienced a whirlwind.

Inside Museum Building

We exit the back of the visitor center and walk the path towards the fort. A wooden fence circles the perimeter of the large fort.

Approaching Fort

Most of the dozen or so buildings are open and have various displays depending on what its function was during the fort’s operation.

Row of Buildings Inside Fort

Storage Room

We enjoyed wandering around and learning about how the soldiers lived back in pre-Revolutionary War times. We were happy that our timing was such that the place wasn’t overrun by dozens of schoolchildren.

Quiet at Fort Loudoun Today

Our nine nights in Tennessee were coming to an end. We’ve spent a great deal of times in the Appalachian Mountains over the years but most of the time on the North Carolina side. We could see coming back to this region again for more hiking and exploration since a week wasn’t enough time to see it all. But now we need to head south into Georgia.