We have arrived in Atlanta and will soon be on our way home. We enjoyed the stay in Bryson City, it was chilly during the evening but the sun shone during the day. We left Pigeon Forde on Tuesday morning on a guided tour as Linda needed to check out one more craft shop, which involved a slight detour before we crossed the mountains and into North Carolina. The cottage was as we remembered it and you could still hear the stream flowing along and the ducks were still in the stream. As the weather was warm we could sit outside on the rocking chairs and watch the wildlife.
On Wednesday, we had a lazy morning and watched the train go past, with the passengers waving us, see, we are even famous in North Carolina! We had some lunch and then drove into Bryson city in the afternoon and saw the train return. There was a coffee shop, so we stopped and had a coffee – although it was not up to Starbucks quality.
In the evening we watched TV, we tried to watch a film, however if was 7 minutes film, 5 minutes adverts, 7 minutes file, 5 minutes adverts and so on – it drove me mad and a film that could have lasted 90 minutes lasted 150 minutes.
The next day we had a wander down to Waynesville and low and behold I saw – no not a Starbucks but a Best Buy (computer shop for the uneducated). It was my turn to wander around, check prices on the Ipad to see if I could get it cheaper elsewhere, and then look at more items. Linda followed behind asking questions like what does they do, what is that? We were in there a good hour and no craft shops in sight. However, she did get her revenge as there was a Walmart next door – so I had to follow her around there as she tried several jeans on and then decided 30 minutes later she didn’t like any of them, unfortunately there was also a craft section.
We then went into Waynesville and had a look around, it had a lot of quaint old fashioned shops, one which fortunately sold coffee. I had a rest from all this shopping and checked my twitter account on the IPAD2.
After this we took the scenic route back through Maggie Valley, along Soco Road towards Cherokee. It was a windy mountain road with several bends, climbs and declines and it was pouring with rain. We saw a sign for SantaLand – but then the sign on the door said ‘closed for the season – reopens in May – perhaps Santa only comes here when its warm.
On Friday we had to leave the cottage and drive back to Atlanta. We went via Cherokee so I could go to the Tribal Grounds Coffee shop to get refreshments for the long drive ahead. The speed limits were even worse on this stretch, around 45mph and so it took several hours to get down from the mountains. It was warm at the bottom, which meant we had to stop so Linda could put a t-shirt on and take her jumper off, don’t know why she bothered she then threw milk all over it! We had a wander through some shops and I got a pair of trainers for £10 so I was happy!
We are staying at the Hilton Homewood Suites in Buckhead, Atlanta. Traffic was very heavy as we managed to get across Atlanta, especially when my helpful navigator tells me to turn left after I had passed the junction. The room is very big, in fact is three rooms, bathroom, bedroom and lounge/kitchen with a rather big fridge. I managed to book in for our flights on line and print the boarding passes of in the business centre.
On Saturday we got up early, had the free breakfast, food always tastes better when it is free, and it was as I had amassed enough Hilton points to get the room free. We then went out to the Martin Luther King centre, had a look around and went in the Ebenezer Baptist church, where he used to preach. After that it was back to the hotel, to do some packing, then out for the afternoon before proceeding to the airport. London here we come.