We got an early-ish start. The thinking was that this campground might get filled up the later in the day it got. We were looking at a 3 hour trip, so we wanted to be on the road by 9:30-10. The pack up went smoothly. I went up on the roof to sweep off all the tree debris that had been accumulating. There was too much on the slideouts to just pull them back in without cleaning them. There was some more leakage when Jeremiah was filling the freshwater tanks. I was worried we busted through the tanks again, but hopefully it will just be the relief from accidentally overfilling. We drove to the sewer dump, where Missy and I let Jeremiah take on that chore whilst we went to the gift store to see if we could find a souvenir. There were no bumper stickers, and the plain stickers were waaaaaayyy too plain….just initials of the park and that's all. So Missy got a walking stick pin. Still not sure what she's going to do with that.
The drive to Reliance, TN had just one small bump in the road. Karen and Google Maps had differing routes, so I had already warned Missy and Jeremiah to be prepared for the usual TN bad mojo of bad directions/confusing road signs. (Referencing the long ago annual trips to Gatlinburg, whereby the only time of the 5 trips that we did NOT get lost was when we'd taken a shuttle). We pulled off the road at the entrance to the Forest Rd to the campground. Jeremiah took the scootie for the 7 mile ride to see if the fitty would make it on the road, and if there was an open campground site that we'd fit into. He came back and reported it was a go. I took over driving, which was a bad idea. This road was one lane only. Meaning it's 2 way traffic on a narrow one lane dirt road. I've never had a more stressful drive. I had to try to watch my mirrors on the 1000 tight corners to make sure the trailer didn't drop off the mountain, but then at the same time I needed to watch the road ahead for oncoming head-on collisions. At the end of the drive, my nerves were shot, so I vacated the truck. Jeremiah parked us in our new spot.
The online description said there was a $7/night fee. It also said there was a water spigot. Both of those are not true. So, we get to camp for free, but there is no water. Hopefully our tanks will last us the 10-14 days that we want to camp here. It's a nice little campground loop, with about 12 sites. We're backed up against the mountain, and the sites backing up to the creek are mostly taken. Everyone else here (the campground is about ½ full) is tent camping. I think people were probably surprised to see our big rig pull in. There is lots of tree coverage, so it will be mostly shady most of the time. There's a 50 yard trail from the back of our site over to the crystal clear babbling creek. I look forward to hucking my hammock over there on our next off day for a relaxing day by the creek. We all walked up the road to check out the trailhead, and Missy almost stepped on a snake that was fully stretched out catching some rays. Not sure if it was venomous. She poked it with a stick and then screamed when it moved. That made Buddy go into a full-on protective aggressive mode, and if I hadn't been holding his collar he would have attacked the snake. This just makes fuel for my phobias, because now I'm going to be scart of the dogs ambling into snakes on our hikes.
The windchill here is surprising after so many days of warm weather. Temps in lower 60s, but with the strong wind, you need a warm fleece jacket. The overnight lows will be in the lower 40s, so we'll have to bundle up tonight. The plan is to leave by 10 to get to the Ocooee Release. We have no reception here, so we'll have to hope we get something at the river so we can post this update.
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