Four States in One Day

April 9, 2013

Had a great night’s sleep in this VERY quiet spot—seems like nobody else is camping nearby. After breakfast, we broke camp and drove into South Carolina, so Jack could fish another part of the Chattooga River, where it forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina. It’s wider here, but doesn’t seem quite as wild and wooly. We met another couple in a RoadTrek, Carolyn and Gary, from Richmond, VA and had a friendly chat with them about how much we all love our RoadTreks. There’s an immediate connection between RoadTrek people!

In South Carolina looking across to Georgia.

In Georgia looking across to South Carolina and the RoadTrek.

Since we decided to collect states as well as trout streams on this trip, we made sure to cross the river from South Carolina into Georgia, and took some photos to document it. 

This makes four states so far: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. With Tennessee to come later in the day…

After the official state border crossing, Jack geared up and we walked a ways upstream, to get away from the few fishermen who were already in the river. (Early risers around here…) I found another sandy beach and settled down with my book, occasionally glancing up to watch Jack fish and take a photo or two. 

 

Jack fishing the beautiful Chattooga River just upstream of the Burrell's bridge.

This time was better, as he hooked one trout fairly soon, but lost it, and then hooked another shortly after and landed it. This time it was a wild rainbow (meaning born in the stream, not stocked), a little bigger than yesterday’s fish. It was caught on a bead-head Prince nymph. 

 

Not the biggest fish in the river, but a nice wild rainbow.

He then tied on a dry fly just to see if he could get any surface action, but nothing was rising. We stopped about noon and hiked back to the van, where I made a quick lunch. The Chattooga River has been honestly checked off the list—no skunking this time around!

We headed up the road to our next destination, Johnson University in Knoxville, TN, where our niece Lauren is studying Christian counseling. The drive was beautiful, as we had another sunny day—our first short-sleeves day—and we were skirting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Some sizable mountains in these parts! 

Lauren and Matt, and Johnson U., from Lauren's Facebook page. More photos tomorrow.

The college is on the outskirts of Knoxville, in a very rural setting—so rural that we initially questioned whether our GPS had lost its mind! We finally got there and found a very pretty campus; with spring coming on strong, it’s especially scenic. Lauren, her roommate Catherine, and boyfriend Matt were there to greet us and direct us to the dormitory where we’d be staying the next two nights. (Johnson lets visitors stay in an older dorm that’s not used for students right now—very basic but comfy rooms—and good internet!)

Carol busy writing this blog in our guest dormitory room.

After checking out our room, we walked around and toured the campus. Lots of history here. The college was founded in 1893 to educate ministers; in those days it was also a farm, which allowed the students who couldn’t afford a college education to work while they studied to help cover their costs. We haven’t seen Lauren and Catherine’s dorm room yet, but will tomorrow.

Matt then drove us in Lauren’s car to Knoxville, which takes about 20 minutes. An attractive city, with a lively pedestrian mall downtown. We ate dinner at Tupelo Honey Café, a bistro with a tasty and varied menu (with a Southern slant, of course). Good food and great conversation. 

Jack, Lauren, Matt and Carol just after dinner in Knoxville. Photo taken by Catherine.

It’s been so much fun to be around all these energetic young people the past several days, to hear about their interests, ambitions and goals.

We checked out the Tennessee River, a major waterway that flows through Knoxville, and then drove back to the campus. We’re now enjoying the good internet service in our dorm room and feeling like two college students ourselves (but in my college days, Jack would never have been allowed in my dorm room at night)!

State count: 5 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee]

Odometer count:

Surber, VA: 107,435 departed 5 April

Knoxville, TN: 108,070 arrived 9 April

Total miles so far: 635