Something New in North Carolina
While we were still in New Mexico we were planning out where we were going to spend the winter. We got on a couple "work camping" sites and started applying for "jobs" where we felt it would be interesting and work with what we wanted to do over the winter. One of the places we heard back from was Valley River RV Resort, in Murphy North Carolina. We did some more research and had a phone interview, about a week later we heard back from them and they wanted us to join them for the winter season. We had planned on being in Georgia for the Wanderlodge Owners Group Rally and Murphy was only about 3 hours drive from where the rally was being held.
So after the Rally we headed for Murphy. We took I285 which is supposed to be "adjacent" to Atlanta, GA and ended up in a freeway parking lot. After about 45 minutes of stop and go (mostly stop) traffic we were back crusing down the road. It was the first time in that area for both Jen and I, but we couldn't really see anything from where we were. We might have to try and come back and check it out a bit more. We traveled on 575 out of Atlanta to 76 through Ellijay, Blue Ridge and Blairsville GA, and finally into Murphy NC. Overall the trip was pretty uneventful though two observations both Jen and I noticed that there were very few places to pull off and that we may have gotten a bit to used to the nice open Texas roads with roomy shoulders. The roads in Western, NC are much more narrow, curvy and shrouded with trees, reminds us a bit more of the Alaska roads that we were used to as kids.
We pulled into our new home in Murphy about 4PM and were welcomed by our new work campers and managers. The RV park is a relatively new RV park which is still has some expansion and construction on going. There is a small lake which is an old quarry and creek which flows into the Valley River. When we got there it was also the peak time for the fall colors to change which was a nice bonus for us, not really ever having experienced the multitude of colors that come out, there were a lot of oh wow look at that every time we drove somewhere.
Our work camping gig is from November 2018 to April 2019, so we'll have a lot of time to check things out. During the first few weeks we've been here we've done some pretty cool stuff.
The town of Murphy has a few walking paths that follow the Valley and Hiwassee Rivers which are real nice to walk along while the leaves are changing and starting to fall. While the RV Park is pretty nice, it is missing an actual dog run area, and the town of Murphy doesn't have one either. Now some people have told us that they run their dogs down by the sports fields in town, but we decided it wasn't really something we wanted to do. We got online and started looking around. We found a dog park over in Blairsville, and drove over to check it out. It was ok, but was acutally pretty small, and a bit too far from where we are living. Then we tracked down a dog groomer and "daycare" that had a couple dog runs. It was still like 7 miles away, but it was really nice with a cover for the humans, dog obsticles and toys to borrow. The only think we disliked about it was that it was a pay to use place. They have magnetic ID cards that let you into the dog runs. For us the monthly fee is worth it so Scout can get some running in. Now he starts getting excited 3 miles before we even get there. We try to take him almost every day.
We took an afternoon and went to some waterfalls that are nearby. After about a 15 minute drive we arrived at Leatherwood Falls in Nantahala National Forest. It is free to use and they have some picnic tables and a couple vault toilets. We took a quick hike about half way up the falls to a viewing platform.
One day we decided to take a quick car trip around sort of a loop to see some of the neighboring towns. We went south to Blue Ridge Ga, then Ellijay and had some lunch, headed west to Chatsworth GA then north to Ocoee TN, then east back into NC through Ocoee River gorge. It was a very beautiful drive.
We've got some other short trips coming up so stay tuned for that. Hope you've enjoyed our adventures so far.