Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. We woke up vaguely nervous about this being Election Day and decided to ignore it as long as possible. We had a quick simple breakfast, posted the blog entry from yesterday and got on the road to Hiawassee by 10 am – estimated to be about a 4-hour drive. We took I-24 to Chattanooga and then headed east towards the tri-corners area (where TN, NC and GA converge).  On US 64 in Tennessee, within the Cherokee National Forest, we happened upon a gorgeous 30-mile or so drive designated as the Ocoee Scenic Byway.  This curvy exhilarating route follows Lake Ocoee for a long way and then the almost dry, extremely rocky bed of the Ocoee River.  Based on the number of whitewater rafting outfitters along the way, it was obvious that this portion of the river is not always dry.  In fact, we came upon the closed-for-today Centennial Olympic whitewater course.  It appears that the rocky bed of the river at this point has been artificially enhanced to create a dramatic water course.  It would be exciting to see when at full stream, with kayakers from around the globe bobbing and diving for dear life in a spray of Tennessee white water.

By the time we emerged from that adventure, the sky had morphed into a smoky miasma along the border of TN and NC.  As we feared, the smoke was collecting from a large number of forest fires in the area, due to historic drought conditions.  Fortunately, the sky is mostly clear where we are now – at the beautiful Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds in Hiawassee. We camped here one weekend last October with some friends from Atlanta, so we knew what to expect.  On this Tuesday in November, the campground is practically empty and we have the site of our choice, right on the lake. Below are some scenes from the campground, reflecting remnants of a Halloween dance in the Rhododendron Gardens here. We are now settled in our Airstream, fixing dinner and hunkering down to watch the election returns on TV.  I’ll close this brief travel blog now, before we know the results and feel compelled to comment on them.  Thanks for coming with us on Doris’ QuikTrip!