Eden Gardens State Park In Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

     Last week the fall weather was just right....so went for a walk around the grounds at Eden Gardens State Park located in the Northwest Panhandle of Florida...here's a few photos from there....

       

Thanks for coming along with us today!

Ponce De Leon Springs State Park, In Ponce De Leon, Florida

     Today, the weather was in the mid 70's, so it was a pretty day for a walk out in nature, so we drove over to Ponce De Leon Springs State Park.... and walked the short trails there...here's a few pictures from our Florida autumn November day....Thanks for coming along with us!

Fall Road Trip To The Mountains 2021

    My husband and I went on a 13 day road trip to the mountains of North Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee this Fall, October 2021. We're taking you with us today....through the Blueridge Parkway and The Great Smoky Mountains National Park...with some stops in small towns too. We started our trip from home in the Northwest Florida Panhandle and traveled 1600 miles round trip. We stayed at nine hotels, for a total of twelve nights. It was quite the adventure for us fifty something, retired empty nesters. One we will remember forever and carry with us in our hearts. Here are some pictures from our journey....(photos taken Oct. 10, 2021- Oct 22, 2021)

Day 1: 

Our first day we drove to Athens, Ga. where we had a hotel booked for the night. 

We stopped by to take a peek at The Coheelee Covered Bridge along the way near Blakely Ga., we also stopped by the Andersonville National Historic Site in Andersonville, Ga. then made our way to our hotel room for the night....

Day 2: 

We visited The State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

 

 

Next stop was Toccoa, Ga to Toccoa Falls 

Next was on to Tallulah Gorge State Park in Tallulah Falls, Ga. 

Next we stopped in the little mountain town of Clayton, Ga. for lunch and then it was on to Cherokee, North Carolina....

We got to Cherokee, NC. 

And went for a hike to see Mingus Falls....

Then we made our way to our hotel in Cherokee where we spent the night....there were some pretty mountain views from our room.....

Day 3:

We made our way to the Blueridge Parkway, beginning at Cherokee, North Carolina off of Hwy. 441. We took the parkway stopping at the many overlooks....

We got off the Parkway in Maggie Valley North Carolina,  

We browsed the cute shops and got some homemade fudge...

And we ate lunch at Butt's On The Creek BBQ Restaurant...it was right on the creek...the sound of the creek was amazing from the screened porch where our table was at.... and the Carolina BBQ was delicious....

We got back on the Parkway and headed to Asheville, North Carolina where we spent the night....we were so tired, we had pizza delivered to our hotel room....

Day 4: 

We got back on the Blueridge Parkway....stopped at Little Switzerland, North Carolina, off the Parkway to browse a few shops, and then made our way to Spruce Pine, North Carolina where we had dinner and did a little bit of thrift store shopping and got gas for the car.....

We then made our way to Pineola, North Carolina where we stayed the night at the Pineola Inn 

Day 5: 

 

We woke up and drove to Linville Falls and hiked to the falls...

We left Linville Falls, North Carolina, and drove to Elizabethton, Tennessee and visited the covered bridge, had lunch at Dino's Historic Restaurant Downtown and then went to several antique thrift shops.... 

We then drove through Johnson City, Tennessee passed a beautiful stone church that we had to get a picture of.....

Near the end of the day, we made our way to our hotel in Historic Jonesborough, Tennessee. The oldest city in Tennessee.

Day 6: 

We got up early and went downtown before the crowds could show up, and we walked the historic streets of Jonesborough TN....taking photos.....

There are so many cute old fashioned shop windows....

We walked a nice morning walk along a brook to see the old train depot....

And then made our way back to The Chester Inn State Historic Site to take a tour of this old place....

We shopped around the town and bought some jams, syrups and honey.  We had lunch at the Texas Burrito Restaurant downtown...yummy nachos and tacos. We left Jonesborough, Tennessee and made our way to Greenville, TN and went downtown and did some more antiquing, and found a few treasures there.

 We then made our way to Newport, Tennessee, where we had dinner at Cracker Barrel. We stayed the night at our hotel there in Newport where we had booked two nights. 

Day 7:

We got up and drove to Kodak Tennessee, to The Great Smoky Mountains Flea Market, where we found treasures galore....old and new items. We left there and made our way to Sevierville, Tennessee and took the back way through Pigeon Forge, to Gatlinburg  to get on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail inside The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

If you'll look closely on the hillside you'll see three bears... a mama and two cubs....

 

When we left Gatlinburg Tennessee, we went back to Pigeon Forge and had dinner and made our way back to the hotel in Newport. 

Day 8:

We left Newport, Tennessee and drove through the mountains to Franklin, North Carolina to Uncle Bill's Flea Market where we found more treasures. We left there and made our way to Helen, Georgia....stopping at Unicoi State Park. 

When we got to Helen, we checked into our hotel room (which we booked for two nights), and we got settled into our room. It was dinner time so we walked to downtown Helen snapped a few pictures and found a restaurant along the creek called The Troll Tavern Restaurant, where we had some German food and drinks....

Day 9:

The next morning, we explored the many little shops at Helen, we got a big pretzel for lunch and elephant ears for dessert and more fudge. Then in the afternoon we made our way over to Unicoi State Park and hiked to  Anna Ruby Falls..... 

We then came back to Helen and walked around the town some more and had dinner. 

Day 10:

We loaded up our stuff, left Helen and made our way towards Cleveland, Georgia, stopping at two antique malls before reaching Cleveland. We ate lunch at The Cottage House Restaurant which had awesome country food. Then we stopped at a community thrift store before making our way to Dahlonega, Georgia, where we booked a hotel for two nights. After checking into our hotel, we explored the downtown historic area of Dahlonega. We could see why two Hallmark Christmas movies have been filmed here, it has a lot of charm and character.

Day 11:

We went to the visitors center at Dahlonega and purchased tickets to the Gold Museum, The Consolidated Gold Mine Tour and The Crisson Gold Mine. They had a 3-in-1 package deal. First, we explored the Gold Museum downtown Dahlonega which is in the old Dahlonega Courthouse Building.....

We went to lunch, then we drove out to the Consolidated Gold Mine which had a fun underground tour and gold panning lesson....

Next, we drove to The Crisson Gold Mine....where we panned for gold and sifted for gemstones. it was a lot of fun. We didn't strike it rich, but we did find some pieces of gold and some gemstones too.  

We went back to downtown Dahlonega, and shopped The General Store and ate pizza at Gustavo's Pizzaria. After dinner we got some chocolate truffles at Kilwins.....

We ended the day by relaxing on a park bench on the town square, until after dark.

Day 12: 

We headed to Canton, Georgia as to make our way around Atlanta Georgia (avoiding the interstate), to our next destination Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.....

We left there and made our way to Lagrange, Georgia,  for our final hotel stay, before heading home back down to Northwest Florida. 

Day 13: 

We went from Lagrange, Georgia to Eufaula, AL, where we stopped and shopped and ate lunch at Barb's Country Kitchen. After we left Eufaula, making our way homeward, we stopped at a thrift store in Bellwood, AL. and found more good deals. 

We made it home around 3:30pm. and got settled back in at home. There really is no place like home, we were so glad to be back home. 

This fall trip was an amazing whirlwind trip. We wish there would have been more time in a day to have stopped at all the small towns we passed through, going there and coming home. There was not nearly enough time, but beautiful it was, we enjoyed it all so much and feel blessed to have had the chance to see all that we saw. 

Thanks for coming along with us!