Gatlinburg to Home

Saturday morning dawned with light rain showers.  Seemed a bit like liquid sunshine, because it was warm and the winds were calm.  As we packed the cars, apparently a bear came from the woods to check out the activity - finding nothing too interesting turned around and left.  I never saw it, but that's the story.  

We had breakfast and were rolling out of the parking lot by 9AM.  The rain was coming down hard as we hit the mountain just outside of Gatlinburg.  After a quick pit stop for gas in Cherokee and an application of RainX, we were motoring down US441 South, headed for Clayton, GA.  It seemed that we were mostly going down the mountains, after leaving Cherokee.  After a week of many hard climbs, we were looking forward to the flatter lands of northern GA and SC and the even flatter land of the SC midlands!  In Clayton, we picked up US76 East.

About 1PM, we stopped in the tiny crossroads of Townville, SC, in Anderson County, for lunch.  It was the Townville Cafe.  We all had great hamburgers and were ready to get going in about 45 minutes.  

Our weather was relatively pleasant for the remainder of the drive - just a few light showers.  We were watching a large thunderstorm off to our left, which was moving north.  We were fortunate, we seemed to be driving at the back of it and never ran into it.

About 2PM, we received word that Buster had made it home.  They had stopped in Clinton, SC about 9PM the night before - just too tired to drive any further.  Buster was behaving very well.  Seemed that he had a case of altitude sickness in the mountains of the Blue Ridge.  Once down in the flats, all was well and he ran perfectly!

We got separated from the others when the car behind me decided it was time for fuel.  Our walkie talkie had gone dead and we never heard they were going to stop.  Not a problem.  We kept going to the next filling station, filled up and waited for the rest to catch up with us.  Soon two of them came along; the Crabtrees had split off for a road that went through Orangeburg.  They live in the SC Lowcountry, near Charleston and didn't want to go through Columbia.  Not exactly sure what time they got home, but received an email from them about 8:15PM, saying they had made it.

The last two hours were completely uneventful.  We had driven this highway for many years and were all very familiar with each turn and pothole!  In Ballentine, the Princes and we took SC 6 West and parted ways with the Cockerills as they headed on into Columbia on US 76.  Another 2 miles down the road, we were on our street and almost home.  We arrived at 5:57PM.

We had had a grand tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We were gone 8 days and drove 1,492 miles in Miz B.  We used  1 quart of oil and 84.6 gallons of fuel, averaging 17.63 MPG.  Considering we were climbing mountains and were very loaded down with luggage and miscellaneous tools, water, and oil, we feel that the gas mileage was pretty good!

Miz B will get a much needed clean up today and be ready for the next tour - only 6 days away!  We are headed out with our local club for Chester, SC.

For those of you reading this blog via the link on the MAFCA website, please know that I write about my adventures in Miz B, be they national or local club.  Feel free to look any time for new posts.......