Leaves are falling all around
It’s time I was on my way
Thanks to you I’m much obliged
For such a pleasant stay
But now it’s time for me to go
The autumn moon lights my way… ‘Ramble On’
Our first maiden voyage in the BluesMobile (aka Traveler Blues) took us from Texas to North Carolina to visit relatives and drop Lisa at her ACIM retreat. Since we were on a tight deadline, we had to take the interstate even though our goal is to get off the beaten path because America is more than just exits with McDonald’s and Starbucks. It seems like most of our lives together when traveling by car, have been spent on I-10 between Texas and New Orleans, so this time we hit I-20 across. The lack of signs advertising ‘Cracklings” was a little sad, but that’s a southern La thang.
The first night on the road the BluesMobile stayed in a Cracker Barrel parking lot…lol… thinking that would be more upscale than staying in a Walmart parking lot. Two lessons learned: 1) Evening shift workers at Cracker Barrel are not the company’s pride and joy. 2). Don’t park close to the restaurant’s dumpster. BTW, we are traveling with a friend’s guitar since he is stuck in ‘Folsom’ if ya know what I mean. 
On the next night, our first real camping experience began just west of Birmingham Alabama at Tannehill State Park www.tannehill.org . This park set a high standard with the following: RV sites backing onto small creeks, weekend markets & local artisan demonstrations, authentic grist mill, iron ore furnace plant, a museum dedicated to ore mining and steel production and if that wasn’t enough, there was also a kiddie train. We highly recommend this camp site if you are traveling between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Being Fall and weekdays, finding open sites like this are pretty easy.
After a few nights visiting with the Mazina family in Charlotte, we hit the road traveling to South Carolina’s Table Rock State Park. https://southcarolinaparks.com/table-rock . Also nearby was Caesar Head & Jones Gap State Park, but neither one allowed drive in camping support. We aren’t the type of folks that hoof a mile with 20 pound packs to camp. We headed in this direction knowing full well that there was a cold front coming in and our hikes would probably be cold, rainy & muddy. Our expectations were met.
Table Rock State Park is a 3,083-acre park at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina. The park includes Pinnacle Mountain, which is the tallest mountain in the state. We arrived late in the afternoon and immediately headed to the trail head to see a series of small waterfalls. The good thing about rain is that waterfalls are happy!
The next day, during a lull in showers, we began our 8 mile hike to Table Rock. We were bundled for winter but quickly had to shed some layers for the climb. We were lucky that the leaves were still turning- brilliant yellow & red shades of fall…also saw huge boulders and one rock that looked like a whale!
Table Rock State Park was excellent- even wifi at the camp store (only open weekends this time of year)! Well done South Carolina. But after being battered by cold & rain, we broke camp and headed towards the Blue Ridge Mountains to check-out more Fall color. We took our 2018 Travato model K on the twisty climbing mountain roads of 8, then 11, and then 276. The BluesMobile handled them well.
