Saturday 4-21 Visiting Cherokee South Carolina

Cherokee South Carolina

 

What a wonderful day we had. We woke up to another cool morning in the high 20’s. 

After breakfast we went to Cherokee. We have been without power for three days and the battery in the house part of the Minnie was getting low. Larry decided the Minnie needed to go for a ride to charge the battery. I hadn’t done any laundry in awhile and this was the perfect opportunity to do it. We have not had internet so we had to wait to get to Cherokee to find a laundromat. The first one we went to had gone under. We found another one called Happy Holiday. It was part of an RV Park so it was still in business. It was a very nice laundromat and well maintained. No one was there so I was able to do three loads of clothes without a problem. When the laundry was done it was lunchtime so we went out for lunch. 

Doing laundry

 

We drove a few miles down the rode and found a shopping center with RV parking. Once we parked the Minnie we walked over to the Taco Bell and had lunch. We then walked to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things. Afterwards we headed back to the campground.

Once we setup the Minnie in our campsite, we went for another motorcycle ride. We decided to go to see the Mingus Mill and walk around Cherokee. Mingus Mill was an 1886 Turbine Mill that ran for over fifty years. It used a small turbine instead of a wooden wheel to provide power to run the mill. The mill ground corn into meal and wheat into flour for the mountain community in the area. They still do demonstrations on how the mill works but for the last 10 days the mill has been broken. We had actually been to this same mill back in 2011 and it was broken then. We still walked around the facility and read about how the equipment worked.

 

Mingus Mill

How the water got to the mill

 

A piece of equipment that was used in the mill

On the way to Cherokee we made an unexpected stop. There was a herd of elk walking across the main road. Some of the elk were grazing, other were wading in the river and more were climbing up the bank of the river. This was very exciting.

Elk playing in the river

A herd of elk crossing the road in the Great Smoky Mountain Park

Cherokee is a small tourist town. It has shops to buy Native-American arts and crafts, ice cream parlors and other restaurants. Some of the local Native-Americans were dressed in the full Native-American Headdress and outfits. They danced and played their instruments. In front of the Cherokee Museum, there was a giant statue of Sequoyah. He invented the Cherokee alphabet. The statue was sculpted out of a giant Sequoia. After walking through one of the shops we drove to the Oconaluftee Island Park. It was a pretty park that ran along the river. While we were there we saw families enjoying the park and the kids were walking in the river, other people were fly fishing. Later we stopped at a little square where there were a few shops, a couple of ice cream parlors and fudge shop. We stopped in at one of the ice cream parlors and bought a couple of scoops of ice cream (pecan and moose tracks). Then we walked through a couple of leather shops.

Sequoyah statue

One of the bridges that crosses the river at Oconaluftee Island Park

When we got back to the Minnie we rested and then barbecued hamburgers for dinner. After dinner we walked to an old church, it was called Lufty Baptist Church. It was established in 1836 and rebuilt in 1912. It was a neat church. When we got back I continued walking around to get my steps and Larry read in his chair. We spent the rest of the night relaxing. We had an outstanding day. 

Lufty Baptist Church