Day 25 - Friday, April 22, 2005 - Murphy To Charlotte

 

Morning at Camp Elmer... Uncle Elmer and Aunt Christine. Aunt Christine prepared a powerful breakfast!

   

Just down the way from Camp Elmer I stopped to relax a bit and to make my morning road coffee...

 

     

 

Camp Elmer being just over the Georgia line, I crossed back over to North Carolina and headed on to Murphy...

 

     

 

Murphy, the western most city in North Carolina...

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

 

The Hiawassee River flows through Murphy...

 

On toward Asheville...

 

       

 

     

 

Along the Nantahala River. This stretch along the Nantahala is one of the most beautiful and inspiring drives that I know...

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

Between the Nantahala stretch and Asheville I hit the worst weather of the entire Big Drive... strong winds, torrents of rain, and low visibility. The clouds were low, fast moving and swirling, dark and dramatic, with lightening strikes all around. I was driving under the leading edge of a mighty storm system crossing over the Appalachian Mountains from the west. Except for occasional shots of the clouds, photography was all but abandoned...

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

     

 

As I approached Asheville I encountered storm related roadblocks and backed-up traffic. At this point I put the camera aside and just tried to get into Charlotte in one piece. Now, having photographed so many towns, landscapes and back roads on this Big Drive, I did not want to have a blank space on the last leg of the journey between Asheville and Charlotte. So, I drove back up to Asheville a few days later to cover the area that the storm had blocked. This little drive back up to Asheville was made even more enjoyable by my passenger, my beloved Mother! So, most of the shots that follow trace the route that I originally took between Asheville and Charlotte a few days prior...

 

Through Asheville...

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

 

 

Hendersonville. As "Norman Rockwell" a little town as ever I saw...

 

       

 

       

 

The courthouse in Hendersonville has a monument for just about all of our conflicts...

 

       

 

     

 

Walking the Hendersonville Main St...

       

 

       

 

 

The Carl Sandburg home, east of Hendersonville...

 

       

 

Down the eastern face of the Appalachians into the foothills and Piedmont...

 

         

 

The following shots show what I was driving through on this stretch a few days earlier...

 

       

 

The countryside around Shelby, west of the Charlotte area...

 

         

 

Crossing into Mecklenburg County and Charlotte...

 

     

 

Through downtown Charlotte... the final miles of the Big Drive...

 

       

 

     

 

This "sculpture," seen from Proidence Rd., calls to mind the "List of Communist Goals" in Cleon Skousen's 1958 book The Naked Communist: 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

 

 

 

Entering Strawberry Hill, my Beloved Mother's neighborhood, and Mother's apartment. The Big Drive comes to its end...

   

The Big Drive total mileage:

 

minus equals 5,809 miles...

 

I was greeted at the end of the trail by my Beloved Mother, my nephews Will and Ryan (who had been standing out in the rain waiting for me), Brother Brian, Engineer Matt and Sister Jan...

   

Immediately upon my arrival a party commenced... a slightly belated birthday party for Nephew Will...

 

       

 

Sister Jan and Beloved Mother were anxious to see Bigfoot...

 

         

 

Camp Red Rocks, beside Beloved Mother's Strawberry Hill apartment...

 

And so ended The Big Drive... 25 days, 12 states, 5800 miles...