Trip to Oconee State Park

This past Wednesday through Saturday we went to Oconee State Park in South Carolina. The park is located in the upper north west corner of the state. We stayed in a small one room cabin. The kids got to sleep on the pull out sofa while we slept in the one bedroom. The room was so small, to close the door you would have to move the bed to the other wall! The cabin had a small screen-in porch. It was perfect for Megan and Will to play on after breakfast while we cleaned up and washed dishes.

The cabin was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. This was a work relief program for young unmarried men, established on march 21, 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the New Deal legislation. This program was designed to combat unemployment during the Great Depression. This is the second cabin that we have stayed at, built and developed by the CCC. I really want to find other parks that were built by the Corps. I think that everyone American should visit sites that were built during the past and appreciate what effort went into designing and building these structures and parks

On Thursday we went to visit some Isaqueena Falls. It was really pretty. The falls was named after a legendary Indian maiden. It is a 100 foot falls that cascaded down the mountain. Next to the falls was Stumphouse Tunnel. It was going to be part of the blue Ridge Railroad Company which was formed to buld a railroad connection between Clarleston, South Carolina, and Knoxville, Tennessee. The tunnel is 25 feet high, 17 feet wide and extends 1,617 feet into the mountain. The tunnel is made out of solid granite and took about 600 men (German and mostly Irish) to build. It was constructed at the rate of 90 feet per month, with seven steam engines on site that ventilated shafts, pumped water and pulled out rock.

On Friday we decided to do a tour called "Do It In A Day." It was a driving tour that takes you around Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. You got to see small quaint towns, beautiful fall leaves, and waterfalls. We visited Bull Sluice falls in Georgia then moved to see the Blue Ridge Mountians in Clinton, North Carolina. Next we decided to take and extended trip to Gatlinburg, Tennesse through Cherokee, North Carolina. David took some awesome pictures at Smokemont right outside Cherokee. He also took more pictures throught the Smoky Mountain National Park. In some places the leaves were still changing. The colors were amazing. I wondered if New England's leaves looked as beautiful as these. In Gatlinburg we visited the Smoky Mountain Candy Kitchen. This is where my mother and grandparents would take me when we were on vacation. Will was enamored with the taffy machine. It was had to get him away from the window. Megan enjoyed going through the store and see all of the wonderful sweet treats. I bought a box of taffy for all of us to share. Both kids loved the sweets!