Taking the long route to Cherokee

 For  the past two years my family has traveled to over 70 counties of North Carolina to visit and take a picture of the current and previous courthouse buildings.   Most of the remaining counties are in the western part of the state.  We planned a trip for June to locate courthouses for the south western section.  I mapped out that we could drive to approx 11 different counties in one day with our final destination just south of Cherokee in Dillsboro.    A point "A" to point "B" trip would  have been appox 4 hours.  The modified route had us on the road for 11 hours.  With prints outs of each county seat and iPhone GPS we took a very scenic route through the Blue Ridge Mountains.  We made stops in Murphy, Brevard, Hayesville and several other towns.   It's interesting to see how many small towns have been  though or in the process of revitalization.

The route took is up and down winding roads past steep cliffs and waterfalls.  We all slept well after the long day of riding.

The following day was spent site seeing the area including tubing down the Oconaluftee river, indoor putt putt and Paula Deans Kitchen at Cherokee Casino.   Site seeing continued the third day as we visited a few more courthouses with the final destination of the day being Asheville.

We arrive in Asheville in time to get the Buncombe County Courthouse photo and walk around downtown for a couple of hours.  Downtown Asheville was lively as usual with plenty of street performers and bakeries to slip inside for a snack.