So, with air leaking from two tires, the donut seriously hampering our progress, and me a little tired from my interstate shoulder tire-changing experience (twice within an hour), we found a $35 (woohoo!) motel in Cordele:
No, not the Hampton Inn, that was way too expensive. After catching a few winks there in the railroad traffic nexus of the world (I swear, every five minutes there was another freight train rolling by our quaint little motel right next to the tracks), we hit up the Wal Mart tire center (and the Shoney's breakfast buffet) and were back on our way. We made it to Brasstown Bald (4784'), the Georgia highpoint at 2:40PM, slightly later than our planned sunrise arrival. It's a short ½ mile hike up a paved trail to the summit tower, 400' above the parking lot.
From there, we did some quick re-routing and headed straight for Clingman's Dome (6643') in Tennessee. We got there just before sunset and twisted through the Smokeys up to the parking lot. As we were getting out of the car, a cloud rolled in, leaving us in a windy, rainy, foggy, cold mess. We broke out the rain gear and headlamps and decided to head up anyway. Again, its about ½ mile up a paved path. It was a little bit dark and foggy for pictures (as you can see), so we missed out on the renowned vistas. However, we had the entire trail to ourselves, something very few people can say about this most-visited high point.
From there, we were in serious jeopardy of not arriving in time for Thanksgiving dinner if we didn't head straight for PA, so the rest of the high points will have to wait for another trip.
