Great Scott!

We headed back home today, driving back through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and making a few stops on the way.  Gone was the hazy poison of the Canadian fires, washed away by the dramatic rains.  The clouds hung low, or perhaps it was the mountains that jutted up high - either way, it made for a beautiful view, and one much clearer than before.  We stopped about five or six times over the mountain to check out waterfalls and streams.  We even saw turkeys this time.  Here are some shots taken by Maddie and myself as we made our way through the mountains.

We stopped in Cherokee for some more fries, and after that we were driving straight south.  We had a few more rounds of Star Wars Mad-libs that Maddie was running through with us too.  And this time when we got to Franklin, North Carolina, we stopped at a place we've been meaning to stop at for years now:

It's the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin, North Carolina.  This is a pretty out-of-the-way location for a Scottish Tartans Museum, but the explanation for all that is discovered inside, along with plenty of other material.  Both Mom and I have some Scottish blood in our genealogy, and I was able to find a tie there with the tartan pattern of the Lamont clan.  I plan on wearing that on Sunday for sure!  Maddie got a plush sheep she's named McShoop.  Mom found some Crunchie bars!  We got a few books and post cards, and wandered through the museum and gift shop for about an  hour or more perhaps.  

This is one of those museums that has so much information in it that you can spend hours in there just reading the vast history of such a tiny portion of the earth.  I mean, the United Kingdom is roughly the size of Georgia and Florida, and yet the amount of fighting with clans and royalty and feuds and so on... there's so much history there and bad grudges and of course kilts.

It's a fascinating tour of Scottish history with plenty of different uniforms and outfits worn by royals, commoners and soldiers of different eras in history.

It was pretty interesting.  We weren't supposed to be taking pictures of the artifacts or items so much - I think they had people coming in to document all the items there and take pictures, and that sort of defeated the purpose of visiting the museum and therefore giving the museum owners the money they needed to continue existing.  But we were told we could snap a few pictures of ourselves in the museum.  And a few others pictures of Joey the Porg too.

Look at all these swatches of patterns, each one representing a different clan.  We found one for the Lamont clan, which is where the Turners came from.  We also found several McDonald patterns, which is where the McAnn clan came from.  We learned about the "Mc" meaning - "son of," and we found out that McDonalds and Campbells have a pretty "Hatfield and McCoy" kind of history.  Oh, and yeah - there's that name McCoy again!

It was nice though, a good stop on the way home that we've been meaning to do.  It just doesn't time out that well usually, but today it did and we were glad to stop here.

Joey the Porg thought so too.  I came around the corner, and there he was at the top of the stairs, the entrance to the second part of the museum, waiting to greet me.

Moving on, we moved on!  We left Franklin, and headed south some more until we stopped at this other place we've been meaning to stop at.  It was the Blue Ridge Honey Company - they had all kinds of different honeys there, which we got a few of.  They had jarred jams and salsas there too, so we picked up some apple butter, some elderberry jelly, and some cranberry salsa that sounded interesting.  We also got some carbonated beverages that were sweetened with honey.  There were bees there to see, and sculptures and ornaments made from wax.  There were items to be used with beekeeping, and also honey candies there too.  And yes, there were plenty of little bees all over.  It was a nice little stop too!

But home we must go!  We drove home and made good time, and were glad to see the house in good order when we arrived.  Forsyth County was hit hard by the storm system we endured in Pigeon Forge with the rising waters.  Tornadoes and wind damage knocked down plenty of trees here, cutting off power all over and closing many roads only yesterday.  We saw a lot of the downed trees, but things seemed to be okay at our house, and we were grateful.

Inspired by our visit to the Scottish Tartans Museum, we watched "Brave" tonight again, one of our favorites.  It's been a long day of course, so tonight we're reading - and we'll say our prayers before going to sleep in our own beds once more.  Got a lot to do tomorrow, but we're getting a nice evening of rest tonight as the rain falls once more outside.