After spending an amazing 4 days in the southwestern portion of North Carolina, we finally decided to leave Walnut Hollow RV Ranch. We loved every minute we spent there, but we knew it was time to move on. There is still so much more for us to see across the country!

While staying in North Carolina, we talked about wanting to do some hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. We didn’t really see much of them during our time there so we felt like we needed to backtrack a bit to get a better experience.

We made plans to drive to Cove Creek RV Resort in Sevierville, Tennessee, and spend 2 nights there. That would allow us to do a little hiking. It was about a 2 to 2 ½ hour long drive from where we were in North Carolina… or at least it should have been. 

We encountered multiple issues along this trip!

When planning this impromptu portion of the trip, Ryan asked me if I wanted to take the highway or the scenic route. The options were to either choose the scenic route that would take us directly through the middle of the Smokies or a highway that went around the national park. I chose the scenic route. I always choose the scenic route if it’s a safe possibility, even if it adds a little extra time to the drive. It’s more intriguing than driving on a boring highway. So when we were leaving the ranch, he put the route in the GPS and we were on our way.

The problem we experienced was that the GPS re-routed us, but neither of us noticed. So we were driving along enjoying the views of the mountains, the lakes, and the backroads of the country. 

After about an hour of driving, we started to become a little wary of the roads we were traveling down. During our time in North Carolina and Georgia, we had experienced a lot of windy roads that weaved their way up and down the mountainsides. We had no problem driving on those roads with the truck, we actually enjoyed the roads because it felt like a racetrack (yes, we drove safely; we did not speed or do anything stupid). 

The problem we were now facing was that the roads were narrow and windy, but they were also on the edge of a mountain with no guardrails… oh and we were towing a 36 foot RV behind us! The roads would have been mildly alarming to drive along with only the truck, but now that we were towing a 36-foot rig. We were undeniably clenching our butts the whole time! 

As we were driving on the outside of the road, steadily climbing the mountain, we were terrified that a car would come speeding down the inner lane. As cars often do when they go too fast down a steep grade, they often hug the middle of the road. We were worried that if that happened it would cause us to veer toward the outside of the road, even closer to the edge, possibly causing us to plummet down the mountainside. 

After about 18 miles of driving along these butt-clenching roads (yes, this might be TMI, but too bad; this was a terrifying drive), we came across a sign that brought about more bad news.

I was so focused on the road and trying not to accidentally veer off even an inch that I didn’t see the sign. Thankfully, Ryan did! Although, my heart dropped into my stomach when he told me what it said.

“No vehicles over 30 feet” can pass down this road. Well… we’re more than 30 feet!!!! Now what!!!!!

Fortunately, we came across a small store right after seeing the sign. There was a small parking lot that allowed me to pull off the road. We sat there trying to find a new route, but… more bad news… we had no cell service! 

We were trying to figure out where to go and both of us now just started to panic. Turning around where we were temporarily parked was going to be a challenge, but the possibility of getting stuck on the original path we were down, didn’t sound overly appealing. 

Just as we decided to turn around, someone came out of the store. I asked her if she knew how bad the roads up ahead were and she said there was a possibility that we could fit, but there was a greater possibility that we would get stuck. We obviously didn’t want that so we asked her if she could help us figure out an alternative route. She said she could but it would take us down a long path. I told her I don’t care how many hours I have to drive, I do NOT want to get stuck on a narrow, windy road on the edge of a mountain that cars were flying down.

She pointed us in the right direction and sent us on our way. Unfortunately, the direction we had to go meant backtracking the 18 miles down the narrow, windy road. At least this time, we could be on the inner lane since we were going down the mountain. Going down was definitely less terrifying. 

After the 18 miles, we ended up on the Cherohala Skyway per our savior’s instructions. After driving another hour or so, we finally got cell signal, which allowed the GPS to figure out where we were. I asked Ryan how much time was left and again my heart sank when he said 2 hours. This was supposed to be a 2-hour long drive from the start. Now it was over 4 ½ hours.

It was frustrating, but we were happy that we were on safer roads to get to our destination. Partway through the drive, we stopped at a nice overlook on the side of the road and had lunch. That’s the nice part of taking your house everywhere with you. You can stop and have lunch and take a bathroom break at any time. We enjoyed the view of the mountains while eating, then hit the road again.

After some time passed, I got a signal from the truck saying “faulty trailer connection”. Again with the bad news! Hadn’t we had enough?

I pulled to the side of the road and Ryan got out to take a look. We checked all of our lights, but for some reason, the left turn signal on the trailer was not working. 

For those of you who are not familiar with 5th wheels, here is a little background information. On the RV, there is an electrical cord that is supposed to plug into the trailer connection on the back of the towing vehicle. This connects the truck and the camper together so that the lights from the truck work on the camper. That’s how people can see when we break and turn.

For our specific set up, we require an extension cord because of our sliding hitch (the hitch is what holds the camper to the bed of the truck). The sliding hitch allows us to increase the space between the camper and the truck when we make tight turns. When the slide is back it creates a larger distance between the camper and truck, which prevents them from crashing into each other during the tight maneuvers.

Because of the greater distance, the original cord that came with the camper doesn’t reach the truck and gets disconnected while making these tight maneuvers. So we have the extension cord to solve that problem.

Okay, back to the story.

Ryan tried unplugging the extension cord and plugging in the original camper cord directly into the truck to see if the extension cord was the problem. It turns out that it was the problem because once he plugged the camper cord into the truck, all of the lights were functioning as they should be. 

He tested the extension cord again to see if it was actually faulty or if maybe a piece of debris had gotten inside, causing it to have difficulty reading the connection. The second time he tried it, the extension cord worked. YAY! It wasn’t a serious issue. Nothing was wrong. We could be on our way again.

So we continued on our drive. I was starting to get frustrated now because I had set up a phone interview with a new travel recruiter for 3:00pm that day. I assumed we would be at our destination by noon or so. I even gave myself a 3-hour leeway just in case we ran later than planned. Three o’clock was quickly approaching and our destination was still a ways off and the cell service kept cutting in and out every few minutes so I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to take the call.

We planned that once we got service, Ryan would take over driving while I was on the phone so that I could fully pay attention and take notes. As 3:00 approached, we still didn’t have a signal. We kept driving, hoping a little bit of service would pop up. I just needed a little bit and Ryan’s signal booster could help strengthen the signal, but if we couldn’t get any, then his booster wouldn’t work. 

Finally around 3:15, we got enough service so we pulled into a church parking lot and sat there to take the call. We decided to stay in the parking lot rather than try to drive during the call because the service was so spotty, we didn’t want to risk dropping the call.

The interview lasted about 40 minutes so it put us even further behind schedule. Thankfully, the call was a success. The recruiter turned out to be AWESOME and I am so happy to be connected with him.

Once we got back on the road, we continued our drive. We still had another 45 minutes before getting to the campground. Of course, now I have a ton of service and could have taken the call from the car to save on time. Oh well… at least it was worth it. 

We FINALLY arrived at Cove Creek RV Resort. Our 2-hour drive ended up being 6 ½ hours!!! We arrived after the front office closed and they had apparently forgotten to put our paperwork in the late arrival box, telling us which site to park in.

At this point, I didn’t care. I was tired and wanted to be out of the truck so I was going to pick my own spot. Ryan (and the cats) felt the same so we found a site we liked and backed our rig right into it and called it an end to this disastrous day of driving.

Despite all these issues, we kept our spirits up throughout the day. We didn’t get upset with each other or angry over the situation. We were just happy that the issues we faced were minor and we made it safely to our destination. To end this day on a positive note, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset behind the Smoky Mountains.