Not for the faint of stomach

So we awake in the morning in the River Bend (not River's End) campground all snuggled up in the Focus and I head over to the freshly brewed coffee in the gazebo. Justin had not packed coffee for us - it's a good thing we didn't pack out- that would have been a long hike out without my morning coffee, especially with me reminding him that he forgot the coffee every step of the way.
We pack up, say our goodbyes, and on the recommendation of Gary, head to Schoolhouse Falls over in Panthertown Valley. The ride up was windy and misty and when we got to the trailhead, there was a light mist falling. But we threw on our rain gear and headed out. This trail was fun and slimy and straight downhill and by the time we got down to the falls, the water had risen enough to make crossing to the gravel bar tricky. Thankfully we had a tripod and waterproofed boots to make the best of the occasion and we worked our way over to get some good shots. We'll definitely make the hike again to do some more camping and photo-taking. Not sure about swimming however as the tannic acid leeching from the soil makes the water a pretty coppery color....not sure I want to dive into that.
We would have stayed longer and played but the weather wasn't cooperating and I was getting hungry so we hiked out and zig-zagged our way down the mountain (and got some amazing views along the way).
We drove a little aimlessly trying to find food and ended up at Subway where we consulted our waterfall book and decided on Dry Falls located in Highlands, NC, a mountain town that we had read about on CNN.Com travel. And the switchbacks started there....my dad would have had a field day with them...they were making me a little nauseated as we made our way up to Highland. It's a quaint little resort place and the views are spectacular as are the Dry Falls. It's hard to describe how massive something is other than to say that people standing beside them from a distance looked like ants and the roar was so loud that we couldn't hear each other as we got closer. The Falls were incredible and we spent quite a while just taking in the magnitude of them. The pictures will have to tell the story as I'm at a loss for words.
And then we decided it was time to hit the switchbacks and head home to dry out and eat some hot and sour soup to ward off the cold I felt coming on.
As Justin mentioned, we've replaced the tent and are eager to try it out so I imagine they'll be a camping trip very soon.

Hope all is well! Now maybe will put a picture of us in the profile (hint hint)

Stacey (OJ)