1996

Fort Tatham

Me, Anne and Julie

Mom and Dad

At the end of August Julie, Anne and I drove down to Fort Tatham in Sylva North Carolina to visit Mom and Dad in their new cabin in the mountains.
 
Mom and Dad first started going to Fort Tatham in October of 1991 when they went to North Carolina to see the fall leaves in their motor home. They returned to Fort Tatham in their motor home once or twice a year in the following years until they decided to buy a cabin at the end of the season in October of 1995. Fort Tatham closes at the end of October for the winter so Mom and Dad would not get to use their new cabin until the spring of 1996.
 
The cabin was cute but very small. Like many of the “cabins” at Fort Tatham it started out as a small 25 foot travel trailer which some owner in the past parked at Fort Tatham but it never left. Officially they did not buy a “cabin” but a travel trailer that still was registered as a trailer and had a state tag. They did not actually own the lot the trailer was on but paid a monthly rental fee to Fort Tatham.
 
Over time the travel trailer morphed into a “cabin”, a front deck was added, then a roof put over the trailer and deck to shelter it from the weather. Later the front deck was enclosed making it a living room attached to the original trailer with its dining area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Dad continued with modifications, putting in a back door from the original bedroom to a small deck on the which overlooked Tatham Creek that ran through the campground.  You can’t tell it from the outside of the “cabin” but the original travel trailer is on the right behind Mom and Dad in the picture above.
 
I was quite surprised with they told me they bought the cabin. I asked them about their motorhome, and they said they put it up for sale. Their days of motorhome adventures traveling around the U.S. had come to an end.
 
Julie, Anne and I spent the night & the next day with Mom and Dad. Julie and I slept on the sofa in the living room which pulled out into a bed. Anne slept in the original trailer part of the cabin on what was the original couch in the trailer which made into a bed. The following day Julie and Anne drove to Knoxville to visit Julie’s sister.  They returned to Fort Tatham Sunday afternoon and Mom and Dad took us out to eat at “Fisherman’s Catch” in Franklin and then we left to go home on Monday. 

Boy Scouts