On Top of Old Smokey Part 2

Day 2: Saturday (part 1)

Two sleepy campers awoke before the sunrise.
We wanted to get some good pictures of the sun coming up over the mountains, and we wanted to get away from the site that was never meant to be a camping site in the 1st place. The 1st place we wanted to see was the land fill. Yes... the landfill. Phil had heard from a guy at work that this particular landfill was quite a sight to see in terms of landscape. 6:30 am: once again, in the dark, we took the narrow mountain road toward our destination. It was less surprising than it was  disappointing that when we arrived at the land fill entrance, the gate was closed and  would not open again until 8:00 am... long after the sunrise.
Looking to our scribbled and non-descriptive maps, we headed south again toward Table Rock National Park in South Carolina (the state border was only 10 miles or so away.)   It was still dark when we arrived, and as the sky began to lighten we discovered that the only hiking trails around were ones that lead to other peoples campsites, and not beautiful scenery. Discouraged, we decided to try and make the most of the scenery we did have, and took some pictures at the shore of a small lake next to the parking lot.

this one was taken 10 minutes or so before the next, hence the difference in lighting,

After 30 minutes or so out in the cold morning air, we got back into our car and made our next goal to find a camping spot for the coming evening. We were not about to repeat the previous night. 

1) because it was pretty sucky 2) because we were meeting up with my oldest brothers family later that afternoon, to take the kids camping for the night, and it would have been extra sucky to not have a real place to camp.

We called all of the numbers on our Camping in the Mountains information sheet, and they were all busy or disconnected. The gas station lady wouldn't let me look at a map unless i bought it, but i didn't want to buy it unless i knew what it looked like...I didn't buy it. 

From our phone maps we found a few sites, one of which had a website that looked promising. 

Lazy J Campground. Excited and relieved we got there in no time at all. And no time at all is how long it took for us to turn around and pray that something better would be available. ( I have sense read more reviews that support my initial approval of the place from what I read on their site, but from what we saw I find them hard to believe.) The "campground" was accessible down a steep gravel driveway and across a perilous looking one lane bridge.  Close to the scenic river for sure, but the grounds themselves were far from enchanting. Scattered here and there were what looked like abandoned cars; there were a couple trailer homes and a cluster of RV's off in the distance. JUUUUST  a little too sketchy for our comfort.  

7 hours till the kids were to arrive, and we didn't have a clue as to where or how this wild goose chase (as my mom would say) would end.