Then suddenly there are two lanes on my side and one lane on the opposite side. Starts out pretty good winding uphill a bit through a mountainous deserted nobody lives there area. Then we get to where 74 combines with route 23, a very wide two lane well maintained road that is the only way into Franklin NC. Now listen old Hully is handling these mountains just fine, the uphill parts are 3 lane and we are taking them at 45mph and holding our own in the trucker lane. So all of a sudden I start up a fairly steep grade that climbs above the river and above the river and above!!!! Finally every once in a while you can look down on one of the kiss your butt curves and see that tiny thread of water way down there. Very scenic and I am thinking this will be easy, hey rivers dont go up and down steep scary grades right? Wrong that is very wrong rivers do go straight up and down, its called a fall as in waterfall…. Then we switch over to interstate 74, a little steeper with a river beside it. Hey my truck is a 1991 and the speedometer only registers 80 mph. All is well up to this point, nice gradual long hills but we were sailing right along at 55-60 mph. I went south on interstate 81 into Tennessee and switched to interstate 40 south into the begginings of the North Carolina mountains. I also studied the maps to find a nice friendly route through the mountains that would be easy on Hully and my nerves. After climbing Fancy Gap and discovering Old Hully just wasnt the super bad dually that she looked liked you remember I dropped the mobile fuel cell, aka horse trailer and left it at my parents. It was truly a inspirational journey my friends. Lets discuss how yours truly and his trusty Old Hully, GMC pickup, got to Franklin NC. It is also the home of a two and a quarter pound Ruby found in good old Franklin. One of the other museums is the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum, its in the old jail.
#RUBY MINE FRANKLIN NC FREE#
Thats the museum folks with the big sapphire, and its FREE admission!!!! Its not the only museum in town, Franklin has a lot of museums for a little old mountain town. Sorry… Hmm theres over 2000 carats in a pound so thats roughly 800,000 carats.
#RUBY MINE FRANKLIN NC FULL#
Its a big un folks and no I dont have a pic, I tried but it was in a glass display case full of lights and glare. Its a fact folks it weighs 385#s and is on display at the Ruby City Gem Museum in Franklin NC.