Seeing Old Friends for the Very First Time Submitted by Devon Higginbotham, Indigo Travel Company Purple Wakerobin, Trillium erectum, Blue Ridge Mountains I remember visiting the Appalachians for the first time. It was 1971 and with my new driver’s license firmly in hand, I accepted an invite from my older sister and her girlfriend, Francie, to go camping in Vogel State Park in north Georgia.