Day 6 - A Study in Contrasts

Today the rain gods could not decide what to do with us but mostly treated us well because we are growing wise to there tricks.  We have learned that dark clouds rolling in towards us means not to venture out for long hikes.  We stayed with shorter, more frequent hikes every time the rain left and never got very wet but were limited in dinner choices to the 2 places closest to the charger as it was clear we could not go far and remain dry.  With a quick sprint at the end we did get into Blaze Pizza where we got a good pizza.

Only a few days into the trip and we already want to be in different states

 We also had a great lunch at the Service Station in Bryson City which is a funky little town that comes highly recommended by us. We improved two trip metrics today having a much better meals and getting to our night stop before dark. We are learning!

Bridge in Bryson City

Michelle liked the area so much she looked at real estate in the park.

Today's activities centered on Smoky Mountain National Park which continued our exploration of the Appalachians.  Our hikes went primarily to waterfalls today and they were all very different ranging from high volume over a wide area to a low volume thin one that cascaded for some distance down a tree covered slice in the rocks. It was incredibly beautiful again up in the mountains especially on the eastern end.  As soon as Larry commented on how few people there were in these Eastern parks suddenly there were full parking areas.  However a good friend of mine has told me on more than one occasion that the vast majority of people in the national parks never venture more than 500 feet from the road and that was true today as we saw people only on the shortest, widest trails.  Most of the time we were completely alone.


Now about the title.. There is only one road that traverses the park.  The eastern end starts in a Cherokee reservation which means there is a very large Harrah’s casino you get to drive past before going into the protected, serene park.  This makes you thankful for the national park system but nowhere near as thankful as you are when you see the other side.  I have been to Vegas and Myrtle Beach both of which in my mind lack for class but neither of those prepared me for Pigeon Forge, TN.  I counted seven go-cart tracks alone along with countless dinner theaters, amusement parks and souvenir shops.  There was one crazy thing after another but nothing could compare to this crazy ride where 6 people are lifted up in a sling.  While I was wondering just what they planned to do with them they just dropped them and they dropped straight down until the line holding them caught them and left them swinging and screaming.  I could hardly drive I was laughing so hard.

Views from Pigeon Forge

Regular Features

Statistics Corner

States involved: We added Tennessee to the list of states

Final mileage for the day TBA 

Charging 

Wytheville  VA  60 minutes   

Asheville NC 1 hour

Song of the Day: Shucking the Corn – Flatt and Scrugs.  In the visitor centers there was plenty of discussion of the Indians and the white settlers finding that corn was the best crop to grow in the hills.  The white folks used to make it into moonshine besides.

Coolest Car of the day: Not a good day for cars.  The best we could do was a red, yes red again, '71 Olds 442.  No picture again either.

Coolest Thing of the Day - Larry

The best part was Indian Falls

Indian Falls - the largest one

Coolest Thing of the Day - Michelle
The snake she found.  As evidenced by the picture it was not easy to spot.

The snake is in there