Blue Ridge Parkway

When we tire of well-worn ways, we seek for new. This restless craving in the souls of men spurs them to climb, and to seek the mountain view.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

Day #6

424 miles

Tennesee to North Carolina to Virginia  

9 states total

Today was another "short" day, although we were on the road for more than 10 hours!  Most of those hours were spent creeping through the Blue Ridge Parkway - but I digress.

Although we've been careful not to set too many plans on the road (the one day we had reservations in Albuquerque, we got there & decided to drive on 100 more miles!), today was set to be our first camping day.  We bought the box for the top of the car, and have all of our camping gear stored there.  Today we were ready to use it!

We woke up in Sevierville after a night of thunderstorms, and took off into the Smoky Mountains.  First, we had to drive through Pigeon Forge, TN, the home of Dollywood.  We didn't go to Dollywood (although we do love Dolly), but driving through the town was an experience in itself.  I'm not sure there's another tourist town in this country that is anything like it.  Every block is a new experience -- restaurants, arcades, carnivals, shows... I said as we drove through that it was a kid's paradise.  I can't imagine just driving through with kids unless they were blindfolded!  I could hear the plaintive, "Stop here, Mommy."  "PLEEEEASE can we go there."  Here are some of our favorites:

An upside down mansion.  Kinda creeps me out.

Then we set off into the Great Smoky Mountains.  This is God's country -- everywhere you turn is something spectacular.  The mountains are beautiful, with the lush, thick, green and the wisps of "smoke" and mist everywhere.  Beautiful.

Wish this were scratch 'n sniff.  The air was so fresh.

At the end of the Smokies we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Also spectacularly beautiful.  The plan was to drive along some of the six-hundred and some miles, dotted with highly rated campgrounds all along the way, and stop to camp when we got tired.  So much for making plans.  The ranger had told us the cloud cover was coming in, and that the top of the mountain was socked in with a chance of thunderstorms.  Ever optimistic, we drove on, determined to find a campground.  As we went higher, the cloud cover came lower and lower until we were creeping along at 10 mph on a narrow, cliff-edged, mountain road with 15 feet visibility in front of us.  We knew the last "escape route" for 50 miles was 10 miles up the road so we kept driving, looking for a way off that awful road.  At one point, we were going 10 mph, I had violent, noisy hiccups, and Mimi was white-knuckling it, saying "I want my mommy"!!  Finally, we got to the last road out and drove for another hour through a very steep, winding, twisting, road until we got to the bottom and pulled over so Mimi could barf!

Camping was a dream deferred, but we were SO grateful to be out of that mess!

We were finally heading north, and took a scenic byway into and through North Carolina.  We came upon Mt. Airy, Andy Griffith's home town and the model for Mayberry!  The town was great -- authentic, not touristy -- with a great historical downtown area with a 2 chair barbershop, a diner, etc.   I'd like to tell you this side trip was intentional, but in reality, my navigator was napping and I missed the turn-off I was supposed to watch for.  Serendipity.

Floyd Lawson: You know, everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Calvin Coolidge said that.
Andy Taylor: No, Floyd, that wasn't Calvin Coolidge that said that, it was Mark Twain.
Floyd Lawson: Then what did Calvin Coolidge say?