Day 3: Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains
Rather than me adjusting to American time, our internal clocks decided to play a number on us, and Kelly ended up adjusting to my time instead. Despite having intended to wake up at 6:30, we both woke up at around four (as I believe, to the sound of Kelly gnashing her teeth). With neither of us able to fall back asleep, we decided to get breakfast at six o’clock and start the day early. The experience turned into an adventure when I discovered a pancake machine with buttons and a conveyor belt, at the end of which the finished pancakes flopped out onto a prepared plate. We learned then and there that the future is now.
As Kelly
felt tired and coffee did not seem to help, I drove for most of the morning and
early afternoon. From Asheville, we headed down Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic
road that snakes its way all the way from Afton, Virginia to Cherokee, North
Carolina. We, however, only went as far as Cheyenne. The weather was cloudy and
misty, and with scraps of clouds floating above the trees like smoke, we could
see why part of this region is known as the Great Smoky Mountains. Towards the
beginning, it looked like we would hardly be able to see anything, but then a
tunnel spat us out into the sun. With every minute on the road, the weather
kept changing. We also noticed that many of the treetops were covered in
cobwebs, resembling sticks of cotton candy.
Our strategy for exploring both Blue Ridge Parkway and the 441 through the Great Smoky Mountains was simple. I explored which overlooks were the most popular on Google Maps and decided we would stop there. The only exception was our very first stop, which we made because I felt Kelly was being too distracted by the scenery and needed to get the awe out of her system (I also took over as driver then).
After breaking in Cheyenne to get Kelly coffee and me a hot cherry turnover, we continued to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Usually, people visit the Smokies to hike, but there are also several overlooks and a few sites of historical interest; of the latter, we visited Mingus Mill, a wooden structure dating back to 1886 and notable for its water-powered turbine, which it uses instead of a wheel. Besides Mingus Mill, we made a few stops along the overlooks before powering on.
Although we originally planned to get food as soon as we left the national park, the town of Gatlinburg (which is immediately to the north of the park) was brimming with cars and tourists. We decided, therefore, to eat lunch at a Greek place in Knoxville rather than battling the crowds and their wheeled machines.
With Kelly finally revived for the last leg of the day’s journey, we were able to alternate nicely on the way to our accommodation in Cave City, Kentucky. This drive was maybe the most interesting stretch we have covered so far. For one, we crossed time-zones, clawing back time from the ugly maw of oblivion. Also, rural Tennessee is very beautiful, with massive, jagged rocks cut in half by freeways, lines of trees standing above placid lakes, green fields of peacefully grazing cattle, and quaint farmhouses. We noticed some corn fields, which we figured would foreshadow the landscape of ensuing days.
Dinner was served to us by the glorious all-American establishment of Cracker Barrell, where I did my best to pick out what I thought would be the vegetarian options. What I did not expect, however, was that the beans would come with ham and the kale would be cooked in pulled pork. Kelly, however, quite enjoyed her fish (and hopefully the meat I so very generously donated to her plate).
We drove 354 miles, with the total now standing at 972.
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