Reasonably early start today to catch up a couple of miles as we stayed an extra night at Pigeon Forge. It was well worth it and once you get past the tourist crap there is a lot to see and do in the area. Petal and I both feel you could easily spend a month here to look around.
The plan is that we go to Cherokee and have some breakfast before looking around there.
After carefully negotiating out of Pigeon Forge with me sitting low in the drivers seat so as to not attract attention to my new found celebrity status and have petal have a jealous hissy fit we enter the Smoky Mountains and words cannot describe what greats us.
The views and surrounding forest are absolutely magnificent. The road rises out of Cherokee to 5000 feet before descending quite rapidly, some 3000 feet in about 10 miles. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina is on the ridge where there is a lookout with numerous coached parked there, Unfortunately for the milling tourists, nothing could be seen due to the enveloping cloud. For those familiar with the circular tunnel on the Cahill Expressway there is a massive curve tunnel on the Tennessee side, the only other I have experience which takes you 270 degrees and drives back over itself.
Arriving at Cherokee we select the "Famous" diner and were not disappointed by the breakfast served by Cherokee Indians.
Everything going good until our entrance to the first souvenir shop and find all the Made in China Souvenirs. Ok we will go to the Cherokee Indian Village.
Might I say this is completely different. Different in the fact that there are woven ree and jute type bags and different in that the prices range from $200 to $2000 and the walk through of the village is $29 a pop.
So by now we are over the Indian reservation and decide to head north.
I am a bit tired from the world stage debut last night so we pulled over for petrol and a little rest until heading forth to the next town and do some shopping for replacements in the pantry. Its then onward until we arrive at Mt Airy, also known as Mayberry in the Andy Griffiths show were we booked into a campground to spend the night and further explore in the morning.
Mt Airy is the hometown of the lady from a couple of blogs ago that surprised us with the Krispy Creams at Atlanta. She advised us to call here as it is not on the beaten track and was worth the visit,
It is also home of Eng and Chang Bunker who gave the name to siamese twins as they were born in Siam. In fact the camp ground is on the land they once owned. Tomorrow we enter the Blue Ridge Parkway which will take nearly to Washington in the next few days and I am informed is the attraction visited most by Americans. I am also told that it is equally as impressive as the Smokies. I hope so.
PS I have included a couple of photos of the park. Apparently there is a club of campers here. Its now 7.30am and it may very well rain very heavily today and no one has told us because they are coming out of there portable caves and walking two by rwo to the recreational hut with clipboards and coffee in hand. THey all have the blue shorts and club t shirt on with the white bobbie socks and joggers. OMG Hells Angel Chapter. Petal said if she and Kaz were on holidays and told them to be at the rec hall with their clipboards and dressed like that at 7.30am there could be hell to pay. Think its time for a happy pill,
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