The Great Smoky Mountains Are.
Posted 05-24-2013 at 08:00 PM by BillB44
Ok, so not a real early start but on the highway by 9:45. We covered about 130 miles before making one of our favorite stops: Wal-Mart!
I know, my urbane blogee, Wal-Mart is so, uhm, well, Wal-Mart-ish.
But try lugging a big trailer around behind you, severely limiting where an when you can comfortably park, and needing an assortment of supplies from groceries to toiletries to camping goodies to cheap clothes to RV supplies to an iPhone charging doohickey, and I’ll bet your heart would start beating a little faster at the sight of that wonderful blue & white sign too.
So, after a 45-minute stock-up spree we were back on the road, eastward bound for The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Here’s a surprising (and to us, discouraging) factoid: what US Natl. Park do you suppose is the busiest of them all? OK, with that intro you probably guessed The Great Smoky Mountain N.P. Brilliant. And, in fact, the #2 Park (Grand Canyon) is a distant second! So we timed our arrival for today, Monday, the easiest day to get a campsite.
But first we had to drive through a town called Pigeon Forge. I’d read something about it being kind of touristy and commercialized but we could barely believe what we saw. A divided, six-lane road crammed with non-stop stores, hotels, restaurants, mini-golf courses, go-kart raceways, amusement rides, blah, blah, blah. One huge building was turned literally upside down; another was a massive replica of the Titanic, complete with ice berg. All this glitz plus throngs of cars and people moving two miles an hour. It reminded us both of Las Vegas. In a bad way.
After 15 agonizing miles of this the road suddenly lifts upward, the cars thin out and you find yourself in a deep green forest. Five more miles and we’re in the GSMNP. It’s gorgeous! Of course, after Pigeon Forge, so would be the Mojave Desert.
We settled on a nice camp site (many are full or reserved) only after our usual driving thru the campground a few times and scrutinizing all available spaces as if we were going to buy one and live out our remaining days here.
After an especially tortuous leveling job in the warm (78) humid (85%) woods, we set up camp (rug, chairs, picnic table cloth, lanterns, etc.,) then kicked back, had a brewski and snacks.. A great spot, amid tall trees without neighbors on one side and a rushing stream close enough to hear all night long. Even a perfect spot to store my whish broom in the, uh, crotch of a tree. Only drawback, no hook-ups at all, so need to haul water and use it & electricity frugally.
Had dinner of leftover BBQ pulled pork and potato salad from Puckett’s, plus some KB coleslaw and went to bed early for a big hike day tomorrow.
I know, my urbane blogee, Wal-Mart is so, uhm, well, Wal-Mart-ish.
But try lugging a big trailer around behind you, severely limiting where an when you can comfortably park, and needing an assortment of supplies from groceries to toiletries to camping goodies to cheap clothes to RV supplies to an iPhone charging doohickey, and I’ll bet your heart would start beating a little faster at the sight of that wonderful blue & white sign too.
So, after a 45-minute stock-up spree we were back on the road, eastward bound for The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Here’s a surprising (and to us, discouraging) factoid: what US Natl. Park do you suppose is the busiest of them all? OK, with that intro you probably guessed The Great Smoky Mountain N.P. Brilliant. And, in fact, the #2 Park (Grand Canyon) is a distant second! So we timed our arrival for today, Monday, the easiest day to get a campsite.
But first we had to drive through a town called Pigeon Forge. I’d read something about it being kind of touristy and commercialized but we could barely believe what we saw. A divided, six-lane road crammed with non-stop stores, hotels, restaurants, mini-golf courses, go-kart raceways, amusement rides, blah, blah, blah. One huge building was turned literally upside down; another was a massive replica of the Titanic, complete with ice berg. All this glitz plus throngs of cars and people moving two miles an hour. It reminded us both of Las Vegas. In a bad way.
After 15 agonizing miles of this the road suddenly lifts upward, the cars thin out and you find yourself in a deep green forest. Five more miles and we’re in the GSMNP. It’s gorgeous! Of course, after Pigeon Forge, so would be the Mojave Desert.
We settled on a nice camp site (many are full or reserved) only after our usual driving thru the campground a few times and scrutinizing all available spaces as if we were going to buy one and live out our remaining days here.
After an especially tortuous leveling job in the warm (78) humid (85%) woods, we set up camp (rug, chairs, picnic table cloth, lanterns, etc.,) then kicked back, had a brewski and snacks.. A great spot, amid tall trees without neighbors on one side and a rushing stream close enough to hear all night long. Even a perfect spot to store my whish broom in the, uh, crotch of a tree. Only drawback, no hook-ups at all, so need to haul water and use it & electricity frugally.
Had dinner of leftover BBQ pulled pork and potato salad from Puckett’s, plus some KB coleslaw and went to bed early for a big hike day tomorrow.
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