From Archived Journals of my trip across the country in 2014.
Sunday March 30 2014:
Exhaustion,
complete exhaustion. It took every ounce
of my energy to get out of the bed this morning (that and a large Caramel Latte
with a shot of espresso from Starbucks) to leave the comfort of the bed. Driving twenty-five hours straight was accomplished
on a surge of energy and a fixed mission.
Now I am in need of serious relaxation from the intense drama of the
past week. The solution? A getaway in the beauty and wonder of the
Great Smoky National Park. The mountains
lift my soul out of desperation into life.
It is the peace and serenity we both longed for after a helter-skelter
pace from Arizona to Tennessee. With a
week until we can move into our apartment we lucked out to discover a Motel 6
in Gatlinburg with a weekly rate of only $317.00 including a mini fridge and
microwave. I will admit I have had a Gatlinburg prejudice in the past. When I go to the mountains it is a spiritual
experience, a quiet time of sanctuary to pray and reflect. I love to delve into the wilderness of the woods,
lost in the silent whisper of wind in the forest and roar of a stream.
Exiting off
I-40 near Sevierville, just east of Knoxville, I felt as if I entered a nuclear
explosion of ‘slock,’ tacky roadside gimmicks and tourist trap amusements more
akin to a bad county fair than peace in the wilderness of the mountains. This traffic artery is clogged with tourists
coming to visit everything from Haunted Fun Houses, Pirate Ships that flop
upside down, zoos and arcades, water parks to Dollywood (for the record I have
heard Dollywood is well done for an amusement park and I am a big Dolly Parton
fan).
It takes forty minutes in back to
back inch like a slug traffic and fake glitz and glamor of Sevierville and
Pigeon Forge before reaching the edge of Gatlinburg – ‘The Gateway to the
Smokies.’ I had a headache from the
bumper car style drive and endless strip malls and attractions obscuring the
mountains.
I understand
that this sort of vacation appeals too many and I am probably one of the few
who cringe at the neon lights and hundreds of amusement park rides that charge
an arm and a leg. In the muck of the 441 corridor – there are a few gems for
families – Pigeon Forge does have good dinner theaters – staffed with top notch
vocalists and performers. Dollywood only
recruits the best vocalists, dancers and actors – I know because when attending
Belmont University in Nashville, auditioning for Dollywood only took place at
Belmont and other selection prestigious classically trained schools. Many dinner theaters like Dixie Stampede
offer fun entertainment accompanied by southern fun cuisine. So I do see some positives in the traffic
clogged artery. Still my focus in this
trip is to retreat to nature and to the God made wonder of a place as old as
time.
Cradled by the
mists and magic of the mountains, Gatlinburg lies at the west entrance to the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the town is a mecca for tourism. On any given night the city’s compact
downtown is bustling with upwards of 30,000 tourists. It is jam-packed as the
Texas State Fair on a Friday night, families and newly married couples
meandering through the maze of kitschy tourist shops, art galleries, a plethora
of national and local restaurants, fun and mysterious attractions like Ripley’s
Believe it or Not, Aquarium of the Smokies and Hollywood Cars Museum. Gatlinburg has dozens of hotels along the
main Parkway. The best way to see
Gatlinburg is on foot or by Trolley.
Traffic is slow and headache inducing.
So get park the car in one of the public parking lots, and take in the
glitz, fun, tacky, weird and Tennessee hospitality. I will admit at first Gatlinburg struck me as
a tourist trap nightmare dropped from a tornado…it has grown on me, it has
mountain sensibilities, is walkable and has a great public transit system. It has a variety of restaurants and
activities ideal of families.
Gatlinburg’s direct access to the blue mists of the Smokies and
Appalachian lore hidden in these hills – makes it an ideal spot for a vacation
base in the Smokies – if you tire of the tourist kitsch, you are mere moments
away from the solitude of forests, isolated coves, mountains, rivers and the
wild unknown.
My mom and I
checked into our room at Motel 6 just after four o’clock. The Motel 6 is located in a perfect location
for outdoor goers, focused on recreation. Backing up to the National Park
boundary it is on a quiet side street located away from the hubbub of downtown,
yet still within two blocks of restaurants and shops. You can walk from the hotel into the park on
the Gatlinburg Trail, sit by the Little Pigeon River and smell the forests.
After unloading
our car, an arduous and daunting process, we drove through the traffic jams
again to reach the Kroger (later found out a Food City is slightly closer). We have a refrigerator and microwave in the
room, so we plan to eat in the room all week.
Eating out is not always easy with my allergies, not to mention with the
car problems we are on a razor sharp budget given the vagabond blues breakdowns (in previous episodes of my journal chronicles you learned about our car fender falling off in Arizona and breakdown in Gallop NM before driving straight from Gallop NM to Cookeville TN in a 26 hour breakneck journey.)
I finished the
evening by relaxing in the room, watching the elite eight March Madness game (Connecticut and Michigan State U)
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