Wednesday morning the plan was made: we would head to the 1:00 game, leave from there to Gatlinburg and that would be it for the day.
Uh....right
We left Gary's house ok and had breakfast at IHOP. Good stuff there - even the coffee. Gary couldn't make it because of his work. I tell you what, things just are just different here. Restaurants open and close at a whim. Maybe they have breakfast, maybe they won't. We were looking for a local home cookin' place but there was no luck. That is the country for you!
How about that game! A 10-2 killing of the Braves! For the 1pm game I don't think I was far off in thinking that there might have been more Cubs fans there than Braves fans. We totally didn't feel out of place in a stadium that was not that full (it makes me wonder how full it would have been had it not been a Cubs team they were playing!). Alec and I had a good time there.
After leaving the stadium I was shocked and surprised at how easy it was to leave Atlanta! Getting out of the stadium area was a breeze (we parked at the Holiday Inn across the street for only $10 - compare that to our Chicago stadiums!): we left during their rush hour at around 4:45pm (remember this time). I got out of town with very little traffic. To this point things were going really good! Gary had told us of a couple ways to get to Gatlinburg that had some scenic routes. He also thought it would be about 3 hours to get there. He was a bit off. Of course some of it was my fault as I will explain. Heading towards our destination (and after looking at the map), I thought that it would be neat to take a scenic route that would take us up through eastern Tennessee; we would then cross into North Carolina via this scenic skyway that would connect us back to the expressway to Cherokee, NC (which was just across the park from Gatlinburg). On the map it looked simple enough. In reality it was BRUTAL! If I wanted to take my time through this route it might have been enjoyable. The route was very scenic in some beautiful country. However, we were heading for Gatlinburg and just needed to get there. The Tennessee route, Rt. 68, ended up being nothing but a nonstop, up/down winding road through the mountains - for about 30-40 miles. Wow, a tough drive if you weren't expecting it! And of course it would take twice as long as I thought it would. But, the fun part is we when through two consecutive towns: Ducktown and Turtletown. I kid you not! Look it up!
But wait, there's more!
We then had to go on the scenic skyway. That one was even worse than the one before! By this time it was starting to get dark. In fact, about halfway through the 40 mile drive, it did get dark. It was funny that once I thought we were through, we ended up going through about 5-10 miles of extreme, 45 deg. turns up and down the mountains. Alec was getting a bit woozy - so was I! And of course, this route took twice as long as we thought it would! One cool note: would you believe that in the middle of that nowhere I was able to listen to game 2 of the Cubs/Braves game - it was Pat and Dave on WGN! I actually got a good signal out there!
But wait, there's more!
I still had to get to Cherokee and then still through the Smokies in the dark! We eventually ended up on a major highway to Cherokee. We were tired and hungry. I figured that since Cherokee was a gambling town, there would be places to eat open. Wrong! Almost everything (except the casinos) was closed! Except the drive-thru Wendy's. Ok ladies and gentlemen of the internet, sometimes when things get desperate a man will do desperate things. I actually ordered something at Wendy's! Yes, and I ate it (Chicken sandwich w/fries - I did get the bottled water though).
But wait, there's more!
Now we had to drive through the Smokies at night. Know what? This part of the trip was actually pretty cool! After dealing with all that winding road crap, this one was a breeze. Not to mention, it did look cool: a partly cloudy night with a little fog and a bright moon. When we got to the top at Newfound Gap, we got out at the parking area to look over the country with that type of setting. It was amazing. If we weren't so tired I wouldn't have minded hanging out there longer than we did. The view at night was awesome (thanks to the bright moon)! I did see a fox scurry past us on the road. In the end, we made it to the Econo Lodge in Gatlinburg at 11:15 pm and turned in. The room was a pretty nice room. Tomorrow we hike. All in all, despite the challenges, it was a good day. More importantly, Alec and I shared it together. We have another thing to talk about!
My answers from the post above:
Kentucky: horses (sorry, Colonel Sanders)
Tennessee: Mountain Dew (their ad when I was a kid had this hillbilly yell "yahoo! it's Mountain Dew!" it just stuck)
Alabama: Sweet Home Alabama (duh!)
Georgia: peaches
North Carolina: Andy Griffith
Ohio: Cleveland
Indiana: nothing. absolutely nothing.
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