Early this morning in our quaint $52 hotel in Maggie Valley I discover a critter trying to attach itself to my leg. I gently crushed it and spent the rest of the night wondering how many more there were. Once my resident zoologist awoke this morning, he identified it as a tick and not a bedbug so all the lost sleep was for naught. It must have hitched a ride yesterday on one of our nature stops.

It was an overcast but pleasant morning so we packed the bikes and as soon as we hit the starters, it started to pour. So we again rode with the zoot suits in the rain until we found a gas station with protective overhang and changed into the Frogg Toggs. It never rained the rest of the day and we shed the Toggs a couple hours later when the clouds cleared away. We rode the last bit of the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway and it dumped us in the Cherokee reservation which also is the beginning of the mountain pass over the Smoky Mountains into Tennessee. We had breakfast at the reservation which was pretty standard fare included gravy and biscuits pictured above(we would never order it of course, yogurt and fresh fruit being our preference). The breakfast special was pinto beans and eggs, which we passed on. Cherokee is set up for tourists and once again, there were lots of American Steel (Harleys) in town.

We headed over the hill through the Great Smoky Mountains which unlike the Parkway, was swarming with bikes and cars. Very scenic but very busy. Once over you are dumped into Gatlinburg TN which is home to DollywOOd. We skipped Gatlinburg and detoured to the strip mining operation going on in Pigeon Forge. That is, a huge commercial strip specializing in mining the pockets of tourists. This place must hold the record for GFDSM. (Giant Fiberglass Dinosaurs per Square Mile). After getting over being snooty about it I realized that to an 8 year old, this would be heaven. Pirates, go-carts, castles, fast food, aforementioned dinosaurs, minigolf, etc, etc, etc. We had coffee, bought a map, and got out of there.

We fell back into the usual routine of getting lost, thinking we knew where we were, realizing we were wrong and getting lost again. We went over the top of the Douglas reservoir, accidentally drove through the home town of Chet Atkins (you young ones should hang your head if you do not know who this legend is) and Kenny Chesney (I have no idea who he is but Dave says he is famous), and ended up at the tunnel that goes under the Cumberland Gap and dumps you into Kentucky. We stopped at a motorcycle shop and asked about water-proof gloves but they assured me it didn't rain around here. We had intended to head east from there but the shop guy said the chances of finding a hotel the way we were going were next to nil. So we headed north toward Pineville which was pretty desolate and on the way to Corbin which we were assured had hotels, we stopped in Barbourville. There is exactly one hotel in town and it is actually pretty nice. The woman behind the desk was fun and told us that the local high school was having it's Prom tonight so we may hear a lot of noise (remember only hotel in town). She said we could park the bikes in front of the lobby and the desk person would keep an eye on them. She told us "y'all got some real accents" which after listening to people talk for a few days, we are now realizing that we do. She wanted to know if us northerners thought Kentucky was full of rednecks or hillbillies (she assured us she would not be offended by our answer). I think we said basically that Kentucky if it had a stereotype was hillbillies, but in a respectful Daniel Boone sorta way. She told of her father (a policeman years ago) kicking out the KKK because they don't tolerate racism in Kentucky. I think Kentucky prides it self on being fair and independent which sounds more like us Vermonters.

So we are really enjoying the freedom of not having a schedule or plan. I think we have found some "slice of life" towns and communities by travelling this way. People are very nice everywhere and are curious about Vermont.

We went down the street for a quick supper, back to the hotel and off to bed. Tomorrow we go somewhere ??