The Road Goes Ever On

Saturday, September 9, 2023

Dollywood

We had our reasons for going to Dollywood, Vicki, hers, I, mine. It was for us both most certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I didn't even go: just being near it was enough. Penelope, on the other hand, loved it: far from being merely a family theme park, it hosts a remarkable collection of extreme roller-coaster and similar rides, some of which she did a dozen times or more. She is at that age. Grandma did several of the extreme rides but mostly served as chaperone. I kept the batteries charged.

Local sentiment; and not without reason

Delivering prizes for the Midway

Easy to spot Penelope: generally first car, hands-up!

On her favorite, the Mystery Mine, which she did 19 times

It's a Dolly thing

In the historical precincts

Get your Jeezus T-shirts here

Return To Deep Creek

The main point of locating in Cary, NC, was to be near grand-daughter Penelope and her family, and we lost no time in getting together. After a week moving in and getting the apartment functional (not settled nor presentable), we took her back to the Smokies for more of Deep Creek and environs, sites in the great park itself, and then to Dollywood, the heart of the 30-mile strip of tawdriness that runs from Gatlinburg through Pigeon Forge to Sevierville: the Pride of Tennessee. Yours truly, being physically unfit for tubing and rollercoaster riding, was excused from these activities and served largely as chauffeur, gonfleur des tubes, and chargeur des batteries. Dollywood will of course require a post unto itself.

About to embark; the Creek was much higher than last year, though
still not living up to its name

Vicki underway; her cheap, flimsy tube was good for just one voyage;
perhaps as she had planned

Penelope underway, navigating a tricky spot

Action shot

Eddying out

Next morning we did a scenic drive into nearby Nantahala Gorge...
bigger creek, serious white water

But were back on Deep Creek that afternoon

We were traveling by rental car and motels but wanted to do
a camping meal, fire, s'mores, etc...so Vicki reserved a campsite
by the creek and we did it all again, sans camper

Next day we drove around in the Park a bit...Clingman's Dome, Cade's
Cove, etc., Newfound Gap...

Boulder-hopping

Scarlet beebalm...reminded us somewhat of the West and
so-called Indian Paintbrush

On the Appalachian Trail, parts of which both her mom and Auntie
Rachel have done

Contemplating the final push to the summit of Clingman's
Dome

Made it!

Bee in Vicki's bonnet

Thus

Happens all the time near beebalm patches

On the painfully long yet dull drive to Cade's Cove, a red fox/wolf/coyote
eyes us in the gridlock

Among the more interesting features of Cade's Cove, which, in 1969 we thought
was really interesting...

Your have been warned...actually, best not to go to Cade's Cove
at all, unless you have a hankering for 1st gear and 1920s pastoral
squalor; and snakes and gridlock

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Roadtrip 2023!

We did our first US road trip in 1970, between college and first job/graduate school, driving from Miami to Boston, up to Maine, across Canada past the Lakes, then the West, California, down to Arizona, up to Colorado, and then back to Boston. All in the summer and all in a very minimal 1968 un-air-conditioned Dodge van camper. Favorite songs, FWIW, were Ride, Captain, Ride, Midnight at the Oasis, and In the Summertime. Or maybe those were some other road trips. I never listened to the lyrics much. Too much engine noise and the windows down. And it was AM radio. We've lost track of how many more such trips we've made in the past 53 years, but a few are recorded on this blog. Explore the search box.

Anyhow, on July 24th, we departed Missoula and headed east, mostly I-90 and its many Montana memories, before dipping into Wyoming, then South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and finally our new temporary home, North Carolina. En route we spent a couple nights with college friends Tawana and Wes in Fayetteville and then a couple more with Vicki's sister Marie and husband Norm in Knoxville. We got to Cary in the evening of August 1st, spent the night at daughter Rebecca's, and then drove to our new, as yet unseen, apartment, to begin two long days of unloading. The trip was without difficulty--no accidents nor breakdowns nor surprises of any sort--but not one of our more memorable road trips.

Picking up our truck at Clark Fork Storage...nearly new, 63,000 miles,
good tires...the most pressing question was whether we could get all
our stuff in it