Cruising north.........

“Born on a mountain top in Tennessee,
Greenest state in the land of the free.
Raised in the woods so's he knew every tree,
Killed him a bear when he was only three.
Davy, Davy Crockett - King of the Wild Frontier. “
Introduced on the Disney TV miniseries Davy Crockett, December 15, 1954


Sevierville, Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg form the glitzy commercial corridor leading to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It reminded me of Branson, the theaters with county western music, religious musicals and hillbilly comedy. No boondocking to be had; the Walmart had dominant signs “No overnight parking”, which was to be expected in such a tourist destination. We settled on a Passport America compground which offers half price to members. Membership is cheap – about $30 a year, so we cheapskate campers belong to it. The timing was good as we needed to do laundry, to dump the sewage and Fernie looked forward to standing under a shower for ten or even twenty minutes instead of the 'navy showers' we do while boondocking. We stayed for three days and sort of learned how the other half lives – those that turn their noses up at us boondockers. It was horrific, as expected. We were eight feet from neighbours each side and behind us. We had to whisper in our own motorhome if we didn't want anyone to hear us. There were lots of people hanging around the social area overlooking the creek; we were our usual antisocial selves avoiding contact at all cost. But we were out most of the time so it was easy to keep to ourselves.

“Rocky Top, you'll always be
Home sweet home to me.
Good ole Rocky Top,
Rocky Top Tennessee, Rocky Top Tennessee.”
The song describes a place called Rocky Top, Tennessee, which is one of the peaks of Thunderhead Mountain located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.


To beat the heat, we headed up to the Great Smoky Mountains where the leafy canopy and elevation dropped the temperature by ten degrees. A series of virtual geocaches ringed the park and we made them our guide.

I was sure that this tree was going to stand up and walk away.....

The Smoky Mountains are named for the wispy, smoke-like fog that hangs over them. It is caused by rain which falls on average 85 inches per year on the high peaks and the resulting evaporation from the trees. Today, a forest fire on the north side of the park, made the Smokies truly smoky.


Way up in the mountains on a side road is Elkmont an abandoned village of rustic summer cottages which were owned by the elite Appalachian Club, a group of affluent Knoxvillians and built in the early 1900's. The land which was leased from the National Park Service reverted in the 1990's and this lovely resort is now a ghost town.


Hillbilly cabins, deserted farms, ancient churches and tiny cemeteries are remnants of a remote Appalachian mountain society that once inhabited the area. The NPS does a wonderful job of preserving the cultural remains.



“My coat of many colors
That my momma made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me”
Written & recorded by Dolly Parton, 1971


So, what's in Dollywood? We couldn't imagine that it would be anything that we could enjoy but we had to check it out. $50+ admission made the decision easy. Rides, country music shows, shopping, food and more food....uh, uh, no thank you. They're not getting the usual numbers at the theme park, so they're closing a couple of days a week. The acres and acres of parking was almost empty today – a sign of the times. The swine flu is also keeping people away from events where crowds congregate.

As the day wore on, we struggled to keep going with the increasing humidity. Geocaching was becoming onerous and all we wanted to do was lay around with a cold drink. Can't wait for this heat wave to be over.


We were so happy to move on from Pigeon Forge, to leave that horrid RV Park behind and go back to a lovely Walmart just outside Nashville. Fernie was not at all hyped about Nashville and neither was I, but it seemed we should see what it had to offer as we were passing. The weather cooled and the skies clouded over and we enjoyed it tremendously. But overnight the rains started and they continued all the next day torrentially, complete with the usual-for-the-south, thunder and lightning. Hiking and geocaching were out of the picture; it was even too wet to enjoy a stroll around the old town. As the cars drove by hydroplaning, pedestrians got soaked. So we just did a driving tour around stopping every so often when the rains got so hard we couldn't see to drive.


I was surprised that the Grand ol' Opry wasn't in the downtown core but about six miles away on the perimeter of the city. It's surrounded by hotels, shops and museums...just a great big amusement park. Because we're not country music fans, the mystere was lost on us and we found it all extremely hokey.


Before we left Pigeon Forge I told Fernie “That's it, no more restaurants....I can't get my jeans zipped up”.
“Yes, dear” he agreed amically and we stocked up on salad fixins for healthy dinners.
But Fernie was reading the pile of Nashville travel brochures that we'd picked up at the tourist bureau and he found the one for 'The Loveless Cafe'.
“It's the 'Top Down-Home Dining Spot' in the country according to the USA Today” he wheedled “and........Martha Stewart says 'It was the best breakfast I've ever had'. They make biscuits good enough to sing about”.
So, how could I say 'no'. I'm so weak. On a dreary rainy day it would be so comforting to have hot biscuits and homemade blackberry preserves with a steaming hot cup of tea.


The Loveless was a country cafe from the early 50's famous for its smoked hams, homemade preserves and flaky biscuits. It was situated on one of the major highways entering Nashville and the cafe and its adjoining motel became a favourite stop. Nashville has now grown outwards to almost encompass it. It lived up to its reputation today; according to Fernie “The best waffles I've ever had in a restaurant, coffee to die for and the biscuits and jam are phenomenal”. I had to agree.


We ran into a grocery store to escape a sudden downpour and picked up a few things waiting for it to abate. The cashier was one of the handsomest young men I'd ever seen....along the lines of Denzel Washington. He was Hollywood good looking. I've been called a 'cougar' because of my appreciation of such young men, but I answer 'more like a dinosaur; it's purely nostalgia talking'. He told me he'd travelled the world so he and I started challenging each other about where we'd each been.
“Have you been to New Zealand?” he asked.
“Yup”
“Have you been to Thailand?”
“Yup”
This went on for a while and then he asked “Have you been to Antarctica?” and I finally answered no and reversed the little game and asked him if he'd been to India, to Kenya or to South Africa.
“I was in the navy for nine years – it's not the best way to see the world but you sure do cover a lot of territory” he said.
Fernie just stands back when I get into these long conversations with strangers with a patient but amused look on his face. There was no hurry anyway because the parking lot was flooding.

It makes one think that crime is high here.

“Well, it was on one moonlight night,
Stars shining bright,
Wish blown high
Love said good-bye.
Blue moon of Kentucky
Keep on shining.
Shine on the one thats gone and left me blue.”
Bill Monroe, 1946; recorded by Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley & others

We left the rain behind in Tennessee – thank goodness. Even though overcast, the temperature was perfect and the clouds started to break up in the afternoon so the sun peaked through eventually.

Churchill Downs is in Louisville, Kentucky and coincidentally, today was the running of the Kentucky Derby – the first Saturday in May. Excitement ran high and the roads were congested. Every bar and restaurant advertised 'watch the derby'; women in flowery dresses and big hats adorned with flowers and even fruit flounced about, even in Walmart. One of the women's dress rules for the Derby is: “Choose your hat. Hats go with the Derby like the frosting on a birthday cake. It should be large-brimmed, feminine and frilly - think 18th-century France, and worn low on the brow tilted slightly to one side. Design the rest of your outfit around the hat.”



We spent the night at the little town of Carollton, Kentucky at the confluence of the Ohio and the Kentucky Rivers. The Ohio is a majestic and busy waterway, a steady stream of tugboats hauling long barges of goods down the river. We drove down river and crossed over to Madison, Indiana a beautiful and historic river town. Some geocaching, some sightseeing – sounds dull though as I write about it.

The only time I get my photo taken is for a geocache.

“Ohio is the state that is the heart of the midwest
People living there think that it really is the best
Buck-eyes (Buckeyes) never leave the state
Buck-eyes love O-hio”


Next stop – Cincinnati, which was a pleasant surprise. A city about the size of Vancouver situated attractively on the mighty Ohio River, it reminded me a lot of Pittsburgh since it's been beautified. Mount Adams is a quaint historic district right beside downtown and provided a lovely view of the city skyline. It's a lively town we found out on a Sunday afternoon. A marathon was just over and runners and walkers were disbersing around town. On our stroll around, we bumped into a Cinco de Mayo celebration with Hispanic food, ongoing entertainment, and booths giving away 'freebies'. Fernie jabbed me and said 'Look what I got' and he displayed a bag full of toiletries 'line up and see what you get'. A jovial & rotund African American woman ahead of me heard she could get a tshirt if she tried the hula hoop. 'No no no no.....you're not gittin me to do that! I'm a great grandma' but she really wanted a tshirt so with some prompting from me, she finally gave it a try. She could hardly stop laughing but she got her tshirt.


We left there laden with goodies including two tshirts that we didn't have to hula hoop for. I even had a balloon tied around my wrist. Some young man insisted I have it and just slid it on. Isn't it funny how you'll behave when you're not in your home town. North of town, Walmart had vacated the premises and left a vast plain of treed parking lot open for us to stay. It was just us and 25 acres of pavement. Other than a few trains that sped by not far away, it was as quiet and peaceful as if we were deep in the countryside.

We seldom travel much more than a hundred miles a day or if we do travel two hundred, the next day is usually less than fifty so when we get to our destination for the day, we're refreshed and ready to explore. I chose the small town of Ashland, Ohio as a stopping point because of its proximity to Cleveland, only a fifty mile drive the next day. Ashland had very little to offer and even geocaching didn't unearth any rare and wonderful spots. In the south, we rarely saw any roadkill but as soon as we started to get north again, the carnage was horrific. There were so many deer carcasses at the side of the road, I wondered if there'd been a population explosion. I guess they're hit at night probably by the big semi-trailers that roar through the freeways all night long. So, does a clean up truck come along and pick up the bodies or do they just rot there? The crows try to devour them, but the constant traffic frightens them off.


Last time we were in Cleveland in 2006, it was a hundred and five degrees, Caesar was with us and we wouldn't leave him in the motorhome alone, fearful that there'd be a brown-out and the air conditioning would go off. I missed the 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame' so it was high on my agenda of things to do this time. Cleveland lies on the south shore of Lake Erie and the museum is on the waterfront right beside the Cleveland Browns' Football Stadium. A modernistic glass pyramid, it's full of mementoes that tear at our nostalgic heartstrings. The first generation of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Elvis, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, and so forth was what caught our attention the most. Small theatres showed films such as the 'Birth of Rock n Roll', the story of Cleveland DJ, Alan Freed who first coined the term and the story of Motown. There was great old film footage and rows of headphones to listen to all the inductees. The special featured exhibit was of Bruce Springsteen. The following generations from The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, through Madonna were well covered too. A great visit.

It takes a secure man to walk two tiny yorkies, especially when one has a pink leash. This guy is a long distance trucker and his girlfriend, who was asleep in his truck bought Huey and Sophie a couple of years ago. She travels with him and they're on the road three months at a time.

"Numbers I've got by the dozen
Everyone's uncle and cousin
But I can't live without buzzin'
Pennsylvania six, five thousand"
Glenn Miller


Erie, Pennsylvania.....a town that most people won't stop at but we did because it was in the right place at the right time. The geocaches along Lake Erie were fun even though repetitive. I think that the best and hardest caches we've ever sought are right in our own backyard. They are far more creative and difficult.

There had obviously been a 'night of love' in this location beside Lake Erie. I wonder if they're coming back tonight.

Erie is a working class industrial city.....steel mills, power plants and humble homes even when they're right on the lake front. It will remain memorable to me because while we shared a snack pack of catfish, I lost a huge filling from my tooth....where it went, I don't know – guess I swallowed it. Now I'm waiting for the pain to start, that is if the nerve is exposed. Cross my fingers that it isn't.


I think this life of moving on is becoming a bit onerous now. We've experienced so much but the memories are getting jumbled in our minds. It's a common thing to hear me say “where was it that......?” We are so looking forward to putting down stakes for a couple of weeks in Toronto; to sleep in late, to watch TV in the morning, to have no agenda. I think it will recharge our batteries.

This Russian Orthodox Church in Erie, PA made us think of our friends L&A and their tiny little church in Rogue River, Oregon.