6/8 Waycross, GA to Sevierville, TN

Our decision was to head north for the Smoky Mountains rather than waste half the day on a half hour swamp ride, so after a waffle breakfast at the motel, we were on our way crossing Georgia from south to north. For the most part, we followed US 1 in the morning, with occasional forays onto side roads. The temperature was around 80 when we headed out around 8 in the morning, but by 10 o’clock it was 95, and reached 98 later in the day. Needless to say, we opted for a little lower gas mileage with the air conditioning blowing most of the day.

We passed through the town of Vidalia, known for its sweet onions, and as we approached the general area we were surprised at how thick the onion odor was wafting through the hills. Yep, that’s right – hills. By now we’re beyond the flats and swamp lands, getting into gently rolling hills and roads with curves. The scrub pine trees have been getting taller as well. As we continued on through Georgia, we noticed two things that were everywhere: red dirt and churches. It seemed like every town, no matter how small, had three or four churches, and if there was a substantial distance between towns, there’d be churches out in the country as well. For the most part, they were usually variations of Baptist, although there was a smattering of other denominations as well. Apparently there aren’t many early church services, because although it was Sunday today, we saw no cars in the church parking lots until around 10 o’clock. In fact, in most small towns, we didn’t see much activity at all, business-wise – it was rare to see much of anything open, other than gas stations, especially in the morning.

Many of the small towns were very picturesque, with stately old homes, many in varying states of disrepair. In the town of Lexington, a little southeast of Athens, we circled several blocks looking at the various homes. The main street was also something to behold, and I could just imagine the street lined with cars of 1930’s and 1940’s vintages. In the Athens area, we came across a Lodge cast iron cookware outlet store, and found a small cast iron frying pan to replace the one I had years ago.

We continued on north on US 441, entering the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia. This led us into western North Carolina, and eventually to the entrance of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was now around 5:30 in the afternoon, and we considered stopping for the night and doing the park in the morning, but after a couple of photo op stops we felt more refreshed and decided to head on through the park. The highway followed a river as we ascended the mountain around sweeping curves and sharp switchbacks. We made several stops along the way to view the scenery. The Smoky Mountains got their name from the haze that is usually present – caused by the humidity coming from all the vegetation – and we saw that haze today, as well as some wonderfully sculpted hills. When we reached the summit at over 5000 feet, the temperature had dropped to a respectable 78 degrees, and we did most of our touring in the park with the windows down, sunroof open, and air off. We went back to air mode when we descended back down into the 90’s.

At the summit, we passed from North Carolina into Tennessee, and we exited the park at its northern border into the Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge area. What a transition that was! We went from peaceful serene forest and mountain atmosphere into a carnival that is about 8 miles long. The highway is lined with motels and attractions on both sides, including water slides, carnival rides, haunted mansions, wax museums, fortune tellers and any other ploy that caters to the tourist dollar. Bus-like trolleys plied the streets to transport people from their hotels to the various attractions and country western shows, including Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s theme park. It was late in the day and we weren’t looking for any late night entertainment, but competition was steep among the hotels, and we have one of our least expensive motel rooms of the trip with a balcony overlooking the river and all the amenities.