Day 2
June 4, 1995 Gatlinburg, TN
Day 2 - Sunday.
We hit the hay last night at about midnight local time, after dispatching the first installment in this series off to Brent (our Internet guru) for posting. We have managed to stuff ourselves, and anything of inherent value or fragility into the "2-3 man Dome Tent" that we purchased for last year's trip to Arizona.
I'm not sure how 3 men could ever sleep in a 7'6" by 6' tent... unless they were all the size of Mickey Rooney. Even that might be a challenge. Before we go to sleep, we agree to look into a larger tent in the morning at Wal-Mart.
I haven't slept outdoors since last year's vacation, but we had a very tiring day, and neither of us have any trouble getting to sleep. The air matresses help matters greatly, which is no surprise to me, as I use mine a couple of nights a week when I can't manage to get home from work.
We are awakened at around 6:30 by what sounds like a pack of a dozen howling monkeys invading from the woods to the east. It turns out to be a bunch of crows... apparently, the Cynigal Parrot is not the only fowl in the animal kingdom with high-decibel capacities. Although we didn't intend to get up that early, as long as we were awake, we opted to beat the crowd to the showers.
Just as advertised, the showers are hot, and clean. We have been impressed all around with this campground, and have decided to go ahead and pay another two days in advance, which will put us in Gatlinburg at least through Wednesday.
The only "food" we had on hand was the remainder of a six-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, so we hopped on the bikes and tooled down to the convenience store a few hundred feet down the road. We picked up some smoked sausage (as the only cooking material we had was hot dog sticks) and headed back to camp, to wait for the office to open up so we could buy some firewood.
After my breakfast of smoked sausage, and Todd's Gatorade, we prepared to head out. This morning's destination was Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the state of Tennessee. We had about a 25 mile ride ahead of us, so we topped off the fuel tanks in Gatlinburg before hitting the road.
The route to Clingman's Dome took us to about 6,600 feet, via a winding road that has more turns than straightaways. Although the weather was beautiful, we were getting a little chilly as we went up in altitude (the average temparature difference is about 20 degrees), and as the sun was hidden behind the dense foliage.
Once we reached the parking lot, we had a 1/2 mile hike to the actual peak, according to the signs. Apparently, they meant 1/2 mile Vertically, as both Todd and I struggled with the steep grade. Both of us felt not a little out of shape, and disgusted that a paved walkway, no matter how steep, seemed to be getting the better of us.
After about a 20 minute walk, we reached the peak. The lookout on Clingman's Dome is a 100-foot pedestal with a spiral walkway leading to it. It will hold about 50 people at a time, and offers a view, on a clear day, of up to 90 miles in any direction. Today, we were lucky in that the view was apparently as clear as anyone had seen from this point in recent memory. We were able to see Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and all the surrounding mountain ranges in Tennessee and North Carolina.
On our trip up, both Todd and I had noticed that a huge proportion of the evergreen trees appeard to be dead. The information posted at the Dome told of a problem that has plagued the park for years. In 1900, an insect native to Europe was accidentally released in Maine. This insect worked its way down into the Smokys, where it seemed to find a delicacy in some specific fir tree in the mountains. Over 90% of this species of tree has already been killed, and the forest service is working to prevent further damage.
Having had our quota of excercise for the day, we set out for Sevierville (the only town of any real size in the area) to get the necessary adapters at Radio Shack to watch the Pacer's play the Magic tonight. Our 20/20 hindsight tells us we need not have bothered, but our hopes had not been shattered like a BMW's window in the bad part of town yet at that point.
Although bigger that the surrounding communities, Sevierville is no metropolis -- the one Radio Shack is a dealer store, not held to the corporate rules, and does not open on Sunday. We went on to the Wal-Mart to pick up some cooking supplies, and were able to get the necessary parts to jury-rig a cable hookup for the TV.
By this time, it was approaching 2:00 in the afternoon. We headed back to camp to unload from the shopping trip, with the intent of heading right back out again. Although the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak -- we both opted for about an hour of napping to recoup some of the sleep lost to the birdsongs of the early morning.
After our respite, we chose to take in some of the sights of nearby Gatlinburg. We first checked out the Ripley (as in Believe it or Not) museum. This shows some of the thousands of oddities chronicled by Robert Ripley in his long-running series of cartoons. One of the more entertaining exhibits was a video showing clips of people with the ability to "curl" their tounges - and it included a large mirror to facilitate testing your own ability.
What the patron did not discover until later in the tour was that the "mirror" was actually a viewing window from the other direction, and that they would soon be laughing at those people who were attempting to twist their tounges in the same unnatural contortions as they themselves had been not half an hour before.
We then went to the Full Motion Theater to experience the sensation of being in a logging truck with failed brakes hurtling down a mountain. Both were worth seeing, and we intend to go back into Gatlinburg one day this week to see some of the sights without the volume of tourists that the weekend brings.
The town itself reminds me of Nashville, IN on a much larger scale -- Every business seemed dedicated to tourism. We sampled some fresh-made fudge from one shop, and played a head-to- head motorcycle race video game, before the time came to head back to camp and prepare for the game.
On the way back, we stopped at the local market and picked up our dinner needs -- hot dogs, buns, and a six-pack of Lite beer (for the game). We also grabbed a pound of bacon and a dozen eggs for breakfast on Monday. We then returned to camp, and got the fire going for dinner.
Watching something with the detail of a basketball game is difficult enough with our team winning, but with the problems the Pacer's had tonight, it was almost unbearable. The most frustration to me came from not being able to complain about the lousy officiating, because we couldn't see enough detail to tell what was really happening. On top of that, we had to put up with Marv "Yesss" Albert's announcing, as we couldn't tune in the radio to hear Slick "Boom Baby" Leanord call the play-by-play.
At half-time, I ran down to the store to get S'mores fixin's while Todd drained himself of his first couple of beers. We stoked up the fire, and had a couple too many of the gooey snacks to top off dinner. Although things were not looking good for our Pacers, we had not given up hope yet.
As the game wore on, and the Orlando lead grew, I gave up and laid down for a nap. I continued to listen in, just in case of a miracle, but none was forthcoming. As the Good Guys ended the 1995 season, we wished good luck to Shaq and the Magic against Hakeem and the Rockets, and wished Marv a rash that wouln't heal.
One handy side effect of the cable hookup for the game is that we also receive the Weather Channel for this area, so we can more easily plan our events in advance. As it looks like a front is moving into the area, we may spend the day in Gatlinburg again, to avoid getting too far away with rain coming in.
One final note -- we finally discovered the reason for the hundreds, if not thousands, of Harleys in the area. Apparently, this weekend hosted a huge Harley meet and swap shop at the county fair grounds. By Sunday, we were seeing an appropriate number of Goldwings, Yamasakis, and even the occasional BMW on the road.
Todd and I can be reached at my Compserve address (74044,3457), or via Internet at [email protected]. This report is sent via a Canon Innova Book 10C laptop, with a Motorola Power PCMCIA Modem plugged into my MicroTAC Elite, which is dangling from a tent pole in order to get enough signal to transmit properly.
Day 2 - Sunday.
We hit the hay last night at about midnight local time, after dispatching the first installment in this series off to Brent (our Internet guru) for posting. We have managed to stuff ourselves, and anything of inherent value or fragility into the "2-3 man Dome Tent" that we purchased for last year's trip to Arizona.
I'm not sure how 3 men could ever sleep in a 7'6" by 6' tent... unless they were all the size of Mickey Rooney. Even that might be a challenge. Before we go to sleep, we agree to look into a larger tent in the morning at Wal-Mart.
I haven't slept outdoors since last year's vacation, but we had a very tiring day, and neither of us have any trouble getting to sleep. The air matresses help matters greatly, which is no surprise to me, as I use mine a couple of nights a week when I can't manage to get home from work.
We are awakened at around 6:30 by what sounds like a pack of a dozen howling monkeys invading from the woods to the east. It turns out to be a bunch of crows... apparently, the Cynigal Parrot is not the only fowl in the animal kingdom with high-decibel capacities. Although we didn't intend to get up that early, as long as we were awake, we opted to beat the crowd to the showers.
Just as advertised, the showers are hot, and clean. We have been impressed all around with this campground, and have decided to go ahead and pay another two days in advance, which will put us in Gatlinburg at least through Wednesday.
The only "food" we had on hand was the remainder of a six-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, so we hopped on the bikes and tooled down to the convenience store a few hundred feet down the road. We picked up some smoked sausage (as the only cooking material we had was hot dog sticks) and headed back to camp, to wait for the office to open up so we could buy some firewood.
After my breakfast of smoked sausage, and Todd's Gatorade, we prepared to head out. This morning's destination was Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the state of Tennessee. We had about a 25 mile ride ahead of us, so we topped off the fuel tanks in Gatlinburg before hitting the road.
The route to Clingman's Dome took us to about 6,600 feet, via a winding road that has more turns than straightaways. Although the weather was beautiful, we were getting a little chilly as we went up in altitude (the average temparature difference is about 20 degrees), and as the sun was hidden behind the dense foliage.
Once we reached the parking lot, we had a 1/2 mile hike to the actual peak, according to the signs. Apparently, they meant 1/2 mile Vertically, as both Todd and I struggled with the steep grade. Both of us felt not a little out of shape, and disgusted that a paved walkway, no matter how steep, seemed to be getting the better of us.
After about a 20 minute walk, we reached the peak. The lookout on Clingman's Dome is a 100-foot pedestal with a spiral walkway leading to it. It will hold about 50 people at a time, and offers a view, on a clear day, of up to 90 miles in any direction. Today, we were lucky in that the view was apparently as clear as anyone had seen from this point in recent memory. We were able to see Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and all the surrounding mountain ranges in Tennessee and North Carolina.
On our trip up, both Todd and I had noticed that a huge proportion of the evergreen trees appeard to be dead. The information posted at the Dome told of a problem that has plagued the park for years. In 1900, an insect native to Europe was accidentally released in Maine. This insect worked its way down into the Smokys, where it seemed to find a delicacy in some specific fir tree in the mountains. Over 90% of this species of tree has already been killed, and the forest service is working to prevent further damage.
Having had our quota of excercise for the day, we set out for Sevierville (the only town of any real size in the area) to get the necessary adapters at Radio Shack to watch the Pacer's play the Magic tonight. Our 20/20 hindsight tells us we need not have bothered, but our hopes had not been shattered like a BMW's window in the bad part of town yet at that point.
Although bigger that the surrounding communities, Sevierville is no metropolis -- the one Radio Shack is a dealer store, not held to the corporate rules, and does not open on Sunday. We went on to the Wal-Mart to pick up some cooking supplies, and were able to get the necessary parts to jury-rig a cable hookup for the TV.
By this time, it was approaching 2:00 in the afternoon. We headed back to camp to unload from the shopping trip, with the intent of heading right back out again. Although the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak -- we both opted for about an hour of napping to recoup some of the sleep lost to the birdsongs of the early morning.
After our respite, we chose to take in some of the sights of nearby Gatlinburg. We first checked out the Ripley (as in Believe it or Not) museum. This shows some of the thousands of oddities chronicled by Robert Ripley in his long-running series of cartoons. One of the more entertaining exhibits was a video showing clips of people with the ability to "curl" their tounges - and it included a large mirror to facilitate testing your own ability.
What the patron did not discover until later in the tour was that the "mirror" was actually a viewing window from the other direction, and that they would soon be laughing at those people who were attempting to twist their tounges in the same unnatural contortions as they themselves had been not half an hour before.
We then went to the Full Motion Theater to experience the sensation of being in a logging truck with failed brakes hurtling down a mountain. Both were worth seeing, and we intend to go back into Gatlinburg one day this week to see some of the sights without the volume of tourists that the weekend brings.
The town itself reminds me of Nashville, IN on a much larger scale -- Every business seemed dedicated to tourism. We sampled some fresh-made fudge from one shop, and played a head-to- head motorcycle race video game, before the time came to head back to camp and prepare for the game.
On the way back, we stopped at the local market and picked up our dinner needs -- hot dogs, buns, and a six-pack of Lite beer (for the game). We also grabbed a pound of bacon and a dozen eggs for breakfast on Monday. We then returned to camp, and got the fire going for dinner.
Watching something with the detail of a basketball game is difficult enough with our team winning, but with the problems the Pacer's had tonight, it was almost unbearable. The most frustration to me came from not being able to complain about the lousy officiating, because we couldn't see enough detail to tell what was really happening. On top of that, we had to put up with Marv "Yesss" Albert's announcing, as we couldn't tune in the radio to hear Slick "Boom Baby" Leanord call the play-by-play.
At half-time, I ran down to the store to get S'mores fixin's while Todd drained himself of his first couple of beers. We stoked up the fire, and had a couple too many of the gooey snacks to top off dinner. Although things were not looking good for our Pacers, we had not given up hope yet.
As the game wore on, and the Orlando lead grew, I gave up and laid down for a nap. I continued to listen in, just in case of a miracle, but none was forthcoming. As the Good Guys ended the 1995 season, we wished good luck to Shaq and the Magic against Hakeem and the Rockets, and wished Marv a rash that wouln't heal.
One handy side effect of the cable hookup for the game is that we also receive the Weather Channel for this area, so we can more easily plan our events in advance. As it looks like a front is moving into the area, we may spend the day in Gatlinburg again, to avoid getting too far away with rain coming in.
One final note -- we finally discovered the reason for the hundreds, if not thousands, of Harleys in the area. Apparently, this weekend hosted a huge Harley meet and swap shop at the county fair grounds. By Sunday, we were seeing an appropriate number of Goldwings, Yamasakis, and even the occasional BMW on the road.
Todd and I can be reached at my Compserve address (74044,3457), or via Internet at [email protected]. This report is sent via a Canon Innova Book 10C laptop, with a Motorola Power PCMCIA Modem plugged into my MicroTAC Elite, which is dangling from a tent pole in order to get enough signal to transmit properly.