Day 7
June 9, 1995
Mammoth Cave National Park, KY Today, we said goodbye to Gatlinburg. We have spent the last 6 nights here at the Trout Creek campground, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who plans to visit the Great Smoky Mountains area. Our grandiose plans had us on the road at an early hour, but the best laid plans of mice and men... you get the picture.
We had excellent weather today -- if anything, it could certainly have been a little cooler for packing and riding, but I'll take that over rain any day. We woke at around 8:30 local time, and set about packing everything up. As predicted, we had our share of problems getting everything onto the bikes -- we have purchased a cabin tent, a large awn ing tent, a large cast-iron skillet, some clothes, cooking materials, food, and who-knows-what else that had to be loaded on this return trip that did not accompany us down.
Thankfully, the ever-useful Bungee cord came to the rescue. First, we loaded down Todd's Honda. His bike sports leather "soft" luggage, which is somewhat more cabable of being overstuffed than my BMW's hard cases. Even so, they are considerably smaller, so they give a fairly limited amout of storage. We were able to put the frying pan in, along with a few other small, but awkward, items.
Next, it was time for the "Pack Horse" BMW. My bike has two large hard-side suitcases, and a sizeable solid trunk. In addition, it has a "tank bag" which, obviously, rests on the gas tank. This bag, under normal use, will carry a few conveniences such as gloves and a hat. In addition, it has a clear-plastic map pocket on the top, which allows m e to fold a map to show the immediate are being travelled, and to refer to it on the road. When I really need to load down, however; the tank bag has a zip-out extension that adds a useful 8 inches to the hight of the bag. I utilized this feature to pac k home the week's dirty laundry.
After packing boots, some clothes, food, etc. into the side bags, we had the tents (a total of four bags -- 2 complete tents, the fabric portion of the cabin, and the cabin's poles). We had my sleeping bag, and both of our rolled air mattresses. Also, I had my duffel with the bulk of my clothing in it, which I had strapped to the passenger's seat on the way down. All of these were loaded on the back seat and overflowed to the top of the trunk, except the matresses, which were strapped atop either side bag. We used a good half-dozen Bungees to strap the mess into place, and then used the Bungee net (for those of you who are not familiar with the bungee net, it is just as it's name implies -- elastic Bungee cord woven into a net, with a total of six hoo ks. They are indespensable for a motorcyclist) to contain everything, and to keep the load from shifting during the trip.
Since we did not want to cook breakfast this morning, Todd rode down to the nearby convenience store and picked up some Krispy Kreme donuts. Krispy Kreme is relatively new to the Indianapolis area, and I have become addicted to them. They are cooked on-premisis, and sold hot out of the oven. Alhough Gatlinburg does not have a Krispy Kreme store, the one in Pigeon Forge delivers fresh donuts every morning to several convenience stores in Gatlinburg. Todd was fortuanate enough to arrive just as the shelves were being stocked for the day, and got a fresh box of glazed, and one of Krispy Crullers.
By the time we had finished eating and loading the bikes down, we were well past our intended departure time. It's just as well, though, as we really did not have any grand plans for the rest of the day -- this allowed us to sleep in a bit. The neighbors all came out to say goodbye to the two nuts camping off the back of their motorcycles, and w ith a wave and a couple of beeps of the horns, we were off. After an almost unbearably hot 20 minute ride through the metro areas of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville, we reached I-40 and started making tracks west.
Our first stop on the trip was Oak Ridge, TN, located just west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge did not exist as a town until 1942, when the US government appropriated 9 square miles of land in order to build a top-secret research and manufacturing facility. This area was to become the home of the Manhattan Project, which designed and built the world's first atomic bomb. During the four years of the governement occupation of the town, the population swelled to over 80,000 residents, many of whom stayed in the area after their military service. The town is now the host of the American Museum of Science and Energy, which was our destintion today.
The museum is basically divided into two areas -- the history of Oak Ridge and the Manhatten Project, and a general museum of all types of energy and their uses. In the Oak Ridge section, we learned of the history of the project, of President Roosevelt's support in the face of evidence of research in Germany to the same end, and at the behest of Albert Einstien, who wrote the President in late 1941 urging that this research needed to take place in order to win the war. There are several pieces of equipment from the period, and numerous declassified documents and photos showing the effort. Most of the workers at that time had no idea of the actual goal of the project, and only a handful knew the entire story.
The other portion of the museum -- focusing on energy and energy sources -- is mainly geared toward children. There are many "hands-on" displays showing the effects of kinetic energy, the Bernoulli effect, Fermi's law, and many other energy-related subjects. Even though it was focused to a younger audience, we still found many of the displays informative and enjoyable. We spent about 2 hours in the museum before resuming our trip to Mammoth Cave. We had lunch in Oak Ridge, and then made our way back to I-40 to finish the day's ride.
We took I-40 west to US Highway 127, which would take us north into Kentucky. 127 is a blast for anyone on a motorcycle -- about half of our route was winding roads running through the hills of-northern Tennessee. We were taking turns at foot-scraping angles, and powering our way around slower drivers in the straightaways, despite our heavy loads. From 127, we joined SR90 in southern Kentucky, which took us all the way into Mammoth Cave National Park.
The whole trip took about 3 hours of drive time, with about the same in rest, if we count the stop at Oak Ridge. We finally arrived at the park at about 6:30pm local time (now the same as Indianapolis time), and drove through to the Visitor's Center in hopes of finding a brochure for a good campground nearby. Unfortuanately, the visitor's center had closed at 6:00, but we had passed the park's own campground about a mile back, and decided to stay there rather than search for a site with more amenities. We are REALLY roughing it now -- No electricity, no running water -- and worst of all, no cable TV! There are showers available at the General Store at the entrance to the camp, and that was good enough for us. Although we will only be staying tonight, we went ahead and paid for two days, so that we can leave everything here until Saturday evening when we are ready to leave.
Shortly after our arrival, we began hearing thunder rolling in the distance. We scrambled to set up the cabin tent, and put everything of value inside to protect them from the elements. As it turned out, the storms passed north of us, and we ended up wi th no rain -- just a huge amount of humidity to go along with the high temperatures. In order to protect some items that we did not want to keep in the tent, we also set up our large awning over the concrete picnic table at our campsite. In Gatlinburg, we had moved the table to the front of the tent, and attached the awning to our tent, but the weight of the solid-concrete table here made that impractical.
For dinner, Todd rode down to the general store and picked up a half-pound of ham, a loaf of bread, and some chips. It would have been impractical to transport wood from Tennessee, and since there will only be two opportunities to eat at the campsite, we felt that cold meals would be in order. I had picked up some brochures outlining the available tours when I checked us in, so we spent the rest of the evening looking over these and pl anning what we would see on Saturday. This operation quickly moved from the picnic table to the tent, as the mosquitoes are here in abundance - a phenomenon we had thankfully not experienced in Gatlinburg. After choosing the cave tours that looked the most interesting, we turned in early in order to get to the reservations center before the tours we wanted were sold out.
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. Since the Mammoth Cave National Park is fairly remote, cellular connection from camp was not possible. This report was sent upon returning to Indianapolis.
Mammoth Cave National Park, KY Today, we said goodbye to Gatlinburg. We have spent the last 6 nights here at the Trout Creek campground, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who plans to visit the Great Smoky Mountains area. Our grandiose plans had us on the road at an early hour, but the best laid plans of mice and men... you get the picture.
We had excellent weather today -- if anything, it could certainly have been a little cooler for packing and riding, but I'll take that over rain any day. We woke at around 8:30 local time, and set about packing everything up. As predicted, we had our share of problems getting everything onto the bikes -- we have purchased a cabin tent, a large awn ing tent, a large cast-iron skillet, some clothes, cooking materials, food, and who-knows-what else that had to be loaded on this return trip that did not accompany us down.
Thankfully, the ever-useful Bungee cord came to the rescue. First, we loaded down Todd's Honda. His bike sports leather "soft" luggage, which is somewhat more cabable of being overstuffed than my BMW's hard cases. Even so, they are considerably smaller, so they give a fairly limited amout of storage. We were able to put the frying pan in, along with a few other small, but awkward, items.
Next, it was time for the "Pack Horse" BMW. My bike has two large hard-side suitcases, and a sizeable solid trunk. In addition, it has a "tank bag" which, obviously, rests on the gas tank. This bag, under normal use, will carry a few conveniences such as gloves and a hat. In addition, it has a clear-plastic map pocket on the top, which allows m e to fold a map to show the immediate are being travelled, and to refer to it on the road. When I really need to load down, however; the tank bag has a zip-out extension that adds a useful 8 inches to the hight of the bag. I utilized this feature to pac k home the week's dirty laundry.
After packing boots, some clothes, food, etc. into the side bags, we had the tents (a total of four bags -- 2 complete tents, the fabric portion of the cabin, and the cabin's poles). We had my sleeping bag, and both of our rolled air mattresses. Also, I had my duffel with the bulk of my clothing in it, which I had strapped to the passenger's seat on the way down. All of these were loaded on the back seat and overflowed to the top of the trunk, except the matresses, which were strapped atop either side bag. We used a good half-dozen Bungees to strap the mess into place, and then used the Bungee net (for those of you who are not familiar with the bungee net, it is just as it's name implies -- elastic Bungee cord woven into a net, with a total of six hoo ks. They are indespensable for a motorcyclist) to contain everything, and to keep the load from shifting during the trip.
Since we did not want to cook breakfast this morning, Todd rode down to the nearby convenience store and picked up some Krispy Kreme donuts. Krispy Kreme is relatively new to the Indianapolis area, and I have become addicted to them. They are cooked on-premisis, and sold hot out of the oven. Alhough Gatlinburg does not have a Krispy Kreme store, the one in Pigeon Forge delivers fresh donuts every morning to several convenience stores in Gatlinburg. Todd was fortuanate enough to arrive just as the shelves were being stocked for the day, and got a fresh box of glazed, and one of Krispy Crullers.
By the time we had finished eating and loading the bikes down, we were well past our intended departure time. It's just as well, though, as we really did not have any grand plans for the rest of the day -- this allowed us to sleep in a bit. The neighbors all came out to say goodbye to the two nuts camping off the back of their motorcycles, and w ith a wave and a couple of beeps of the horns, we were off. After an almost unbearably hot 20 minute ride through the metro areas of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville, we reached I-40 and started making tracks west.
Our first stop on the trip was Oak Ridge, TN, located just west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge did not exist as a town until 1942, when the US government appropriated 9 square miles of land in order to build a top-secret research and manufacturing facility. This area was to become the home of the Manhattan Project, which designed and built the world's first atomic bomb. During the four years of the governement occupation of the town, the population swelled to over 80,000 residents, many of whom stayed in the area after their military service. The town is now the host of the American Museum of Science and Energy, which was our destintion today.
The museum is basically divided into two areas -- the history of Oak Ridge and the Manhatten Project, and a general museum of all types of energy and their uses. In the Oak Ridge section, we learned of the history of the project, of President Roosevelt's support in the face of evidence of research in Germany to the same end, and at the behest of Albert Einstien, who wrote the President in late 1941 urging that this research needed to take place in order to win the war. There are several pieces of equipment from the period, and numerous declassified documents and photos showing the effort. Most of the workers at that time had no idea of the actual goal of the project, and only a handful knew the entire story.
The other portion of the museum -- focusing on energy and energy sources -- is mainly geared toward children. There are many "hands-on" displays showing the effects of kinetic energy, the Bernoulli effect, Fermi's law, and many other energy-related subjects. Even though it was focused to a younger audience, we still found many of the displays informative and enjoyable. We spent about 2 hours in the museum before resuming our trip to Mammoth Cave. We had lunch in Oak Ridge, and then made our way back to I-40 to finish the day's ride.
We took I-40 west to US Highway 127, which would take us north into Kentucky. 127 is a blast for anyone on a motorcycle -- about half of our route was winding roads running through the hills of-northern Tennessee. We were taking turns at foot-scraping angles, and powering our way around slower drivers in the straightaways, despite our heavy loads. From 127, we joined SR90 in southern Kentucky, which took us all the way into Mammoth Cave National Park.
The whole trip took about 3 hours of drive time, with about the same in rest, if we count the stop at Oak Ridge. We finally arrived at the park at about 6:30pm local time (now the same as Indianapolis time), and drove through to the Visitor's Center in hopes of finding a brochure for a good campground nearby. Unfortuanately, the visitor's center had closed at 6:00, but we had passed the park's own campground about a mile back, and decided to stay there rather than search for a site with more amenities. We are REALLY roughing it now -- No electricity, no running water -- and worst of all, no cable TV! There are showers available at the General Store at the entrance to the camp, and that was good enough for us. Although we will only be staying tonight, we went ahead and paid for two days, so that we can leave everything here until Saturday evening when we are ready to leave.
Shortly after our arrival, we began hearing thunder rolling in the distance. We scrambled to set up the cabin tent, and put everything of value inside to protect them from the elements. As it turned out, the storms passed north of us, and we ended up wi th no rain -- just a huge amount of humidity to go along with the high temperatures. In order to protect some items that we did not want to keep in the tent, we also set up our large awning over the concrete picnic table at our campsite. In Gatlinburg, we had moved the table to the front of the tent, and attached the awning to our tent, but the weight of the solid-concrete table here made that impractical.
For dinner, Todd rode down to the general store and picked up a half-pound of ham, a loaf of bread, and some chips. It would have been impractical to transport wood from Tennessee, and since there will only be two opportunities to eat at the campsite, we felt that cold meals would be in order. I had picked up some brochures outlining the available tours when I checked us in, so we spent the rest of the evening looking over these and pl anning what we would see on Saturday. This operation quickly moved from the picnic table to the tent, as the mosquitoes are here in abundance - a phenomenon we had thankfully not experienced in Gatlinburg. After choosing the cave tours that looked the most interesting, we turned in early in order to get to the reservations center before the tours we wanted were sold out.
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. Since the Mammoth Cave National Park is fairly remote, cellular connection from camp was not possible. This report was sent upon returning to Indianapolis.