Return to Pigeon Forge

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Sparky
One of the many Pigeon Forge tourist traps

Wednesday was a lousy day, weather-wise. Cool, wet, dreary. I got stir-crazy and decided to take a road trip to Pigeon Forge, about 30 miles to the east of Walland. I wanted to see the town again, which I first saw in 2012 in our first month on the road. I wasn’t expecting it to be any less tacky than the first time, but the town – and Dollywood – had a special meaning for Jett and me. It was the place where our desire to travel the country solidified.

If you aren’t familiar with our first month in an RV, it could be characterized as “hell.” Three blowouts, the last doing serious damage to the RV, and a miserable, rainy Columbus Day weekend in a Motel 6 in Knoxville while RV repairs were being made. Jett was in favor of scrapping our plans and returning to Massachusetts. I reminded her that we had rented our house for a year and had no place to return to. Didn’t matter. There were a lot of tears that weekend. Mostly hers.

On Monday we retrieved the repaired RV and made our way an hour south to Pigeon Forge, to spend a day at Dollywood. Our hearts weren’t really in it and the day, though sunny, was very cool, in the 50s. But we went.

And had a wonderful time. Dollywood was a revelation. I didn’t ride the many great roller coasters, but we had the best fried chicken dinner ever, toured Dolly’s RV, visited the dogs that we had booked for the day at Doggywood and generally shed all of the misery that had accumulated over those awful first 30 days.

Our trip – and our faith in our RV lifestyle – was saved.

The weather was even worse on Wednesday than it was on that Columbus Day in 2012 – highs in the 40s. I had no intention of going into Dollywood, but I had to do a drive-by and give it a salute. And I found my eyes getting damp. I was touched in a way that I didn’t expect. This was where our 8 years on the road really began.

Well, Jett, I made it back to Dollywood. Wish you had been with me.

Categories: Adventures, Places, RV Living, TN, TN7 | Leave a comment

TN7 Hop 6: Walland TN to Charlotte NC

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Sparky
TN7 Hop 6

244 miles via US 411, TN 338, TN 66, I-40, I-26, US 74, I-85, I-485 (southwest of Charlotte) and I-77 with a midway refueling stop in Hendersonville NC. Cumulative tow miles: 1055. Truck miles: 331. Cumulative truck miles: 1508. The additional truck miles were due to my sightseeing trip to Pigeon Forge and my two trips to dine out.

I was very worried about this hop. I thought it would be very hard on both me and the truck. Well, I was half right. It turned out to be a piece of cake for the truck – barely broke a sweat over the Smoky Mountains – but it was very hard on me. I woke at 4am thinking that I needed to find a better route. The route I was planning involved 20 miles over very narrow roads with no shoulder and, in places, a deep ditch which would have been a disaster if I let the RV wheels run off the pavement. Well, I opted for a longer stretch on US 411, which is not an easy road but has more shoulders and fewer ditches. That longer route meant it would be neccesary to refuel, but I found a truck stop in Hendersonville that would work.

So the really bad portion of the trip involved only the first few miles. Then a long stretch of US 411 where I had to remain focused. I navigated that successfully and made it to the truck stop. But there I saw a long line of trucks waiting and rather that incur the ire of OTR drivers to get less than 20 gallons of diesel fuel, I opted to try the car pumps. It wasn’t easy, but I finally got the truck to the pump and successfully refueled.

The last 110 miles were uneventful, though with a lot of traffic, particularly on US 74.

My home for 2 nights in Walland was the Whispering River RV Resort. I have stayed there before. I mentioned that the reservation was incorrect – they had my stay shifted by 1 day. I don’t know if it was my error or theirs, but it got corrected.

Note to self: read the confirmation email.

The RV at rest at Whispering River
Frost on the windshield

The main feature of the stay there was the cold. I had to scrape frost off my windshield the morning of my departure. I don’t like frost.

One of the reasons that I chose to return to Whispering River was its proximity the The Snoring Bear Diner, one of the best breakfast places I have ever encountered. This time I chose the “Denver Boone” – a sandwich made from two slices of french toast, stuffed with cheese, egg, sausage and bacon. “The Heart Stopper” would have been a better name. But delicious.

Unpretentious Amici

The previous night I also dined out, at Amici, an Italian restaurant in Maryville that looked interesting. The item on the menu that got my attention was the “Bison meatball” pasta. There were other items that sounded appealing but I had to try the bison meatball-and-spaghetti dish. Washed down with a couple of pints of craft beer. Verdict: best spaghetti-and-meatball dish I have ever had. The bison meatballs were great but so was the red sauce. Superb.

Needless to say, I didn’t lose any weight while in Walland.

Denver Boone

Selfie at Amici
Categories: Food, NC, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN, TN7 | Leave a comment

Not looking forward to tomorrow

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Sparky

Hop 6 tomorrow will likely be the most difficult of the TN7 – over the Smoky Mountains, which will be a tough haul for the truck. And 233 miles which, given the mountainous terrain, may exceed the range of the truck. So I may have to do a refueling stop in a gas station (I have been unable to find a truck stop along the way). On top of all that, it is going to be freaking cold – probably below freezing at dawn. It should warm up, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see some snowflakes in the mountains.

No fun at all.

Wish me luck.

Categories: NC, Places, Routes, TN7 | Leave a comment

TN7 Hop 5: Ringgold GA to Walland TN

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Sparky
TN7 hop 5

118 miles via I-75, TN 68, US 411 and US 321. Cumulative tow miles: 811. Truck miles: 298. Cumulative truck miles: 1177. The extra truck miles were due to the trip to Blue Ridge and my tour of the Chickamauga battlefield.

Finally, I am off of I-75. I chose to use the TN 68 exit, which was not the fastest route, because it had fewer turns and avoided some of the very narrow roads that exist near Walland.

There are a lot of trucks on the TN section of I-75, and a lot of hills. That made for a lot of lane switching. But it was a problem-free trip that took just over 2 hours. When I got to my destination my reservation couldn’t be found. We finally located it – for tomorrow! But it got straightened out and I got set up before 3pm.

My home in Ringgold was the Battlefield Campground and RV Park. I don’t know why they had to include both “campground” and “RV park” in the name because it is just an RV park – no tents in sight. This was obviously a KOA at one point, my first clue being its address: KOA Drive.

This park is built on a hill and the roads are both curvy and steep. Many of the sites are not level. Mine wasn’t too bad, but the front jacks were nearly touching the ground when I got the RV leveled. The park claims to have cable, but I found no cable connection on my site. Not a big deal as I was near a major city and was staying for just 2 nights. The real annoyance came when a staff person knocked on my door and asked me to move the truck because they were going to be sealing the blacktop. I had to move the truck a few sites away, to the bathhouse. I thought I would have to back out of my pull-through. That turned out to be unnecessary because they unblocked the roads by 10:30am, just in time for the 11am checkout.

The bottom line is that I wasn’t very enchanted by this park and got the sense that it wasn’t very well managed.

Categories: GA, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN, TN7 | Leave a comment

Chickamauga Battlefield, second visit

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Sparky
Cannon atop Snodgrass Hill, where the battle ended

The main reason for picking Chattanooga as a destination – less than 80 miles from Cartersville GA – was to take a second look at the Chickamauga battlefield. On my first visit I split my day between Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain. My impression of Chickamauga was… HUGE. It is a very large battlefield. I felt I needed to take another look.

So I spent over 3 hours there yesterday and while I reinforced my impression that the battlefield is huge I also formed an opinion of the battle itself: it was a bloody, chaotic mess. There were almost 35,000 casualties (dead, wounded or missing). While the battle was nominally a Confederate victory, the advantage was short-lived. The Union retained control of Chattanooga and, shortly, would control the entire area and use it as a base for the devastating march on Atlanta.

I can’t help but compare Chickamauga to Gettysburg. Both were multi-day battles with an ebb-and-flow over the course of the event. But while the Gettysburg battlefield has many well-defined geographical points (Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, the Devil’s Den, the Wheat Field, the Peach Orchard and the broad upslope that hosted Pickett’s Charge), the Chickamauga battlefield is a lot of trees and a half dozen open fields, none of which are geographically distinct. I can imagine how hard it would have been for soldiers to orient themselves during the chaos of the battle.

Also, whereas Gettysburg’s seminal moment was a courageous (if foolhardy) charge by the Confederates that was repulsed, the seminal moment at Chickamauga was a breach of the Union line caused by miscommunication. An unforced error. Not exactly the stuff of heroism.

Still, the place reeks of history. And death. Standing in those serene fields or walking the quiet paths, it is very hard to imagine the hell of that battle.

There are a few historically significant structures on the battlefield – almost certainly replicas, but accurate replicas. The Brotherton house, at the location of the Confederate breakout, is one. There is also a structure on Snodgrass Hill, where the last fighting took place.

I have included a photo of the Brotherton field, with my truck in the distance, just to show the scale. This is just a small piece of the battlefield. Huge.

Brotherton house
Snodgrass house
My truck, parked by the Brotherton field
Categories: Adventures, GA, Historical Markers, Places, TN7 | Leave a comment

Battle of Allatoona Pass

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Sparky
Historical marker at resort

As I mentioned in the previous post, the railroad track ran very close to my RV site at Allatoona Landing Marine Resort. The upside of that proximity is that it put me very close to the site of the Civil War’s Battle of Allatoona Pass, a battle fought for control of that railroad line. The Union held it, thanks to a fortified position overlooking the pass, and the Confederates wanted it. They tried, but failed, to capture the fortress. Some 1,500 men died in the fighting. Not the bloodiest battle of the war, but pretty significant nonetheless. And, as I learned from the Georgia state historical site, this railroad line was also involved in the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862.

I didn’t fully explore the battleground, but did view the historical markers placed there as well as the descriptive placards at the parking area.

The site has some hiking trails along the shores of Lake Allatoona. They looked inviting, but not inviting enough.

Placard 1
Placard 2
Lake Allatoona from the battleground
Ring of battle memorials
Categories: Adventures, GA, Historical Markers, Places, TN7 | Leave a comment

TN7 Hop 4: Cartersville GA to Ringgold GA

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Sparky
TN7 hop 4

78 miles almost entirely on I-75. Cumulative tow miles: 793. Truck miles: 188. Cumulative truck miles: 879. The extra truck miles were due to my shopping trip which included the Booth Museum of Western Art and a sightseeing trip into Atlanta.

This was a short trip – just over an hour – but it was not a piece of cake for the truck as the route is hilly with some fairly long uphill pulls. But, once again, the truck performed flawlessly.

Joshua and me outside Gather

It also wasn’t a short day of travel because, once I was unhitched and set up in Ringgold, I drove 75 miles to Blue Ridge GA to see my Florida neighbors, Joshua and Gary. They own two gift shops there – Blue Ridge Cotton Company and Gather. It being Sunday I was not confident that I would run into the owners, but they were both there. We had a nice chat and I bought a sweatshirt – my first clothes purchase in over a year!

On the trip back to the RV I chose the slightly longer route through Tennessee. This was a more scenic route, running along the very popular (for whitewater rafters) Oconee River. It was beautiful, but the the road had sharp twists and turns and not many places to stop and take photos.

Note to self: do NOT take the RV on this route!

Speaking of RV, the route I took to Blue Ridge included a 13′ 7″ railroad bridge. If I had been hauling I would have sweated this bridge. Bottom line: there is no RV-friendly way to get from Chattanooga to Blue Ridge.

Train track, 200 ft from my eardrums

My home in Cartersville was the Allatoona Landing Marine Resort – a combination marina and RV campground on the edge of Lake Allatoona. Also very close to the site of the Battle of Allatoona Pass which I will document separately. Also very close to a major rail freight line – a proximity which became immediately obvious when a train passed and blew its horn in my ear. And, as I soon discovered, trains passed and blew their horns pretty regularly around the clock. I didn’t get a lot of uninterrupted sleep the first night. But I got used to it quickly and slept okay the other nights.

Campsite on the lake

This is an odd RV park. It isn’t large – maybe 100 sites – but very few have full sewer hookups. Maybe 15 sites. I had one of those sites. It was a back-in, which made me a little nervous, but there was plenty of room and I made it on the first try.

This campground had a “weekend getaway” feel to it. It was jam-packed on Saturday with rigs wih Georgia plates and lots of kids. I didn’t see a beach, but there were lots of kayaks and fishing gear on display. And some of the campsites were right on the water. You could fish from your doorway.

So the park wasn’t great but the location was better than expected. If I come back to Atlanta I would consider staying here again.

Allatoona Landing office
Categories: GA, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7 | Leave a comment

Dick, Pete, Dan and Charlie

Posted on April 18, 2021 by Sparky

It has now been over 6 months since Jett’s passing. That hardly seems possible. But those six months of grief have been compounded by the deaths, in just the past two months, of four men who were significant in my life.

Dick Vogt

Dick Vogt was a herpetologist who lived and worked in the Amazon jungle for many years, studying turtles. He died a month ago, a victim of the rampant COVID-19 scourge in Brazil. I met Dick in kindergarten and went to school with him for 13 years. He was a participant in my very first hosted birthday party – I believe on my 6th birthday. He lived about a quarter of a mile from me and I visited him in his home many times. Even as a pre-teen he was intensely interested in reptiles and owned several impressive snakes, including, in high school, a 12-foot boa constrictor. I can credit Dick with eliminating my fear of reptiles.

Pete Schmudlach died two days ago. Like Dick, I met Pete in kindergarten. He, too, attended that 6th birthday party. If anyone else was there I don’t recall, so I may be the only survivor of that event. I was good friends with Pete until about 6th grade, then drifted apart. I don’t believe I have seen him since high school. I don’t recall him attending the high school reunions. But Dick was at those reunions. His photo was taken at the 2017 50th-year reunion.

Dan Backman was one of my 13 fraternity pledge class brothers. It was a very close-knit pledge class. He was the first one in that class to pass – something that I hoped would never happen though, of course, I knew that is would, eventually. Dan, like Jett, died of lung cancer. I will attend a memorial service for Dan in June.

Charlie Snell, another fraternity pledge brother – and, arguably, the heart and soul of the group and the reason it was so close-knit – died Friday. He, too, succumbed to lung cancer. He was diagnosed about 3 months after Jett and died 6 months after her.

Four people close to me, all gone in two months. And closely following the loss of Jett, the person who was closest of all.

I knew it, but their deaths remind me that I have a target on my back. No time to waste.

R.I.P. friends.

Categories: Friends | Leave a comment

Booth Western Art Museum

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Sparky

I did some food shopping yesterday in Cartersville GA and happened to drive by the Booth Western Art Museum. It looked impressive, somewhat reminiscent, in location (a small town) and architecture, of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown MA. But also reminiscent, in terms of the subject matter, of the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City. I had some refrigerated items from my shopping trip but figured I wouldn’t be longer than an hour. And it was a cool day. So I went. $11 senior ticket.

Booth Museum entrance

This is a very impressive museum. It has more paintings and sculpture, I think, than the Cowboy Museum. Fewer western and native American artifacts. And almost no pop culture stuff. So a serious museum.

I am not a judge of the value of art. I do know that this museum had fewer Remington pieces than the Cowboy Museum – just one, actually – but I know what I like and I liked what I saw here. There were many very detailed paintings. Very lifelike. I have included a few here.

Some nice sculpture too, both inside the building and out.

All in all, a very nice museum. I spent more than an hour inside. But the milk seems to be ok.

Categories: Adventures, GA, Places, TN7 | 1 Comment

TN7 Hop 3: Tifton GA to Cartersville GA

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Sparky
TN7 hop 3

220 miles almost exclusively via I-75 and I-475 around Macon. Cumulative tow miles: 615. Truck miles: 228. Cumulative truck miles: 691. The extra truck miles were to refuel.

Another easy hop in terms of navigation – get on I-75, drive 220 miles (with a few miles on I-475), get off, go a couple of miles to the destination. No rain this time, but plenty of traffic through Atlanta.

My 1-night stop was at the Tifton KOA Journey, a park I have stayed at before. A good overnight stop with free breakfast. It is also just 4 miles from a Walmart and a Murphy gas station with good prices, both of which I patronized.

It was a quiet night and a good breakfast.

Categories: GA, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7 | Leave a comment