{"id":14901,"date":"2025-07-27T07:21:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T11:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/?p=14901"},"modified":"2025-07-31T10:54:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:54:44","slug":"tn_11-hop-5-alcoa-tn-to-twinsburg-oh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/27\/tn_11-hop-5-alcoa-tn-to-twinsburg-oh\/","title":{"rendered":"TN_11 Hop 5: Alcoa TN to Twinsburg OH"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TN_11 Hop 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

503 miles via US 129, I-40, I-275 (around Knoxville), I-75, KY 491, US 25, KY 14, KY 17, KY 16, I-275 (around Cincinnati), I-471, I-71, I-271 (west of Akron), OH 8 and OH 82 with a refueling\/bio stop and a lunch break. Auto miles: 646. Cumulative route miles: 2517. Cumulative auto miles: 2704. The additional auto miles were due to sightseeing around Pigeon Forge TN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This route was not as difficult as it sounds. Most of the KY state route pieces were due to a decision to avoid yet another 30-minute slowdown on I-75 south of Cincinnati. I don’t know if zig-zagging through Kentucky saved any time but it was more interesting than sitting in stop-and-go traffic on the interstate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sightseeing in Pigeon Forge was not what I had planned. I wanted to visit Gatlinburg. But when we hit heavy traffic 4 miles from our destination and the GPS said it would take 37 minutes to get there, I turned around. See the theme? I don’t like bumper-to-bumper traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most interesting part of our trip to Pigeon Forge (which is nearly 90 minutes from Alcoa) was the return trip. We took a more southerly route which was a series of very narrow back roads with very sharp turns. Very remote. At one point we encountered a black bear in the road. We stopped and I tried to get a photo, but it scampered off into the woods before I could get it. But that was my first encounter with a bear in the woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our two nights in Alcoa were at the La Quinta Inn and Suites Knoxville Airport<\/a>. Yes, we were near an airport. But it isn’t a big airport and we heard no air traffic noise. This hotel was very good in every way: good bed, good cable, good A\/C, good shower, good free breakfast. It even had a good gym and a good pool – neither of which we used. And very reasonably priced. I give it an 8 out of 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We dined out, which is unusual for us – we went to the Shoney’s down the road. Shoney’s is like a small Golden Corral. A smaller buffet selection, but they had some good stuff. And cheaper than Golden Corral – $15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bear and me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Alligators and her<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marlene and Becky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

503 miles via US 129, I-40, I-275 (around Knoxville), I-75, KY 491, US 25, KY 14, KY 17, KY 16, I-275 (around Cincinnati), I-471, I-71, I-271 (west of Akron), OH 8 and OH 82 with a refueling\/bio stop and a lunch break. Auto miles: 646. Cumulative route miles: 2517. Cumulative auto miles: 2704. The additional … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,106,34,66,7,16,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-hotels","category-ky","category-places-oh","category-routes","category-places-tn","category-tn_11"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VniU-3Sl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14901"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14939,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14901\/revisions\/14939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}