Thursday 02.11.2010

I slept pretty good again, surprisingly, and woke up about 0800. I dozed another 45 minutes or so before getting up. When I did get up I started collecting my belongings and getting packed up.

Frank was already up and mostly ready. Jeremy was getting ready for work. We all were reluctant that we had to leave, but it was a good visit. We got on the road shortly after 11 AM.

Frank and I drove an hour or so and stopped for breakfast, looking at the map and deciding which route to take. According to the GPS and the way it had calculated, we could be home by 0130. That's not including fuel stops and such. Daniel had checked the internet again for us to confirm that we needed to cross the mountains on I-40 because of snow on 77.

We got back on the road and made pretty good time, until we got to Columbia. We sat for 45 minutes to an hour, moving forward at an idle speed--at least we were moving--for no reason that we could see, other that the same 2 lanes of highway and on/off ramps. When that snarl opened up we continued on our way, up 26 and over to 40/74, thinking that we would get through the Smoky Mountains in daylight. Just south of Asheland traffic stopped again. And again we slowly moved. I think we were 2 hours going 4 miles. The emergency vehicles came up from behind, and it wasn't very much longer after that when we started moving again, finally getting up to highway 40.

Well. After getting onto 40, about an hour after getting onto 40, there is a message programmed on the message board thing. Highway 40 is closed due to fallen rock; all travellers will use exit 20 and be detoured........Oh great. It's already getting dark, and I really don't know much about this area. We stopped for fuel in and waste out and a serious consultation with the map and the GPS. Oh yeah, the signage also said to follow the detour signage as the GPS devices are not accurate. Ugh. We could have stopped for the night, but seeing as how we didn't get very far, we wanted to keep going. So...

We chose to go through the Great Smoky Mountains, in the dark, because on the map it was the only halfway decent looking road there was to get through, without driving several miles and several hours further north and getting into the snow stuff.

Oh, yeah. If you have been there, you know that it was a "difficult" drive. Slow, winding road, that was in fairly good condition. There had been snow in the higher elevations maybe today that had been plowed, but probably from the storm earlier in the week. Large branches, and entire trees had recently fallen across the road, and there were piles of sawdust where they had been removed. But the rest of the tree was where ever it had fallen. Very creepy. Oh, Yeah. And the signs that said to "Watch for Elk", "Watch for Falling Rock", "Watch for Ice and Snow on Road". Geesh--

Well, Frank and I chose to have a positive adventure, and in the end, we were both relieved to see a straight road. It was a cool drive, though. I'll link some pics that Frank took of Gatlinburg (we think) in a few days. The city lights below from way up a mountain in the dark. No elk or other animals, no falling rocks, and only a relatively short stretch the had snow on the road with maybe a little ice under it. It had been salted and sanded very well, so there was no problem for me to drive in it.

We finally came out on the west side of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park Parkway. It was about 8:30. Now what?

We chose to drive for another hour or so, gawking at the gaudy commercialism that Gatlinburg is. I had never been there, and Frank hadn't either. We kept going, finally coming into Knoxville. I was more than ready to stop. By the time we got checked in and settled into our room, it was 10:30 or so.

We were both wound up; Frank went in and showered while I had some soup that I had made and brought with us. We are finally settling down, and it's almost 0200. Checkout is 11, but the desk guy "Ernie" said it could be extended with a phone call. He also commented that there were several other guests here from Michigan, and asked about our trip so far. I mentioned that we had been detoured from 40--indeed, there was a notice on the desk that there the highway is closed in both directions due to falling rock--and is scheduled to reopen 3/1/20. I also mentioned the extremely slow traffic backups....

So. Here we are. Frank is sleeping, I'm trying to stay awake, and tomorrow we'll head home. We've got 8 hours still, according to the GPS.

Thank you for reading. Hugs.