The Great Adventure of the Road; Days 2 and 3

Site of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee (click to enlarge)

Asheville North Carolina is an interesting place.  After checking into our hotel, we drove downtown and walked several blocks in all directions to see the downtown.  It is quite lively with many restaurants, music, and lots of people having fun.

Additionally, we saw two women with a wolf/dog hybrid who were raising money for the care of these animals.  I have never seen a wolf/dog hybrid but this animal was very, very large.  Add about 20% to a large German Shepard and you will get the idea.  But the animal was docile and a wonderful animal. His fur was soft and I could tell he has been well cared for.  I enjoyed meeting him.

On Tuesday morning, we headed west toward Great Smoky Mountain National Park via the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was raining when we left the hotel and it rained the entire day, sometimes very, very hard.  The Blue Ridge Parkway was very colorful with fall foliage, but the sights were few and far between because of intermittent heavy fog along with the rain.  As far as we could see close to the roadway, the leaves were beautiful. No images as the rain fell hard and there were few places to pull off the roadway.

We arrived at the entrance and visitor's center at Great Smoky Mountains National Park and spent some time reading, learning and talking with a ranger.  Still raining hard.

As we drove over the mountains through the park, a couple of the roads were closed so that limited our travel straight through.  Still raining hard.  The color of the leaves on the North Carolina side were beautiful, but there was almost not color on the Tennessee side.

Arriving in Gatlinburg, a small tourist town at the west edge of the park, we decided to have lunch and walk around.  Gatlinburg was gaudy, overly commercialized, crowded and not worth visiting, in my opinion.  A place can be commercialized but still kept quaint or classy.  This place was wall-to-wall commercial establishments, all vying for your attention.  We ate a nice lunch and got out of town.  It rained the entire time we were there.  No images.

We then headed west and went through Pigeon Forge.  It was the same as Gatlinburg, but with a much wider road and miles and miles of gaudy, commercialized buildings.  Heavy traffic and rain. No images. So far, not very good for photography.

We drove through heavy rain to Nashville and arrived at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Hotel ready to get off the road.  Driving I-40 for a few hours in pouring rain was not fun.  If you haven't seen the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, you owe it to yourself and your significant other to make a trip there.  Look under Google images and I suspect you will find many images.

We drove to downtown Nashville, to Broadway, parked and walked up and down experiencing the honky tonks, resaturants and other interesting establishments.  The difference between Nashville and Gatlinburg is character.  Nashville had quite a bit of character in its touristy area.  We had a nice dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery and walked around some more.  It rained off and on.  I accidentally left my camera in the car so I made no images.  My fault and I regret it.  Lesson learned!

This morning we had a nice breakfast at a Cracker Barrel, then headed west again on I40. Rain, rain, rain!  It rained about half the way to Memphis. Finally it stopped! Hooray!

We arrived in Memphis with the intention of having some great Memphis barbeque, which we did.  We had researched the subject and had an excellent barbeque lunch at Central Barbeque. I did make some images of the outside and inside of the restaurant.

Serendipitouisly, across the street, was the Lorraine Motel.  The Lorraine is where Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. I believe it is one of the more significant places in the United States for the effect it had on our entire society.  I spent some time thinking about the event, carefully looked over the exact spot Rev. King was killed and looked across the parking lot to where the assassin was located.  I wanted to get a good look and gain a personal perspective on how things are laid out, the distances and such.  I found this very interesting.  The image at the top of this post is one I made there.

We then drove west across the Mississippi River (The Big Muddy, as she is known) and followed the infernal I-40 with the intention of making it to Fort Smith, Arkansas. But it wasn't to be.  We hit traffic that was dead stopped.  According to INRX on my phone, the backup was 14.9 miles.  As we sat for what seem like hours (it was actually 1.25 hours), we traveled about 8 miles until we found an exit, then headed north, then west.  We only got as far as Conway, Arkansas, which is where I am now.

But all is not lost.  We found an excellent family restaurant here in town.  The name is Stoby's and I can highly recommend the food and the wait staff was excellent.  Again, serendipity!

So that is it.  No many images so far, but more opportunities will present themselves in the future. Tomorrow is another day and another adventure.  We just take things as they come, go to plan b or c or just push on enjoying the exploration, wandering, and each other's company.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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