A Spectacular Drive

Note: It’s that time of year and it won’t be long before people are posting pictures of the Fall colors wherever they are. I thought I’d get a head start with a repost of a 2011 blog from our travels as fulltime RVers.

We left Walnut Meadow campground in Berea, Kentucky a little after 9 yesterday morning, and enjoyed a spectacular 220-mile drive down Interstate 75 to Knoxville, Tennessee, where we picked up Interstate 40 and drove into the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. Except for the brief time we were in the Knoxville metro area, I don’t think there was a mile of the trip that wasn’t breathtaking.

The hillsides were alive with color, and around every curve, one or both of us was saying “Oh my!” or “Wow, look over here!”

We made this same trip last year and were just as amazed at the beauty. If you haven’t seen the Smokey Mountains in the fall, when all of the trees are ablaze, you haven’t lived yet.

The only bad thing about the trip is being the driver, because the route through the mountains is very winding, and you have to pay attention or you can get into trouble in a hurry. But it’s hard with so many distractions.

There were a couple of tunnels, some 45 mile per hour curves, and in a few places, rocks had fallen down onto the side of the road.

Eventually, we made our way to Pride RV Resort, which is only a mile or so from the interstate, near Maggie Valley. With 130 full hookup RV sites, this is a nice Resort Parks International (RPI) affiliate, and we got a pull-through site facing a beautiful fast flowing river. Even though they had an inch of snow here the night before, and it got down to 24 degrees for us overnight, the park still has a lot of RVs here. We were pleased to find that we had a good shot toward the sky for our rooftop TV dish and fast 3G signal on our Verizon air card. Because it was going to be so cold overnight, I just added some more freshwater to our tank and plugged into the 50 amp power.   

Once we were parked, we drove another few miles into Maggie Valley and toured the Wheels Through Time Museum, which has a huge collection of antique and vintage motorcycles, all American made, as well as several neat old cars, and all sorts of other memorabilia. And every car and motorcycle in the place runs!

This is a gearhead’s nirvana, and whether you’re into hill climbing, dirt track racing, or street riding, they have some of the earliest motorcycles that helped create the sport.  

At one time, there were more motorcycle manufacturing companies in America than there were automobile companies, and the museum has many examples of the early day bikes, such as this Apache from the early 1900s (top) or this old Indian (bottom). Did you notice that both motorcycles have pedals, just like a bicycle? That’s how you started them, by getting on and pedaling!

They are raffling off this beautiful old 1936 Harley Davidson Knucklehead, and I told Miss Terry I should buy a ticket because I’d look great on a classic bike like that.

She suggested that this ride might be more my style!

There were several nice police and Army motorcycles, and a lot of other interesting things made by motorcycle companies; everything from garden tillers to outboard motors.

Terry isn’t into motorcycles at all, but she found a lot of things to enjoy on our visit to the museum.

Back at the campground, we stopped to visit with Lenny and Janis Thomas, who we first met years ago when we were teaching at Life on Wheels, and last saw at our Ohio rally a few weeks ago. They are hanging out here until they go back to New Jersey for Thanksgiving, and then they are headed for Florida.

We’ll beat them there, because today we’re headed down into South Carolina, and maybe into Georgia. I need to be someplace warm!

Thought For The Day – When creating wives, God promised man that good and obedient wives would be found in all corners of the world. Then He made the world round!