Tennessee

North Carolina to Tennessee.

Written by Sue & Pete.

After the ordeal that we went through 'en route' from South Carolina to North Carolina,we were glad to be leaving Rosman, even if the site we had stayed on was so nice,

So, on Saturday 19th July we set off heading onto US Highway 64, East, Out of the mountains and towards Brevard. After only about 30 minutes of traveling something that resembled a coyote, ran straight out in front of the rv!!! Pete did his best to miss it by slamming on the brakes and blasting his air horns but to no avail, it disappeared under the front of the coach and then came out the drivers side, behind us, and with our RV having quite a high ground clearance we believe it ran off , back into the woods where it had appeared from, to lick its wounds!!

It was then that the we heard an awful 'scraping' sound, coming from the front underneath of the RV, and Pete was forced to pull over to the side of the road to inspect the extent of the now inevitible damage(the only narrow, single lane road we have come across since being in America!!) we looked underneath to find the cause of the horrible scraping noise, as the Coyote had passed under the RV, it had caught the Exhaust pipe of the Generator, ripping it off its mounting brackets, and it was being dragged along the floor!! It was still attached to the manifold of the generator, so after 'borrowing' a bungie cord, that was already securing our reclining chairs to the back of the rv, we managed to strap it up, out of harms way, until we could find somewhere a little more safer to fully secure the pipe. The whole incident was very up setting to say the least .
We moved on, through Hendersonville, and onto Interstate 26 North, direction Tennessee. it was here we found a proper rest area and pulled in to inspect the strapped up pipe, we discovered that the end of the pipe seemed to be chafing alongside the inner front tyre, so we spent the next 2 hours or more, with our trusty toolkit in hand, under the front of the RV stripping the whole assembly down, with a view to removing the pipe altogether and have it re-assembled when we arrived at our next stop. Of course, all the nuts and bolts where seized up completely and since our 150 piece toolkit cost only $18, we were a little under equipped to say the least!! We also seemed to be attracting alot of attention, due to the fact that Sue was also lying under the RV, spanner in hand, (Dont think Americans had seen a woman with tools in her hand before!) and we lost count of how many truckers had come across to ask if we needed any help, and obviously, comment on 'Mechanic Sue' One old trucker, he looked like an Owner-Driver, came over and said to me "Jeez I wish I could get my wife under my truck when it needs fixing, wait till i tell her!!" So, we dont know what can of worms we opened there!! after removing every seized nut and bolt, EXCEPT ONE!!!! it just wouldnt come loose, we decided to 'bend' the pipe a bit more to enable us to secure it up, out of the way of the front tyre, with the help of yet another bungie cord off our reclining chairs. These chairs now were getting a little thin on 'bungies' so, due to our current bad luck, decided to remove the chairs from the rear ladder of the RV and put them in the back of the car, just to be on the safe side!!

We continued on with our journey, which turned out to be uneventful after that, and arrived at Ripplin' Waters Campground, Sevierville, Tennessee, late afternoon.

The campground itself, which is set in the foothills of The Great Smoky Mountains, near Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, did conjour up a nice, quite, relaxing site next to a trickling stream, just what we needed after all that had happened over the past week or so! Well, we were slightly wrong!! The site was ok, but extremely large and busy! Kids, dogs, bikes, tents, RV'S, trailers, cars and Harley's everywhere! it was like a Camping and Motorhome exhibition! there was, literally hundreds of vehicles! and there was a river, ok, a bit short of water,(nearly dry) but thats because they have had so little rain. Oh, and the equivalent of the M25 running at the other side of the site! Maybe it was because we had a bad journey, everything will look better in the morning.

On Site, Ripplin Waters, Sevierville, TN.

Ripplin Waters RV Park, Sevierville, TN.

Gattlinburg.

As we had booked to stay at Ripplin Waters for a week, there was a lot to get in, and, as we discovered, it resembled a mini 'Orlando' lots and lots of tourist attractions and plenty of cut price outlet shops too! and, believe it or not, we still had the dreaded humidity. So, Monday Morning, we were on our way to Gattlinburg, which is a little further on, through Pigeon Forge, towards the mountains. A small town with plenty to see and do, first stop was the Wax Works.

Ripleys Believe it or not building, Gatlinburg, TN.

Wax Works.

At the entrance was a giant figure of King Kong! complete with Jane, he must have been at least 2 stories high! this place was pretty cool as you could have your photos taken with the figures, that had been strategically positioned, check out the pics!!

Entrance to the Wax Works & King Kong, Gatlinbutg, TN.

"I Dream Of Jeannie"

"Hey, Adrian!...... Adrian!!!"

"life is like a box of chocolates"

Willie Nelson

"A pirate's life for me"

"Beam me up, Scotty!"

"I feel like i'm flying"

"Shaken, not stirred"

Men In Black.

"Follow the yellow brick road!"

Star Cars Museum.

Entrance to the Star Cars Museum, Gatlinburg, TN. (Note the 'Batmobile')

Our next place to visit was the Star Cars Museum, this is a collection of original cars donated by the film and television companies, and by famous stars themselves, and all are on display, and by now Pete was in his element , The James Bond BMW complete with an area displaying lots of his gadgets and of course the famous Omega Seamaster watch, Back to the Future's Dolorian, Smokey and the Bandit Trans-Am, KITT from Knight Rider, Mike Tyson's Lamborghini and many, many more.

"The General Lee"

The Beverley Hillbillies 'Jalopy'

Bob Hope's Buick.

James Bond 'Goldeneye' BMW.

James Bond's and Pete's Omega Seamaster

Mike Tyson's Lamborghini

Smokey and the Bandit's black Trans-Am.

Elvis Presley's Lincoln Continental.

"Ghostbusters"

Italian Job Mini Cooper

We spent the day in Gattlinburg, having lunch in a very nice Italian, located on the main street, and taking in plenty of shops with souvenirs and we also found a 'Christmas Shop', complete with model snowy villages, decorated xmas trees, fairy lights, and all stuff related to Chistmas, again, anybody that knows Pete will guess.... he was like a kid in a sweet shop, and if his wallet wasn't in my handbag, he'd have spent at least 2 grand, just 'trimming up' the RV! and he was even enquiring about working there!! It was time to leave!!!

The Christmas Shop, Gatlinburg, TN.

Muscle Car Museum.

Muscle Car Museum, Pigeon Forge, TN.

Inside the Museum.....

Is a 50's style garage........

And a Diner! Muscle Car Museum, Pigeon Forge, TN.

Tuesday is another day out, and this time it's off to Pigeon Forge to see the Muscle Car Museum, which really takes you back in time. There was 90 cars worth over $5 million and even a great 1950s coffee bar! there was a lot of dollars worth in this museum and plenty of photo's were took! Even the shop was amazing! with lots of Elvis Presley photos ,I love Lucy, The wizard of oz clocks, number plates, and many many more reminders from the 5os. We took over 200 photos and we've attached a few below:

Sue's Birthday and the Aquarium.

Guess what folks ! its that time of the year we hate ,yep, another birthday has crept up on me, and i would like to thank those of you that sent me good wishes and even birthday cards ,I got to choose what to do today (Thursday) and it had to be breakfast at Denny's, one of the best breakfasts we have found whilst touring America, yum,yum!!then on to Ripley's Aquarium in the Smokies! It houses a 1.4 million gallon tank with a walk through tunnel, you can view 12ft sharks, stingrays and over 10,000 other exotic creatures , We spent a good few hours taking pictures and even filming as much as we could, even though it was a little dark! Again, we took over 100 photos, a small selection are below:

Seahorses

Stingrays and Sharks.

Shark

Sawfish Shark.

Barracuda.

Jellyfish.

Entrance of the Aquarium.

Red Bellied Piranah's.

Spider Crabs.

Tropical Reef Tank.

Sea Turtle.

Sawfish Shark.

As we left the Aquarium and headed back to the car, we drifted into a small shopping Plaza with only a handful of small shops and happened upon an Irish gift shop, and as Pete's Family are mostly Irish, we had to go in!! It was a lovely shop, stocked with lots of Celtic items! A few gifts were purchased for the 'Paddy's' back home (even i got one!!) and we even found Pete's Surname 'Coat of Arms' from Ireland. As you can imagine, a very nice day out for my 40th birthday!!!........ ok, i know i'm not too good on dates!! but this is one i won't forget in a hurry! Pete even did a special 'Barby' that evening! A thoroughly great day.

The Great Smoky Mountains.

After a day of rest the next trip has to be" The Great Smokie Mountains"these have to be seen to be believed! ,9 million tourists visited last year, making it the most visited State Park in the USA, beating Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. The blueish mist that you see hovering over the mountains is due to the rain and evaporation from the tree's and its this that gives them their name.

Over 1,500 black bears live here in this park, thats 2 bears per sq mile and guess what?? we didn't see one. Last year 14,896 couples tied the knot here and it's the 2nd most popular wedding destination in the U.S.A, after Las Vegas.
This place really is a huge tourist area, attracting tens of thousands each year and is extremely busy, there is everything here, whatever you want to do, be it talking in a show, which there is many many of them, or taking a trip to 'Dollywood', did i not mention that this is Ms Parton's home town?? they even have a bronze statue of her here! Of course you can end up spending a small fortune and probably a few months here, and it made a nice change to see and do all these 'tourist bits' but even we are on a budget and must be sensible.

Cherokee Indian Museum.

This was in the Car park to the Museum, Cherokee, NC.

The plate describing the Totem-pole

We had heard that there was a Cherokee Indian museum located on the other side of the Smokies, over the state line in North Carolina, and could not miss this chance to go and see it, Again, we were on our way early and enjoyed an early morning drive through the mountains, arriving at Cherokee around 9.30am. We were greeted by a giant totem pole in the Museum carpark and also giant Buffalos were located throughout the town. As always with factual Museums, we found it extremely interesting, watching short films about these people and learning of their lives and history. It also moved us to learn that, as with all Native Indian people in America, they received such a raw deal and, of course we, the 'English' always seem to be there. As we are experiencing American History, first hand, we have learned of certain British military involvment, years and years ago, within the USA. I'll leave it at that, needless to say that it probably wasn't our finest hour.

The entrance to the Museum, Cherokee, NC.

Indian Wagon in the entrance foyer, Cherokee, NC.

Cherokee Indian Woman.

Cherokee Indian Cloak, made from turkey feathers!

Feasting Indian.

The British 'Involvment'

The Three Cherokees that travelled to England with Timberlake!

A portrait of the voyage to England.

Timberlakes memoirs.

General Info.

The Cherokees arrive in Plymouth.

The story of The Cherokees visit to the UK is far to long to try and explain on here, but basically they travel to the UK to meet King George III, and also to try and fully understand the British ways and cultures, whilst staying loyal to the Cherokee beliefs and way of life. It is an interesting story and if anyone would like to know more, just 'google' ' Henry Timberlake and the Cherokees'


The week we had planned to spend at Sevierville, eventually became two, due to the fact there was more to see and do here than we had at first thought! Also, one of the Slide-out toppers had started to split so we took the opportunity of the extra time we now had on our hands to employ the services of 'Ricky's Mobile RV Repairs' to replace the topper. It also gave Pete the chance to replace the Generator exhaust pipe that was ripped off by the unlucky coyote!

Our torn slide-out topper!

In the meantime, the car started to develop an intermittent 'non starting' fault, as we turned the key we just heard a 'clicking' sound, Pete knew it probably would be the starter motor or the solinoid, and a visit to a local repair garage was called for. After putting the Jeep on their diagnostic machine, it was confirmed that a new starter was needed (or so we thought, read on!!) and a price of $450 was quoted!! Pete had already priced up a new starter from the Jeep dealer, 3 miles away,at around $80 so he thought he would just give them a call and see how much it would cost to also fit the starter. "All in, including the starter motor, $175.00, fitted" said the Sevice manager, well, there was no argument, off to the Jeep dealer he went and had the starter replaced. All was fine for a couple of days, but low and behold, the fault and 'clicking' sound returned, so back to the Jeep dealer we went and THEY identified a loose connection on one of the battery terminals, so there was probably no fault on the original starter, so much for the diagnostic machine at the previous garage!!! a quick clean and tighten up of the connection solved the problem, and at the time of writing this, all is fine!!

The car also developed an electrical fault on the rear lights, when we put the side-lights on, the drivers turn signal also came on, I won't go on with this other than to say everything got sorted by the very helpful Jeep dealer, we will be glad to be moving on for a break!!

We could go on for ever on the places to see and things to do here at The Great Smoky Mountains area, and we are really glad that we took in this fantastic State Park. We enjoyed the State of Tennessee, even though we didn't really scratch the surface. We have tried to give you a brief look at some of the attractions that we attended, but I can tell you now, you will need at least a month here, to see and do it all, but we are on a schedule.

However, our next town and community are totally opposite!!!

"Life in the PAST lane" is their motto!!

DETAILS TO FOLLOW............