Gatlinburg

On the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the town of Gatlinburg. When we arrived most of the population of the Old South was there to greet us. The streets were bustling with people and the cars on the street were from every southern state, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia. The terrific weather probably helped bring people out as well and almost everyone was in short sleeves and some even in shorts.

We patrolled Gatlinburg for most of the afternoon spending time at some special shops like the Harley Davidson clothing store, in case Peg and Lori drag us back to Sturgis for another bike week. The sreets of Gatlinburg are narrow and with the pedestrian traffic merging in the same space as cars was nerve wracking but became downright exciting when a few fire engines decided to join the party.

Apparently there has been a rock slide somewhere on US 40 that is preventing cars and trucks from using it; also there appears to be lots of stimulating money-road construction going on in Pigeon Forge so when you follow your GPS to get out of the area and in our case to start on our trek to Memphis you can get into trouble. The local traffic engineers were helpful in pointing out that their new temporary roads had rendered everyone's GPS as "wrong". Partially as a result of following the road signs and partially relying on the Garmin we got out of the area and onto the road to Memphis. We stopped at Cookeville for rest and food for the night. A Chinese buffet recommended by the hotel staff served us well for food.

Tomorrow we embark to Memphis and a visit with some of Mel's daughters in-laws. Saturday is the last non-work day before we open up our visit to the Route 61 casinos starting in Tunica, MS on Suncday.