Nothin' Special
I started off on a county-counting trip today. It was originally planned as a wander through the area around the Smokey Mountains that would end in Washington DC, and so in all my notes to myself I call it the Washington Trip, or the DC Trip ... even though Washington itself dropped off the itinerary a few weeks back. The plan now is to get up to Charles City County, in Virginia, east of Richmond, and then turn west for Kentucky. If I stick to the plan, I'll finish getting all the counties in Alabama (there's only one left anyway) and Virginia (8 counties, plus some of those pesky Independent Cities, which I don't really count but will be going through anyway). That'll complete 29 of the 50 states, plus leave only 1 county in North Carolina and 7 in Tennessee. I'll also get a handful in Kentucky and a few in Georgia, but won't be close to finishing with those states.
So today was all freeway driving, from San Antonio to Bay St Louis, Mississippi, where I'm now checked into a really dilapidated motel on the "scenic" route, US 90, debating whether to go out for dinner or just snack on the Wheat Thin crackers I brought with me. Not really hungry.
I saw two things today worth mentioning. First, in the Gonzales County rest area near Seguin, Texas, a very large white spider. I tried to take a picture of it -- it was about 3" across -- but I only brought my little pocket camera on this trip, and I'd left my phone in the car, so I couldn't get a picture close-up enough to be worthwhile. I did, though, get the spider to attack a stick, which was interesting.
Secondly, as I passed the junction of I-12 and I-10 near Slidell, Louisiana, with the sun setting in my rearview mirror, the full moon rose ahead of me bigger than I've ever seen it. If the full moon normally is the size of a salad bowl, this moon was the size of a charger. Huge. Absolutely huge in the thickness of the atmosphere. Soon, of course, it receded to its regular salad-bowl size as it rose, but it was stunning while it was low.
The weather reports ahead indicate I can expect clouds and light rain for the entire planned trip. Tonight I'll decide whether to stick to the plan, or head instead for Florida (7 counties remaining) and Georgia (68 counties remaining; no way I'll get all of those). But I've identified a number of things of interest on the planned route -- waterfalls and landscapes and oddities, and one museum that exerts the strongest pull on me -- so I'll probably keep to the plan despite the weather. It's not like it's going to be icy....
DAY TWO
And we're off!
I left early from Bay St. Louis; woke up at 3:20, on the road before 4:30, having decided that no more sleep would come my way. Drove along the coast without knowing it, because of the fog and the darkness, until I saw a bench next to the road on the right, facing out to sea. I recognised the set-up, having seen it often enough in Corpus and Galveston and other places with beaches. Thought about stopping to dip my toe in the water, but decided it wasn't that exciting an idea. Got on I-10 eventually and headed off to Alabama, then up I-65 to Montgomery, where the wander really begins.
Sunrise was as glorious as moonrise had been. A bank of clouds overhead ended abruptly just to the east of my route, and the fiery colours that danced on the glowing edge of the clouds were fluorescent.
From Montgomery, I took back roads up to the town of Sylacauga, where I stopped to see a monument commemorating the survival of a local woman who was struck by a meteorite in the 1950s. While there, I fell into conversation with a local guy named Mark, who used to be a reporter for the local paper. He told me that the flap over the meteor ended up ruining the woman's marriage; her husband wanted to capitalise on it, and she didn't (or maybe the other way around), and yada yada yada they ended up getting divorced. A sad end to a surprising event. I guess it's like winning the lottery. |
| Gantt Marble Quarry |
He also told me about a place where you could see the local marble quarry, not too far out of my way, so I grabbed a sandwich to go from a local deli and took a drive over there and had lunch al fresco. Nice.
After that, I drove up through Clay County (finishing Alabama in my county-counting) and up the scenic route that passes Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in the state.
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| Cheaha Mountain |
DAY THREE
Hike in bear country; frustration and excitement
So my day started with a nice hike through the woods to a waterfall. I followed the directions on Roadtrippers, in a remote area of northern Georgia, which has yet to fully grasp the efficacies of road signs; but after a conversation with a forgetful local (“There’s a sign … I forget what it says, but it’s on the left. Or the right. I forget which…”) found the parking area for the trailhead. There was one other car there. As I was reading the big signs warning about feral hogs and telling you what to do when you encounter a bear, and making such an encounter seem inevitable, two girls with big dogs came down from the trail. They said they’d come from the falls and that no one was there; so I was looking forward to having it to myself.
It was about a mile and a half hike with a lot of switchbacks, uphill and down. I picked up a rock with a sharp edge to use in case I did encounter a bear…. I don’t like the idea of bears and thought I should buy a gun. I’d stop every few yards and look around, especially behind me, for bears. Didn't see any, but it made the hike more exciting.
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| Fall Creek Falls |
direction. Turns out there’s another parking area, about 400 yards from the falls down an easy, nearly-level trail. Got into a conversation with three guys from North Carolina, visiting on their just-about-annual reunion weekend, and they offered me a ride back to my car. I couldn’t say no.
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| on the road to Brasstown Bald |
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| visitors' center atop Brasstown Bald |
The top of Brasstown Bald was very crowded; there was a long line of cars waiting to get in, and throngs of tourists at the top. (One interesting thing about them was that about half of the foreign tourists seemed to be South Asian, and almost no East Asians; out West, it seems to be the same proportion of East Asian tourists, and no South Asians. I wonder why the difference?) Nice view from the top of the Bald. Bought a couple of fridge magnets, but the only T-shirt I liked wasn’t available in my size, or my wife’s. Plus it was overpriced, so I didn’t mind passing on it.
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| the view to the North from Brasstown Bald |
After that, up into North Carolina, to Clay’s Corner General Store (“Home of the Possum Drop”), but it’s out of business. Drove on, got to the Tail of the Dragon, a stretch of US Highway 129 reknowned for its curves. Very popular with motorcyclists. (“Motorcycles: High Crash Area Next 30 Miles”) I was tempted to stop for the night before making the drive, because it was getting late and there'd be nothing to see in the gloaming, there'd only be the drive itself, and with a Subaru SUV instead of a zippy little roadster, the drive itself wasn't destined to be exciting. But I didn't find a decent-looking motel before I came to the Tail, so I went ahead.
I quickly caught up to a clump of cars, but the slowpoke up front let us by when he could. Caught up to another clump, and again the slowpoke let us by at the next pullout. Then caught up to another clump. This guy didn’t let us by. Instead, his car caught on fire. And it seems he had a weapon in his car. Thank God there was another vehicle between his and mine, because bullets were exploding left and right. The car in between caught two in the grill. Very exciting for a couple of minutes, then for the next three hours we waited for the fire truck to come put out the fire. By the time they did there was nothing left of the car but a burnt-out hulk.
As a result of the delay I didn’t even make it as far as Knoxville today; I had expected to get all the way into Virginia. But I have plenty of time; so much, in fact, that I may even go for that last North Carolina county. And it’s been a pretty nice trip, even exciting on occasion….
DAY FOUR
Eastern Tennessee and driving in circles
Last night, when I was looking for a motel, I went back and forth on the highway in Maryville, Tennessee, until I found one that suited. Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning and left, it was so cloudy that I couldn't tell which way was East, and I didn't remember which way I'd been heading on the highway. I turned the wrong way, stopped for breakfast, and then headed on down the highway ... in the wrong direction. After about 15 minutes I started to wonder why there weren't any signs directing me to Knoxville, so when I saw signs for highways South, I pulled over and checked the map on line and discovered my mistake. A little wasted time, spent driving in rain.
Found the highway I wanted and headed for my next planned stop. I knew what road I wanted and approximately where it was; unfortunately I never found it, and I've decided that it's because the one I wanted was the one road that didn't have a street sign; if there'd been one (and I bet there had been) it had been removed for construction. But it was a minor stop -- a memorial in a cemetery for a boat that sank at the end of the Civil War, drowning a bunch of wounded Union soldiers being sent back north.
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| Sunsphere |
I walked up the hill to Market Square, a very pleasant space that, I reckon, is a pretty happening place on nice evenings. At that hour of the morning it was still enjoyable. And parking is convenient and fairly inexpensive -- about a dollar an hour. The Scrooge in me is gratified. It reflects favourably on the city. I took a few pictures, then headed on up the road for Rocky Top.
I'd always thought Rocky Top was a made-up place. When I saw it on the map, I thought, "Oh, I have to go there." Besides, it was on the way to the first Tennessee counties that were my objective for the day. Let me tell you, though, Rocky Top, Tennessee, ain't nuthin' worth seeing. The only good thing about that detour was that I unexpectedly found myself in Calhoun County, which lies near the city limit.
I also found out that, until recently, Rocky Top was called something else. The good people of the town changed the name a couple of years ago because ... well, because they wanted to. I suspect it's an attempt to capitalise on the image born of the bluegrass classic. (I did, though, get gas and coffee at the Rocky Top Market ... which is in another town some miles away.)
On the way to the unseen counties, I happened to pass the Appalachian Arts Craft Center. I've had extraordinarily good luck at finding well-made, attractive and interesting pieces in such places throughout Appalachia (even in West-By-God-Virginia), so I stopped in for a look. And of course I left with a beautiful and reasonably-priced ceramic bowl by a local woman named Sheila Briscoe, and with a great deal of information from the two women who staff the shop. And this evening I will spend a little time exploring the maps and brochures they offered me, on the chance that they will indicate some point of interest that I'm not already aware of along my route, or not too far out of my way.
Eastern Tennessee, like almost all of the southern Appalachians, is God's Country, and I don't mean just that there's a church at every crossroad. (There is, but that's not what I mean.) I lived in West Virginia for a time, and found it despoiled. But in Alabama, and Georgia, and Tennessee, Appalachia consists of fairly broad valleys rimmed with low hills and mountains, cut by good roads with prosperity peeking out on every side. But when I crossed into Virginia today (after another wasted hour in the rain driving in what turned out to be a big circle -- damn those absorbing audiobooks! Made me miss my turn; that, and the fact that highway signage generally follows the Georgia model, where Less Is More) I was immediately struck by the sudden decline in that feeling of beauty and comfort: at the Virginia line, the buildings alongside the road become abandoned and dilapidated; the road surface suddenly is rough, shoulders disappear; everything that, in Tennessee, was neat, even manicured, is in Virginia unkempt and trashy. I don't know why there would be such a difference in the space of an imaginary line on a map, but it was certainly noticeable.My last stop for the day was at Natural Tunnel State Park, which had honor-envelopes at the gate. Pay $4 and park. It's a small park and it was almost 5PM, which, at this time of year, is almost sundown. I only had large bills and the park closes at dusk, so I just made a quick drive through to see what there was to see (I recalled thinking, on viewing the place's page on RoadTrippers, that it wasn't all that big a draw). It seems to be a few houses all decorated for Christmas, a parking lot, and a short trail to the tunnel. I decided to go on, since the smallest bill I had was a ten and I only had a few minutes before closing time.
DAY FIVE
Istanbul all over again
I have two batteries for my little pocket camera. The one that came with it is usually good for about 300 pictures, unless I use flash (which I hardly ever do); the back-up, a cheap knock-off, seldom lasts for 50 pictures. They each take several hours to charge, so I've been alternating every night.
Today, the good battery gave out after I took a bunch of pictures of dinosaurs in some guy's back yard; when I got back to the car I swapped it out for the bad battery, and that gave out after about 6 pictures. Just like when I was in Istanbul, and the AA batteries in our first digital camera died. I'm left with only memories that are hard to dredge up after a short time.
Oh, well. I think I got all the really good stuff.
My first stop this morning was for breakfast in the pouring rain in Unicoi, Tennessee, at a pleasant little diner where they make their own doughnuts. I had a mediocre veggie omelet (really wish I'd thought to ask for cheese on it) and a doughnut. The doughnut was wonderful. Served with the doughnut hole on top like a little pyramid, and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. And still hot. I wouldn't mind being fat my whole life if it was because of doughnuts like that.
It was still raining when I got to Burnside, North Carolina, where I expected to turn off to find something called The Devil's Courthouse. Roadtrippers' Google Maps shows it as being about 8 miles south of town, where there's a state park. When I asked about it in the town, they said no, it was on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the guy there got out a Parkway map and showed me where it is, about an hour away, the other side of Asheville. That's twice that Roadtrippers' map function has lied to me on this trip. Never did before.... I will have to complain (again) to them about it.
So I went up the road to see the Mile High Swinging Bridge, which, according to Roadtrippers, is in Grandfather Mountain State Park. Except it's not: it's in Grandfather Mountain Park, a private park; the State Park is the unaccessible (except on foot) territory to the east, given to the state by the owner of Grandfather Mountain Park to ensure that it never gets developed. And the private park wants $20 to go in to see the Mile High Swinging Bridge (which is, the gatekeepers says, actually a mile high but doesn't swing). And there's a wildlife park and some other run-of-the-mill attractions, none of which sounded like a pleasant outing in the rain, so I decided to pass on that.
Then came the dinosaurs. Some guy in the suburbs of Bluff City, Tennessee, has so consuming a love of the critters that he has devoted his substantial backyard (and I mean several acres) to a sort of nylon Jurassic Park. It's not easy to find, but when you get there you know it: the entrance looks just like a slightly downscaled version of the movie's theme park. And he has built I don't know how many life-sized dinosaurs. The quality isn't as good as those professionally-done animatronic things that tour the country's natural-history museums, where you can see 5 or 6 for $25; but they are surprisingly good, faithfully researched and plentiful. And delightful. There are a couple with moving parts, which I thought added nothing to the experience, but the rest of them are great fun (especially, of course, the T-Rex, and the Allosaurus, which I admit startled me when I came suddenly upon it as I wandered the jungle setting).
After that, I took a hike up (or rather, down) to Blue Hole Falls, which was very pretty -- the rain had stopped well before that but the path was very slippery. It's 3 waterfalls down a slope, the last about 20 feet high and falling into a blue-ish swimming hole, and a fourth waterfall providing the drain. I had it to myself. And since it's at the back of a well-settled neighbourhood of houses that give the appearance of being well-armed with long guns, I wasn't too concerned about bears this time.
Travelling on, I stopped at the world's shortest tunnel, Backbone Tunnel (about 8 feet long), then up into Virginia to see the Lincoln Theater in Marion -- supposed to be very nice, architecturally, but the outside was nothing special and the interior was closed -- and the grave of Dr Pepper, for whom the drink was named, in Rural Retreat.
And tonight, I'm sleeping in Mayberry, North Carolina, going in the morning to see Andy and Opie, and the Courthouse, and Wally's Service Station. Later I expect to pass through Mount Pilot.
(And, by the way, since my camera has no usable battery at the moment, I can't upload pictures. Check back tomorrow.)
DAY SIX
My Luck Runs Out
Well, I guess it had to happen: sightseeing in bad weather. It was 42 when I left my motel room this morning, and I doubt that it made it to 50 all day. And it rained all morning, including during a two-and-a-half-hour hike up to Hanging Rock. Which was totally worth it.
It took me a while to locate Andy & Opie. I'd looked at the layout of the town on a map, and that's usually enough, but this phobia that Southeasterners have about signage very nearly defeated me. Seems to me that, if you want people to find things in your town, you'd put up signs that name the streets; you'd have signs indicating which directions things are; you'd maybe even say helpful things like "No Return Access This Exit". And if you have a street that is known by several names, like Main Street and Route 89 and US Hwy 615, or whatever, you'd use those names consistently.
Well, folks round here feel differently, I reckon.
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| Andy & Opie |
Then I went off in search of the grave of Chang & Eng, the original Siamese twins. Should that be "graves"? They're both in the same hole in the ground; is it a plural hole? I don't know. Anyway, they married sisters and somehow contrived to have 21 children between them, a fact that, once learned, inspires endless speculation as to technique and mechanics. My Roadtrippers app, exhibiting the idiosyncratic unreliability that has come to characterise it on this trip, carefully led me to a dead end in a middle-class subdivision south of White Plains, North Carolina. It even showed a cemetery at the end of the road, with a particular point highlighted. There was no cemetery there, just a wall of shrubbery.
Fortunately, other websites supplied more useful information, and I located the grave about 3 miles north of where I was.Then I remembered that I'd also wanted to see Wally's Service Station and the Mayberry Courthouse back in Mount Airy; so I drove back to town and easily found them. The courthouse was nothing like the "real" Mayberry Court House on the outside, being just a red-brick building with a silly little portico added; but inside some effort had been made to dress the space up like what you see on TV. Nowhere near as big a space as on the TV show, but then, they don't need room for old-fashioned TV cameras. And Wally's Service Station was just an old service station, which I suppose is about as authentic as you could expect. What really sold it, though, was the 1961 Ford Galaxie squad car with the whip antenna parked out front (used for tours of the town, and in fact the driver -- not Wally; I asked -- took a family from Alabama for a spin as I was leaving).
From there, I drove through the town of Pilot Mountain (the "Mount Pilot" that Sheriff Andy Taylor was always running over too), and followed the highways to Hanging Rock State Park.
I say "followed the highways"; actually, I saw a sign for the park as I left Pilot Mountain, but that was the last sign I saw for it until I arrived, miles and miles and several changes of road later, at a large sign that said "VADE MECUM Hanging Rock State Park." There was a gate across the driveway with a sign saying the trails were only open, like, one day a month. I figured there must be another entrance, so I got back on the road and went on. There were several small roads coming in from that side of the highway, and after a few miles I came to a residential area, whereupon I decided that there was no more park up that way. So I went back to Vade Mecum (whatever that is; I never found out), and the gate was open! So I went in.
A sign said All Visitors Must Register, so I pulled off at the Visitors' Center, but decided, First Things First, there's a bathroom. It was locked. As I was trying the knob, a white Parks Dept truck pulled into the parking lot and they guy driving rolled his window down. I asked him if he had a key and he said, No, actually, the park's not open. I said I was going to step around the back of the bathroom building and he said he had to wait for me because he had to close the gate behind me. We got into a little discussion and he said the main part of the park was some distance away, but that he was going there and I could follow him. So I did, who knows how far, and sure enough, there is a regular ol' state park on up the road.
The rain had died down by then, but it was still cold and foggy. I found the visitors' center (harder than you'd think, in that fog) and the ranger told me the fog wouldn't be lifting for a couple of hours, and that I could hike up to Hanging Rock but I wouldn't see anything. I went anyway.
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| the fog lifts |
That's about where the hard part of the trail starts.
At the top, the view was what you'd expect: projecting rocks with nothing beyond but fog.Still, it was a nice hike, enough of an exertion that I had to take my jacket off to cool down (then put it right back on, because it was 40 degrees and wet and I only had a T-shirt on).
And that was the end of the interesting part of my day. I checked into a motel early tonight, like 4:30, because I won't be in a town of any size for the next several hours' driving, and it was already almost dark. Plus I lucked into a real bargain: I'm in a one-bedroom apartment, complete with kitchen, living room and bathroom for $68 inclusive. It's the most expensive room I've had so far on this trip, but only by a dollar, and it's very nice. Maybe my luck hasn't been all bad today.
(Oh, and all the dinosaur pics, along with all the others, are now available on line. Click here to see them.)
DAY SEVEN
End of the Road
Today I reached the figurative end of the road. About 9:30 this morning I arrived in Charles City County, Virginia, the farthest point of this trip (since I've dropped DC from the route), and started back for home. The morning was spent driving on back roads through Cumberland and Amelia counties, the afternoon almost entirely on freeways. (Historical note: Amelia Courthouse Station is where, on the day General Lee decided he had no choice but to surrender his army, confederate railway engineers ran four supply trains back and forth, trying to keep their loads from being captured by Union soldiers who had torn up the tracks behind and in front of the station. Eventually they realized they couldn't get away, but apparently they were just having a high ol' time running the trains and slamming on the brakes.) It rained lightly the entire day until, just before the West Virginia line, I went through a tunnel and came out into what reminded me of Churchill's "broad sunlit uplands": blue sky, fall foliage, low mountains. Gorgeous.
It didn't last. In the space of half an hour I was standing atop East Mountain, in forty degree weather with a thirty mile an hour wind, looking down on the uninteresting town of Bluefield, West Virginia, where I used to supervise three employees. Got back in the car and drove until nightfall. Tomorrow I figure I have about 8 to 10 hours, depending on stops, before arriving at Nashville, where I plan to spend 2 nights so I can see a car museum and whatever other sights the city has to offer. Then it's home, by way of Dallas.
I only took two pictures today, one of the "Coffee Pot House" in Buena Vista, Virginia, and one a panorama of Bluefield. I'm not even going to bother hooking the camera up to upload them.
DAY EIGHT
Heading Homeward
OK, so, first, here are the pictures from yesterday:
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| Coffee Pot House |
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| Bluefield, WV, from East Mtn Overlook |
The Coffee Pot House is the home of an artist, a sculptor who uses the local black-and-white limestone, along with more exotic rock, to sculpt various artworks and craft items. The stuff available for sale at his home isn't his best stuff; it seemed evenly divided between kitschy things like candle holders and utilitarian things like holders (poorly sized) for solar yard lights. But he had pictures of better works, all of which are already sold except for three in a gallery in nearby Lexington. I went into Lexington afterwards and saw them in one of the galleries I went into. They're elegant carvings of the sort you might see in the lobby of a white-shoe law firm.
So I was up early this morning and on the road before sunup, driving in fog through the last two counties of Virginia and into Kentucky. Reminded me of my time in West Virginia, where no matter where you're going, you're on a winding two-lane road behind a coal truck.
I only made two planned stops. I forgot to stop at Chained Rock, outside Pineville, Kentucky, because I couldn't remember what the mark I'd made on the map was for, and with absolutely no cell service I couldn't check my Roadtrippers app to see. Too bad. Well, it was still dark then, anyway.
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| Cumberland Falls |
But I did stop to see Cumberland Falls, the second-largest in the eastern part of the US. Mostly famous for its "moonbow" -- it's the only waterfall in North America that produces a white arc of light during a full moon -- it's been a resort area since the 19th Century, when people rode four hours in jolt-carts over bad roads from the railway station to get there. Now it's an easy drive behind any coal truck.
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| Natural Arch, Kentucky |
My other stop was at Natural Arch. There was a trail down to the bottom, but I didn't walk it because of the warnings about bears and because I could see it perfectly well from the overlook. And because I want to get home.
I also made an unplanned stop at Old Mulkey Meeting House, the oldest standing log church in Kentucky, built in 1798. It was, according to the recorded narrative (which scared the crap out of me when it started up in the dark church; it, as well as the lights, is on a motion sensor, but the audio comes on first) important in the Great Awakening. (I wonder why they don't count the log church in Bourbon County where the Disciples of Christ sect was born? That building, a much smaller log cabin, was built a few years before 1798, I think. And it's still standing, although now encased in a brick building.)
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| Old Mulkey Meetinghouse Tompkinsville, Kentucky |
So now I'm in Nashville, thinking perforce of the opening lines of the Paul Simon song, Duncan.
Luckily, she's not a screamer.
