Summer Road Trip: Day Four

Asheville, North Carolina:  Today was bonus day on our summer road trip.  We had originally planned on heading home, but instead we extended our trip by a day.  So with nothing hard scheduled today, we decided to wing our itinerary.

After breakfast at the hotel, we decided to hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and head south to the southern terminus in Cherokee.  We got lost a bit getting to the parkway, but it was nice to see other areas in Asheville.  It is easy to see why the town has won so many awards.

Once we reached the parkway, we began our journey southward.  Along the way, we stopped at each of the overlooks, just taking in the beauty of the region.

During our journey, we reached the town of Brevard where we got off the parkway and headed into the Pisgah National Forest.  There were a few things we wanted to see within the forest, however I forgot the list in the hotel room so in the spirit of the day, we just decided to wing it again.

One of the things that I did remember was Looking Glass Falls.  A large water fall located just a short walk from the roadway.  We then headed to Sliding Rock, a natural rock water slide.  However the air temperature really hadn't warmed up enough to give it a try so we continued driving to the Cradle of Forestry.  Here we learned about the history of the US Forest Service and how the Biltmore School of Forestry helped shape forestry in America.

After touring the museum and the historic buildings, we hit the road and headed back up to the parkway.  The drive on the parkway was one of the best drives I have ever taken.  There were great views along every corner.  The afternoon storms chased us the second half of the drive, keeping us from getting out at the overlooks but didn't keep us from enjoying the views.

While the drive on the parkway was beautiful and a great life experience.  I do want to warn the readers that it is an overwhelming experience.  The views are amazing, but the drive can be a strain at times.  There are many elevation changes and tight corners leading to some challenging situations. What seemed like a short drive from Asheville to Cherokee ended up taking a lot longer than we had anticipated.  Luckily we were not on a time constraint, but if you are be sure to keep that in mind.  Also, the elevation changes and constant curves made both my wife and son car sick pretty bad.

When we reached Cherokee, we decided to continue our drive into the Great Smoky Mountains.  We took Newfound Gap Road through the Smokies.  Once we reached the Chimney Tops area, the scars from the massive wildfire are still visible.  It is a shame to see the amount of destruction caused by the hands of careless teens.  This tragedy hits home for us because the Great Smoky Mountains were the location of last year's road trip and our hotel for the trip suffered a major loss as a result of the fire.  But it is very encouraging to drive through town and see how it is bouncing back, a testament to the resilience for the Smokies.

Since we were in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, we decided to hit up a favorite from our last trip.  We ate dinner at Huck Finn's on the Parkway in Pigeon Forge,  This is where we hit probably the only blemish on the trip.  This is where the car sick from the drive hit my son as he vomited all over the place.  Bad thing is he vomited, good thing is he felt much better afterwards.

Following dinner, we headed to nearby Kodak where we took in our second baseball game of the trip.  This time we got to see some Double-A Southern League action as the Tennessee Smokies hosted the Chattanooga Lookouts.  Smokies Stadium was a really nice ballpark.  It had a feel much like Bright House Field in Clearwater, one of my favorites in the Florida State League.  It was a rough night for the home team as the Smokies lost 8-1, but it was still a great night of baseball.

We left the game a little early as we had about a 90 minute drive back to Asheville and a 700+ drive back to Florida in the morning.

I have limited the number of photos in this story because I have run out of space on my laptop in addition to running out of energy and hours in the day.  When I get back home tomorrow, I will begin working on processing the over 3,000 photos taken on the trip and uploading them as well as writing article about the places we have visited.  Be sure to follow the site to see and read about the places we visiting during this trip.

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