Blue Ridge Parkway/Smokey Mountain National Park

I thought my search for the American Dream was fulfilled our first night on the road. Instead of spending one more night at home because of the late hour, I pushed to just get moving. This, of course, made finding a campground that late at night almost impossible. And this is when I discovered the real American Dream – Walmart! A Mecca for our consumer based society, the superstore has everything you could want, open all night, masses of Americans can’t stay away and it caters to RV’rs(because they always need to buy stuff) by allowing them to stay in their parking lot overnight for free! It was an oasis after a long day of packing and driving. So, what did we do? Yes, believe it or not, we stayed in the Walmart parking lot!

Normally, you can’t get the Hippygeek near the place. And, if you ask him, he will deny it ever happened. Maybe it was an aberration for us. But, for most of America it IS the Dream. Even knowing this, I plan to see more of America before coming to any conclusions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, we pressed on the next day toward the Smokey Mountain National Park taking the scenic route. The Blue Ridge Parkway was started in 1935 and is a 469 mile 2-lane country road that winds it’s way from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Smokey Mountain National Park in North Carolina. It is a spectacular drive that would make an amazing motorcycle trip but turned out to be a bit of a white knuckle drive in the bus. You either become a skilled driver fast or find yourself in a heap at the bottom of the valley. The section of the Parkway we traveled took us through 12 of the 26 tunnels along the route and we only encountered one incident along the way when the Lil’ Dude said “Mommy, my tummy doesn’t feel too good.”

As any sensitive and caring parent would respond, I gave him a bag and a towel and instructed him to MAKE SURE IT ALL GOES IN THE BAG! He did end up tossing his cookies and like a good Lil’ Dude, he didn’t spill a drop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it to the Smokemont Campground which turned out to be heaven for the Dudes. The large wooded campsite was situated next to a river and this is where the Dudes would spend the majority of their time. Give a boy a rock and a river and he’ll be happy all day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also toured the Mingus Gristmill located near the campsite. Built in 1886, it uses a water powered turbine instead of a waterwheel. Normally it ia a functioning mill but it is currently undergoing renovations.

 

 

To get the Dudes to start thinking about homeschooling, we went into the town of Cherokee to tour the Cherokee museum. It is a well done museum that documents their heritage and eventual move to reservations. The Dudes were given a treasure hunt list of questions to answer as they toured the museum to give them a focus and to try to make the experience more meaningful.

 

 

 

Although Cherokee is a beautiful place, the main attraction is unfortunately the Casino along with the strip malls of trinket stores for tourists. So, we spent most of our time at the campsite trying to recover from months of preparation. We roasted marshmallows, road bikes, took walks and played Bocci rocks(newly invented using the river rocks).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The campsite is out of cell phone/internet range and does not have water, electrical or sewage hook-ups which makes it a nice place to chill out if you are comfortable being disconnected from the outside world(more on this later) or have a different Dream than the throngs that gravitate to Walmart.

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.” John Lubbock