The Great Smoky Mountains and Asheville, North Carolina

I must begin this posting with a public apology to all of you National Parks lovers out there.  I confess I slept through most of Ken Burns' National Parks series (hey, I was pulling a lot of night shifts at the time) and I don't contribute to the Sierra Club or WWF (my maternal grandparents would disown me if they were still alive).  When we'd planned this trip we had orginally thought we would blast through the Great Smoky Mountains with a sort of kill-two-birds-with-one-stone approach: we had to head south and going through the park would get us to our ultimate destination as well as provide us with a "major attraction" we could check off our to-do list.  Shameful.  Yes.  (Confession is good for the soul).  

I was happy at the prospect of visiting Gatlinburg; I had a very definite mental image of what I thought I was going to see there; something along the lines of an Eagles' song come to life. Romantic and unrealistic, yeah, probably. But since when is Gatlinburg the Disneyland of Appalachia?  I read the entire 2,000+ words of Shelby Foot's The Civil War and I'm quite certain the Union and Confederate troops did not ride plastic dinosaur shaped slides as they were fighting and dying over the abolition of slavery.  Am I the only one in the world who was not aware that you pass through a sort of Disneyland Drag on your way to the Great Smoky Mountains?  I must contact Ken Burns as soon as possible regarding his oversight...

Onto the real point: after we passed the pre-park weirdness, the beauty of the mountains began to sink in and we realized we needed to change our plans and linger for what was left of the day and absorb the experience.  Once again we were reminded that we are traveling during the end of winter and seeing nothing at its peak.  However, even though we visited during the "off season", the magnificence of the sights left us silent and contemplative.  It is a testimony to the artistry of the Grand Designer of this very cool globe we inhabit that even at this austere time of year we can be left speechless in the presence of these vistas.

After we left the park we drove down into Asheville where we felt we had been miraculously transported back to Santa Cruz.  The sensation began with dinner at the Mellow Mushroom (which we did not realize is a chain but Debbie had recommended it and we're glad she did).  Its eclectic decor immediately struck us as familiar but what really made us feel at home was when we read the menu and discovered we could order "gluten free" and "vegan" if we so chose.  The pizza itself was delicious (something called The Luau which featured motzarella, feta, basil and pineapple-yum) but my thumbs up came when I checked out the television over the bar and caught, for the first time in two weeks, my first glimpse of a soccer game (too bad it was English Premier League and not La Liga but we can't have it all).

For breakfast it was another Santa Cruz transport: a bakery that offers organic, locally sourced food and looked and tasted like we were on Pacific Avenue. Only the view of the mountains outside reoriented us to the fact that we were still in North Carolina.

Ohio to Knoxville

It was a difficult thing to leave such dear friends in Clermont/Brown counties but we hadn't scheduled a longer visit into our plans so leave we must.  At Pete's recommendation we took 52 East and traveled down the Ohio River and after crossing it we veered south on 68 to Lexington.  We passed through horse country and were treated to beautiful views too numerous to post here although we offer you this small sample:

Once we reached Knoxville we were once again treated to some wonderful food in a most unexpected place which, had we not had the recommendation of friends, we would never have stopped here and tried it because quite frankly from the outside it looks like a dump. (Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives and Dumps)

This doesn't even show the collard greens, fried okra, sweet potatoes or peach cobbler

Once again we were fortunate to hop onto the bus of an extremely helpful driver (also named Richard, guess if the name had been something like Melvin or Horatio we would have found it too strange for mere coincidence) who gave us a 101 of Knoxville and we were thus able glean some of the best from downtown in one lovely, sunny morning. Thanks Richard the Second!

The boys finally get the crepes they have been craving

                                        

And Mihai and I get our espresso and latte

Downtown Knoxville was very charming with a variety of restaurants over which we could drool as well as interesting graffiti, street musicians (which never fails to add a certain charm) and a nice mix of the student/local business/mother's shopping/elderly/tourist population.

                                                     

An unexpected surprise.  We spoke with the owner of this establishment at length while the boys sampled his gelato. He and his wife opened this place because they were bored after retirement.  He asked us to contact him after we try gelato in Italy and let him know how it compares.  We consider it an assignment worthy of our time, energy and taste buds.