Day 25 - Great Smoky Mountains

Saturday, June 30, 2007

The word "verdant" is thrown around a lot these days, but it would be hard to imagine a setting where it is more justified than in the Great Smoky Mountains. Compared to the other mountains I've seen on this trip, these are certainly the greenest. The "Smoky" name comes from the natural mist -- a combination of organic compounds and water vapor -- that constantly drapes the mountains.

I started the day with a drive to Cades Cove loop, which was a slow-going "scenic" drive without much scenery. Honestly, it was like someone had taken the traffic from L.A. and dropped it in the Tennessee mountains. This took about 4 hours and, frankly, I could've done without it.

My next stop was Clingman's Dome, which is the highest point in the park. Unfortunately, with storm clouds swirling and the mist extra thick, it was hard to see anything.

I think I'll be coming back to this park. It's not that far from where I live now and I think that there is more to see than what I did today. With it being a weekend in the peak season, the crowds were out in force and, at the end of my trip, I just didn't quite have the motivation to pack it out away from them. I wandered on the Appalachian Trail for about a half hour and, even then, I could feel a marked difference in being away from the lazies. Maybe I'll go back one day and hike the leg of the AT that crosses through the park. I saw a woman at Clingman's Dome who was patching her feet with duct tape; she looked like she was on an AT thru-hike. I think it will be quite a while (read: infinite time) before I try that. But, you never know. It definitely sounds like a great experience and I could probably be talked into it pretty easily. So, I guess what I mean is I probably won't be doing it on my own.

Anyway, after leaving the Smokies, I drove straight to Santee, my hometown. The trip was absolutely amazing, but it feels good to be home.

Day 24 - Mammoth Cave

Friday, June 29, 2007

I suffered my worst injury of the trip this morning. No, I wasn't mauled by a bear and I didn't fall into a cave hole. I burned my bottom lip with hot coffee. I guess this goes to show you that you are probably more likely to get hurt doing everyday things than by a wild animal.

Today, I visited Mammoth Cave, one of the largest caves in the world. It has been formed by millions of years of erosion washing away the limestone beneath a hard sandstone layer. Unfortunately, it was not quite as exciting as some other caves I've visited in the past, such as Carlsbad and Luray. It was, however, an interesting tour and it did make me want to try spelunking someday. That will have to wait for another trip.


The tour ended near a formation called Frozen Niagara. It looks like what you are probably imagining: a stone waterfall. Like most cave formations, it has been slowly formed by water dissolving limestone and then re-depositing it. The time scale of these formations is perhaps the most impressive thing about them. When you're imagining something this size forming from slowly dripping water, it's difficult to wrap your mind around just how long it would take.

After leaving Mammoth, I started my journey to the final destination of my trip: The Great Smoky Mountains. After driving through the worst weather of my trip, I finally made it to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, two towns on the outskirts of the park. Basically, imagine that Myrtle Beach has been transported to the mountains. These two towns are essentially sprawl, stretching out from the base of the mist-covered mountains. It's sad to think that one day the haze that gives the Smokies their name might no longer be natural mist, but smog instead.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on leaving early and heading into the park to see as much of it as I can in one day. I know I want to stop at Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park; but, other than that, everything is up in the air. Once I'm done, I'll be driving the rest of the way to Santee, SC.

This trip has been wonderful and in many ways I'm sad to see it come to an end. On the other hand, the past three days of nearly non-stop driving have been exhausting and I'm looking forward to not being behind the wheel for a while.

I've seen so much on this trip that I may never see again and that I might never have seen otherwise. I would adivse anyone who ever has the chance to drive across this country to take it and make the most of it. Perhaps I'll be able to talk about the sum of my experiences on this trip in a more coherent way when I have had a few days to let everything settle. For now, I will put such musings aside in favor of flippant remarks and simple observations:

Caves are awesome. But they are not as good as mountains...

Or bears.

I'm not sure when I'll be posting the entry for tomorrow's adventures or the highly anticipated epilogue. But, dear readers, rest assured that you will not have to wait too long.

Day 23 - The Long Drive

Thursday, June 28, 2007

I spent all day today driving. I left Omaha around 9:30 and just got into Bowling Green, KY at about 10:30. It's been a long day and not too exciting. Unfortunately, most of the drive was through pretty boring grasslands. When it comes to driving, it's true what Jack London, The Doors and that kid from Into the Wild all said: The West is the best. The West is also behind me, as today I crossed the Mississippi River.

Anyway, I don't have too much to report from the day, so I'll just give a few random notes in lazy list format.

Agent Orange made it safely back to New Jersey.

Wilco's new album is not that great.

M.I.A.'s album drops Aug. 20 (can't remember if I already mentioned it; but it's worth noting twice).

I covered over 700 miles today, so I'm hitting the hay soon. Tomorrow, I'll be heading out to Mammoth Cave in the morning and then driving toward Great Smoky Mountains National Park (the final stop of the trip) in the afternoon, most likely. Since I don't have much to say about today, I thought I might reflect on the trip as a whole. But then I thought, "No, I won't." In fact, I'll save that for an epilogue I'll write when the trip is completely over. So, make sure you keep reading, even after the final day's entry is posted.

I've enjoyed my first blogging experience. It's definitely added something to the trip for me by forcing me to reflect everyday on what I've seen and done. Now, I'm sure many of you are thinking that these reflections are on about the level of a third grader describing his first viewing of Lord of the Rings: "Awesome!" "Spectacular!" Well, keep in mind I've been writing these things at the end of long days, in crappy hotel rooms, and without a professionally trained editor, secretary, or valet. Just wait until you read the Epilogue. Then you can judge me (but most likely you will be stunned into amazed and reverent silence).

Also, let me say thanks to everyone who has emailed me to tell me how much they're enjoying the blog. More people have faithfully followed my ramblings than I had anticipated and hearing from you has kept me writing instead of packing it in after the first weekend. In fact, I've even discovered that I have at least one reader who I have never met in person. So, I'm pretty proud of that.

Anyway, if you are enjoying the blog, it's always nice to see comments in the comments section. It helps me prove to other people that this isn't entirely an exercise in narcissism (although it mostly is) and that I actually do have readers.

Maybe I will keep writing about my adventures even after the trip is over. And if the day-to-day minutae of my life can't sustatin such an undertaking, I'll just start making things up.

Day 22 - Live Free or Die Hard

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Agent Orange and I started the day with lunch at one of the crappiest Indian restaurants on record before heading over to the Rapid City Carmike to watch Live Free or Die Hard. Now that’s a movie. If you like watching one man kick ass while the bureaucrats fail over and over, then you’ll like this. It reminded me of old Westerns, with one man having to step up when the system fails.

After the movie, I drove to Rapid City Airport to drop Agent Orange off for his flight back to New Jersey. I was only about ten miles away when he called to tell me it was cancelled. So, he’s shacked up at the Rapid City Radisson tonight, waiting on a 6:30 am flight, while I’m down in Omaha, staying in a surprisingly nice-for-the-price motel. There’s one drawback, however: I’m in an adjoining room and I can hear almost everything the couple in the room next to me is saying. I can’t exactly make out words unless I press my ear to the door (as if I would do that). I wonder if things will get interesting later. From the sound of the cough that guy just let out, I’m guessing it’s not that kind of night. Regardless, I have ear plugs.

Tomorrow will be a full day of driving. I’m trying to get close enough to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky that I’ll be able to see it Friday morning. I covered approximately 571 miles today. Considering I didn’t leave Rapid City until about 3:30, I think that’s pretty good. I’ll be trying to cover around 693 miles tomorrow; but I do have all day to do it.

Day 21 - Badlands National Park

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

We left Wall early this morning and headed to Badlands. This park is situated in the midst of formations of rock layers formed by erosion. There are some nice views that are kind of reminiscent of The Painted Desert. It's a pretty harsh environment, without a whole lot of wildlife to view. The exception, however, is the prairie dogs. In one section of the park, they're everywhere. It's called Roberts Prairie Dog Village and the small animals and their burrows were everywhere you looked.













Also, there's a spot where they're doing an archaelogical dig called The Big Pig Dig where they're extracting fossils of an extinct, pig-like animal called Archaeotherium. Here, we talked to a ranger for a few minutes who explained some of the history of fossils in the park.

Afterwards, we drove back to Rapid City for dinner. I had read somewhere that M.I.A's new album was to come out today, so with our time to kill we drove around and looked for it. Unfortunately, I found out later that it doesn't come out until August 20. That was pretty disappointing. I thought it was going to give me something to look forward to over the 1200 mile drive I have coming up over the next two days.

I'm taking Agent Orange to the airport tomorrow here in Rapid City. We've had a really great time and I've still got more to come. Hopefully, I'll be at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky on Friday, but it's going to be two days of hard drivin'.

One other interesting note from today: as we were driving down an unpaved farm road leaving Badlands, a grasshopper landed on the windshield and crawled down onto the wiper blade. Even though we were driving 50-60 MPH, he managed to hang on. Even as we stopped to get gas, he didn't move. As we got onto the interstate, we figured 80+ MPH speeds would blow him off; but somehow he stayed on the windshield wiper. At one point, we slowed to about 45 for construction, and he crawled down under the hood from the top. We figured we would never see him again and he might be cooked by the heat of the engine. So, we forgot about him, drove for probably another half hour and had dinner. After dinner, we drove to the movie theater in Rapid City to see what time Live Free or Die Hard is playing tomorrow so we can catch it before we have to drive to the airport. When we started to drive away, the grasshopper was on the windshield. Keep in mind, nearly 4 hours had passed since this insect had jumped onto the car. As we pulled away, he hopped off. It was pretty incredible. If we see him on the car tomorrow when we're leaving the hotel, I'll be a little freaked out.

Day 20 - Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse Memorial

Monday, June 25, 2007

We started out this morning with a trip up to Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickcok and Calamity Jane are buried next to each other. A lot of the "characters" from the HBO show are buried up there.




Next, we headed over to Mt. Rushmore. I had been looking forward to this stop on the trip and it was definitely a sight worth seeing. However, I think I thought it would be bigger or more impressive in some way. Maybe I'm just getting jaded by all the amazing things we've seen on this trip. It was interesting, though, to learn about how the statue was carved. Apparently, after years of working on the mountain, the explosives experts were able to blow the rock apart within inches of the actual finished surface. The pavilion leading up to the main viewing area is nicely set up, with the flags of all 50 states flying along a pathway that leads to an overlook with a view toward the mountain. We had to try over and over again to find someone who could take a decent picture of us. For some reason, everyone we asked took pictures either without the mountain in it at all, or with heavy focus on the ground.

Continuing on our tour of mountain monuments, we headed to the Crazy Horse Memorial. This is a giant statue of Crazy Horse that has been under construction for about 50 years and is being built entirely with private funds. It's much bigger than Mt. Rushmore; in fact, the entirety of the Mt. Rushmore monument would fit inside Crazy Horse's head. We also saw some Indian dancing, which was kind of entertaining. I wish we could've seen them dynamite part of the mountain, but it didn' happen while we were there.


We stopped in Rapid City, SD tonight and watched Evan Almighty. It was pretty disappointing. I guess it's a fun family movie; but it's really not very funny. There is a funny baboon who dances, though.

We're staying in a town called Wall tonight in South Dakota before we go to Badlands National Park tomorrow. This town is a real dump -- probably the worst town we've stayed in on the trip! This kind of got me thinking about what towns we've been in that were surprisingly good or bad. As I've said before, Fresno, CA; Medford, OR; and Wallace, ID are three of the squattieset places. But, we've also had some nice surprises. Eureka, CA was a great town with a quaint, relaxed feel. Jackson, WY was a nice litle resort town that seems like a fun place for a weekend vacation. Deadwood, SD was also a really fun place to spend a day. I think anyone could easily spend a weekend there and have a great time gambling and checking out the historical sites.

Unfortunately, Wall, SD is not one of the better places. But, tomorrow we should be seeing some great terrain. I think Badlands will be a little different from the parks we've been visiting recently, so hopefully it'll be a fun change.

Day 19 - Devils Tower & Deadwood

Sunday, June 24, 2007

We headed out this morning for a scenic drive through Wyoming's striking terrain, marked by the different layers of rock made visible over millions of years. I should also note that this is the first time on the trip I've been a little drunk as I write this.

After driving for a few hours, we reached Devils Tower. This was another "wow" moment as we drove over a ridge and suddenly the tower came into view. It's definitely a striking piece of terrain: a tower of igneous rock exposed by ages of erosion. It's easy to see why the local American Indians consider it to be a holy place. In fact, they have a legend about how it was created that involved a girl who knew bear medicine changing into a giant bear and chasing other members of the tribe until a rock and a tree grew to give them a safe haven.













We took a 1.3-mile hike around the tower, which affords some nice views of the six-sided columns that, depending on your perspective, were created either by crystallizing rock or a giant bear's claws. There are tons of bikers is these parts. Apparently the Black Hills of South Dakota are some kind of huge attraction to them and Devils Tower is another gathering point for their rallies.

After leaving the tower, we headed to Deadwood, South Dakota. It's another Palm Springsesque spot, although more rugge than either the Springs, Jackson, or Couer D'Alene. Despite having plenty of casinoes and cowboy re-enactments to rope in the tourists, some of its citizens still look like they could be heading out to work a claim in the morning.

After dinner at the Number 10 Social Club, we went to watch a "play" re-enacting the trial of Jack McCall, the man who killed Wild Bill Hickok. The play wasn't that great, but Agent Orange got cast as one of the witnesses. Seeing him attempt a Southern/Dakotan accent was definitely the highlight of the play.

Next, we headed to the Number 10 Casino/Saloon, which is the actual place where Wild Bill was shot and killed. We gambled for hours on $2 minimum tables and finished up about even. Unlike my last trip to Vegas, $2 hands are pretty chillaxed and I didn't have to deal with the constant pressure of feeling like I could be cleaned out at any moment. The pit boss also looked like he might've been around in 1876, when the town started up.