Day 117

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Posted by: Onaxthiel: Since I woke up this morning with a case of neck pain, I've got Obfuscator driving while I type.

Leaving the tourist trap that surrounds Americas most visited national park is a garish and almost surreal experience. Aliens explode through the walls of laser tag arenas, P-51s strafe dinosaurs, and castles rise up, sandwiched between places advertising Hillbilly moonshine and miniature golf courses that look like Alan Quartermain could be found within their jungles. Over it all looms the shadow of Dollywood, Dolly Parton's theme park of what it is like to be a coal miners daughter who ended up with huge...piles of money. Being that eastern Tennessee is very much Gods Country, there are electronic billboards about every other block advertising the Christmas Miracle, a million dollar multi media stage spectacular, celebrating the birth of Christ. The theater presenting the show looks large enough to hold the required multitudes, so I suppose it's not really so bad that it's right next to what appears to be an inverted roman temple. (the Wondertorium!) Luckily, the off season for tourists means the traffic wasn't to bad, particularly since the route was three lanes running each way.

Our route wound up towards the Cumberland Gap, the gateway for settlement of both Tennessee and Kentucky, one of Americas first routes west. There we found out about the many people who had used the gap for trade, exploration, settlement and warfare. The exhibits give a great deal of time to the first two notable white explorers of the region, Dr. Thomas Walker and Daniel Boone. Boone in particular paid a very high price for settling in Kentucky. He lost two sons and a brother fighting Indians in his attempts to settle west of the gap.

After the visitors center, we drove up towards the pinnacle, the highest peak next to the gap. The pinnacle was a heavily fortified position during the Civil War, by both sides at different times. Since the route running through the mountains led directly into both Tennessee and Virginia, the South seized it first. The Union starved them out, and took the earthworks for themselves. The Confederates starved the Northerns out next, and then their was one more change of possession back to the Federals before U.S. Grant declared that the gap was Americas Gibraltar, but was no longer strategic enough to hang on to.

After Cumberland, we drove on into Daniel Boone National Forest, a remote but beautiful series of mountains and valleys covered in hardwood forests. Driving through the back hills to get there was a bit of an adventure. The posted speed limit for the entire route is 55, but all the turns (about every ½ mile.) were 25-35 MPH, translating to a three hour drive to cover 100 miles. Just before dark, we pulled into a spot high on a mountain near the Red River Gorge, giving Obfuscator a chance to make cell calls and me a chance to use my parking brake on the steep incline. Luckily, the Department of the Agriculture has taken the time to create a flat surface a few yards down the slope that we could put our bags on for the night.

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