Trucking Along

Mrs. Faulkner didn't let us out of the house without a delicious breakfast. Eggs, sausage casserole, potato casserole, sausage, biscuits and gravy, bacon...the works basically. We certainly didn't leave hungry.

Phill's driver's license was set to be delivered to Mr. Faulkner's house this morning. But just after breakfast, Mr. Faulkner called us and said that the UPS truck had beat him into the office. Phill immediately got on the phone with the UPS store in Hopkinsville and a very nice woman helped him track down where the UPS driver was at currently with his package, so Phill went off on a UPS truck chase! At first he thought he might catch him at the factories in Pembroke, but by the time he got there, he had missed the truck. So he called UPS back again and she thought he might be able to catch him at the nursing center in Pembroke. He raced to make it there and caught the driver as he was leaving the building. Mission accomplished! Had we been in any other city, I'm not sure that we would have had as much help as we did in tracking him down. Good ol' Hoptown!

We finally got on the road around noon – a bit of a late start. But we didn't have a whole lot to see, so we just trucked along and decided that we would probably make it our longest driving day. We got to St. Louis, Missouri around dinnertime and decided to go into the city and walk around a bit. Right on the Mississippi River waterfront is the Gateway Arch Monument – a 630-foot arch celebrating the mind of Jefferson and western discovery. The arch is in a quiet park that used to be the site of historic St. Louis. Passenger trams go to the top of the arch and overlook for miles of the city. We didn't go up since we had Bailey with us and were a little bit limited on time. What I found interesting about the tram though was that although the arch slopes inward, motors keep the tram completely level as it ascends. Between the two legs of the arch, underground there is a museum and learning center devoted to history of the nation's march west – most notably the Louis and Clark expedition. And apparently it is made to withstand any foreseeable natural calamity. Engineers claim that in an 150 mile per hour wind, the top would sway about eighteen inches. That's good, I guess, but I don't think I'd want to be up there with wind like that.

If you're standing at the Mississippi waterfront and looking into the city, you can see the Old Courthouse and the Old Cathedral. We didn't get a chance to go into either, but the buildings were fantastic. It's a neat city because there's a lot of historical buildings mixed in with new modern buildings. You just don't see stuff like that the further west you go.

After reading more about the history of the city, we were amazed when we realized how much the country changed in just 100 years between 1800 and 1900. It was founded in 1764 and outfitted Louis and Clark for their expedition in 1803. When they came back and reported their findings, St. Louis became the trading port for beaver fur that the expedition had uncovered. Fur prices eventually dropped, but the new boom of westward emigration began. The city outfitted all sorts of pioneers from gold seekers headed to California to pioneers headed out on the Oregon traill. Go back to 1800 and a whole half of a country was undiscovered. Then just 90 years later, there was no longer a definable frontier. The century was one of western exploration, mountain men trading furs, Indians being displaced, pioneers on the Oregon trail, 49ers searching for gold, cowboys in the plains, etc. Pretty incredible to think about.

We're pressing on now. Not sure how far we'll make it, but we hope to get near central Kansas tonight. It's getting dark quickly, but since we had such a late start, we still feel energized and motivated to go.

Junction City, KS

We slept in the truck last night.

A little background before I share this story: On our first road trip across country heading from Seattle to Key West, somewhere in Indiana we were tired and had been driving entirely too long already. It was about 2am and we felt like it was kind of a waste to pay for a whole night in a hotel when we'd be there less than 8 hours. So, I suggested that we just pull over and sleep in the truck. What a terrible idea! We were uncomfortable and cramped. And in the mid-morning it was terribly hot and humid, but raining, so we couldn't roll the window down for air flow. We basically just sat in the truck and baked. Needless to say, we were absolutely disgusting and still very tired when morning came.

So, why we wouldn't learn from our past mistake is a mystery to me. But for whatever reason, it seemed like a good idea at the time last night. We pulled into a Conoco Phillips, rearranged some things in the truck and slept. Bailey slept curled up in the front passenger seat while I kind of sprawled across the front seats with my legs around her. And then Phill slept in the back with his head squished between the giant computer box and the front seat. We were more comfortable than the last time we did it, but it was still nothing I'd want to do for a long period of time. I woke up several times having to situate myself again because of a seatbelt buckle in my side, cramped knees, crick in the neck...you name it. But now we're on the road again and should get into Colorado Springs in the early afternoon. Luckily, we have the remainder of the day to relax. I imagine we'll call it a night pretty early tonight.

Tennessee Pancakes

When we had told Garrett Faulkner that we were going to Gatlinburg, he told us that we had to go to “The Pancake House.” So, on our way out, were were looking for this famous restaurant. Well, these people must love their pancakes because there were about 20 places in town that served pancakes. We couldn't call Garrett to clarify because he just deployed for a couple of weeks and it was too early in the morning to call his wife, Kristin. So, we picked one of the few with the name Pancake House in the name. As soon as we walked in, we were fairly sure that it wasn't the right place, but we stayed and ate anyway. I got pancakes with Tennessee blueberries because it only seemed appropriate. It was good, but not quite the best I've ever had.

We arrived in Hopkinsville, KY tonight to stay with Garrett's folks. When we mentioned Garrett's recommendation, they said that it's actually called The Pancake Pantry. We were WAY off. We missed the greatest pancake house, I guess. At least we know for next time.

We made up for it with a delicious Mrs. Faulkner dinner. My oh my. I had heard wonderful things about her cooking and it turned out to be as good as it had been talked up to be. We had biscuits, roast, corn, beans, mac and cheese, etc etc etc! And then apparently we have great cake to look forward to tonight as well. Wow. Can we stretch out this stay a bit longer? Ha!

Rain Rain Rain

As for our time in the park...it started raining around midnight on Saturday and didn't quit. Sometimes it was raining so hard that I couldn't get back to sleep because the pounding on the rain fly was so loud. It let up a little bit right when we got up so that we were able to stay dry for the most part while we cooked some breakfast and made some coffee. But then it picked right back up again. Most of the people that had camped the previous night had all packed up and left, so we had first choice of campsites that were remaining for our Sunday night stay. So, in the rain, we packed everything that we could into the truck wherever it would fit and left the tent all constructed. We picked it up by the poles and walked it down the road about six sites. I was cracking up the entire time. I can't imagine what we must have looked like jogging this 5-man tent that's all set up down the road. It saved the hassle once we got it there, but I'm sure we looked absolutely ridiculous!

We spent the next hour or so setting everything back up again and it was absolutely pouring on us the entire time. Who said camping was fun!?! This is a pain in the butt, we're filthy, soaked...are we having fun yet? We finally got everything put up and got in the truck and headed out to see the park. Of course, almost as soon as we got into the truck, the rain stopped. Go figure.

The Roaring Fork Nature Trail is a driving trail that you can get on from Gatlinburg. We figured that our best bet for the day would probably be a driving tour since the rain was kind of unpredictable and the weather station was talking about potential flooding. And the ranger that I talked to at the station thought that the view from the top would probably be too foggy to see much of anything. I'm sure it would have been beautiful! It's hard to describe what the park was like other than to say that it was very green! I imagine that it must rain there a lot because there are all sorts of waterfalls and everything is just covered in moss. There was one point on the way back down the trail that there was a really old mill on the edge of a river. We pulled over to take a better look at it. It was an old wood building with a water chute going down below the mill house in order to turn the wheel. We thought that the wheel had since been replaced just for looks because it didn't actually turn and it seemed too small to do much of anything. But we think the chute was mostly the original thing. Phill noticed that there was a removable piece of wood that served as a type of dam mechanism. When he pulled it out, the water really started churning out. We got out at one other spot to take a look at a river and to take some pictures. Of course, it started raining as soon as we got out of the car. But we hopped around on the rocks a little bit and played in the river until we started getting too wet from the rain. We had thought about doing a hike, but we were really hungry and tired of being drenched.

Once we came out of the trail, we drove into Pigeon Forge to get a few groceries before heading back to the campsite. On our way back, we spotted a black bear on the side of the road trying to get into a soda bottle. Although it was neat to see him, I was glad we didn't see any others on the way to our site. The only other wildlife we saw was a whole bunch of wild turkeys. One was a male that was really fluffing himself up a lot to impress a hen that was nearby. She didn't seem to notice he was even there.

Got back to our campsite and cooked hobo meals and had our first real camp dinner. It was delicious! Sat around by the fire for a bit until it started raining again and we retired to the tent. It rained all night long. Since we were so close to the river, I woke up several times throughout the night to make sure we weren't going to float away in the river.

Packed all of our stuff away soaked and headed toward Kentucky.

In the park

We're in the park, but we don't have cell phone or internet service, so more on these adventures later. Just thought we'd post some pictures of our drive around the park today. Incredible scenery!

Plans are made to be broken

We left the Tallman's house this morning and headed toward Gatlinburg and Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee with news that we might encounter heavy rain. We stopped for gas about 40 miles from the park and Phill noticed that his wallet seemed a little smaller than normal. He realized that he had left his driver's license in the pocket of his motorcycle jacket at his parents' house in New York. So, we spent some time making some phone calls and figuring out where it was and how to get it to us. We finally decided that the best bet was to have it overnighted to the Faulkner's house in Hopkinsville, KY since that would be the last place that we would be at a residence for quite some time. However, our original plan had been to stay the night with them on Sunday and take off Monday morning, but the license couldn't be shipped until Monday morning. So, we decided to stay two nights at Smoky Mountain National Park instead. We figured we'd get to relax and camp and see more of the park anyhow.

Since Phill was without his license, I drove the remainder of the distance through Gatlinburg and into the park. The roads were terribly curvy with steep edges and no guard rail. I can't say that I was in love with it, but what are you going to do? Gatlinburg is the small, tourist town just outside the park. We were shocked at how busy and commercialized it was. Some of the shops reminded me of what you might find on Duvall Street in Key West, complete with Ripley's Believe It Or Not and a wax museum. They even had some amusement rides for children. It looked like a pretty happening place, but it just wasn't quite what we were looking for. We just wanted to get settled into our campsite, so we pretty much did the drive-by and that's about all we experienced of Gatlinburg. We heard later that there was a huge Coleman camping store. That might have been dangerous...

Right before we got into the park, I pulled off into a hotel parking lot to get a view of the mountains. We understand why these are called the Smoky Mountains now. The clouds sit right on top of them and into the valley and they're real whispy clouds. They look just like they're smoking. The fog gets real settled into them.

We finally got to our campsite around 8pm. The Elkmont campsite where we stayed had a great river view. We picked one that was on the river, but it was the very very tail end of the river, so it wasn't as great of a view as we might have hoped, but still beautiful. We set up our tent and ate what we could find in the small amount left in our cooler – hot dogs with cold english muffins as buns and chicken pot pie soup. However, we didn't have a pot to heat up the soup, so we used our coffee percolator, ha! It did the trick I guess, though it wasn't quite heated through right. I can't say tonight was our best night of eating.

They're threatening rain and thunderstorms tonight, so we have our rain fly up, but so far nothing but a little drizzle here and there.

Summertime

We spent the night at Chris and Colleen Svencer's house last night. We had a great time. Bailey hung out with their two dogs, Wasabi and Murray. As Colleen puts it, they're small, medium and large. It's such a funny dynamic! We were entertained just watching them run all over the place. We had a great sushi dinner last night and then Phill and I spent this morning relaxing around the house. We met Chris for lunch and he recommended driving out to Sandbridge Beach which is south of Virginia Beach and much less commercial. It was beautiful! It was pretty windy, so the waves were really crashing. And not too many people were out there either, so we just let Bailey run. I just talked to my sister and she mentioned that it was snowing where she is at in Montana. Hard to believe there are such drastic weather changes throughout the US because it sure feels like summer here. Staying the night with Dan and Pam Tallman tonight. Should be a nice and relaxing BBQ dinner.