Tennessee Road Trip Part 3: Nashville and some Bonnaroo

The road trip went by really quickly, but I'm realizing it was actually pretty long based on the amount of time it's taking me to type everything up.

Tue. 6/11/13
Sweet merciful crap.  I am currently sitting next to a magnificent waterfall at Gaylord Opreyland Resort in Nashville.  Follow me, dear readers, as I walk you through today's adventures.
We woke up fairly early with the intention of packing up camp, doing a short waterfall hike, and saying our goodbyes to Smoky Mountain National Park.  We actually did pack away the campsite relatively early, but the downside of this hike was that we had to drive through Gatlinburg ONCE AGAIN to get to the trailhead.  It was only 1.4 miles on the Trillium Trail to the Grotto Falls, so I mistakenly decided I could pull it off in my flip flops.  Well, technically I did, but I was sliding around all over the goddamn place.  It was only a little hike and the falls were really cool; you can go around behind them, which we did.  It was nice doing it early in the day before a lot of people started to show up.

Baby waterfall

Loving these natural showers

Then we started our ~4 hour drive to Nashville.  First passing through Pigeon Springs or Pigeon Fort - I don't remember or care to remember the name, but it was really tacky and had like eight go-kart places.  Pigeon Forge - whatever though.  Main thing is we ate at Chik-fil-A and it was good.
Then some driving, some of which was tainted with terrible country music, but soon enough we arrived at the glorious entity of our resort.  You guys - showering.  What an incredible thing.  Five days of indescribable horror washed off, leaving an arguably clean person, ready to explore this enormous hotel/resort.  After this epiphany of human experiences, I toured a FRACTION of this resort (the waterfall area mostly), but there is still a small city and a river with gondollas that I have yet to find.  It is gorgeous and amazing.  Right now I'm chilling outside at the pool with a Pina Colada.  So.  Freaking.  Perfect.  A vacation on our vacation!

This is just insane

Here's the indoor waterfall near our room - just normal stuff

After some well deserved rest and relaxation, we went into town... kind of... to do some much needed laundry.  While that was going on, we went over to Centennial Park, which is kind of lackluster.  We saw the fake Parthenon... not sure why that's there but ok.  And the mini pond there was kind of gross with algae, but it had a friendly turtle!  So that's good.  But other than that nothing.

Just Parthenon in Tennessee.  Deal with it.

So we got our laundry and then went to Loveless Cafe for the most incredible dinner ever.  Ever.  So southern.  An all-you-can-eat friend chicken/pulled pork with friend green tomato and biscuit shindig.  I ate so much that I hate myself.

Sunset behind Nashville after dinner

 Exploring our hotel made me realize that this place is beyond enormous.  We walked through four different segments of the resort, passing through a conservatory, a long river, and out to an island on said river.  It had olde-timey buildings (INSIDE the glass-structure surrounding the resort complex) and a water foundtain show and a crapload of other stuff.  Even a Jack Daniels restaurant surrounded by barrels for some reason.  This place is nuts.

I like to call this the "Titanic room"

A view from the island from the other side of the indoor river

Just a normal water show at our hotel in Nashville no big deal

After exploring for a while, we took a cab downtown on the Broadway Street area.  This street has a ton of bars with live hands in every one.  The night started off a bit slow, but ended up being awesome.  We first went to a bar called Honkey Tonk, and it was terrible, as the name might suggest.  Not only because the music was country, but because they did a 45 minute long sound check.  Honestly this was better than listening to country music, but the girls were not pleased about it and made sure that we were very aware of their discontent.  Then we witnessed a music video in the making when a convertable was being towed around and filmed.  The great thing about Nashville is that there is live music everywhere.  So we explored.
The next bar was called "Something" and "whiskey" was in the name, but the band kept yelling "Holler and Swaller" so we're going to go with that.  It started off as crappy country music, but we requested Wagon Wheel, which really turned the night around.  We also had quite a bit to drink, if you haven't already learned from the quality of my handwriting (note: my handwriting at this point in the journal is even worse than normal).  The band loved us and kept giving Boston shout-outs.  We got a recommendation to Roberts for 50's/60's swing music.  It was beyond amazing.  I loved that music (obviously a lot better than country) and they were a very entertaining group.  The acoustic bass player kept swinging his bass around and rocking out.  And they sell Yuengling in Tennessee!  Huzzah!  I met some Bonnaroo people there, two of which had just gotten engaged that night in the middle of the street.  Pretty cool.

"Holler and Swaller" or something to that effect.  The best part is the bear in the corner of the bar.

Also this older gentleman asked Michelle to dance

Definitely a fun place

 Our last bar was another recommendation, but this place was only minorly ok.  We stayed long enough to witness some bar drama unfold before cabbing it back to the resort.

Wed. 6/12/13
I somehow woke up early and without a hangover miraculously.  And somehow Scott and Michelle were both in the same boat, so we explored a lot more of the different resort areas.  Now we're taking a swim break at one of the infinite pool areas, and HOPEFULLY this Eastern European pool guy Eli will open up the bar soon.  Pina Coladas aren't going to make themselves.  And they are starting to sound pretty damn good.

Fact: they were.  After the pool we took our last real shower for a while and left the wonderful resort for the harsh reality of the Tennessee heat.  And re-packing the car in that heat is simply horrible.  But we pulled it off after sweating the entire supply of water out of my body and headed downtown.  We didn't have too much time though, because we had a pretty tight schedule to meet up with our friend Bridget et al.  So we had a mediocre meal and walked up Broadway for a bit, going into a cool print store to pet the cats there.

These statues are beyond awkward

Prove it.

Then we hightailed it out of Nashville and got some gas, since we ad heard that people run out of fuel waiting in the Bonnaroo line in the past.  NOT US.  And then a trip to Walmart to meet up with Bridget and obtain some last minute supplies.  5-hour energies were a must.
The exit for Bonnaroo was closed and the highway riddled with cops to deal with the insanity of Bonnaroo.  We had to drive 13 miles past the exit to get in line on the opposite side.  But we were early enough that it didn't take all that long, and before we knew it we were through security and parking in Lot 1.  It turns out that getting here early is exceptionally bad because they weren't letting people out of our lot to go to tent-only camping.  So we had to semi-set our stuff up at the car before packing it all back up and waiting in the "please let us out of here" area.  Scott managed to sweet talk us out with some lie.  Not a horrible trek to tent-only camping and Centeroo (the main activity area), but our spot in the camping area is optimum.  Probably a 40 second walk into the festival area.  We spent some time setting up and marking off our area and grabbing some food at one of the food truck areas.  We made friends with some cool neighbors too.  We helped Chad from Alabama set up his tent in exchange for some beer, which we had locked away in our inaccessible car.

Waiting in line wasn't nearly as bad for us as it was for people arriving later than us

The view of Centeroo from our tent

At this point, the night takes a horrible turn.  Scott and I went to meet with Bridget to pick up some supplies they had for us.  They were staying in their car camping area, which is like 20 minutes away.  So that was a long, heavy trek.  Then Scott, Sarah, and I went down to our own car area, borrowing Chad's wagon, to get the rest of our stuff because we heard they were opening that lot up again.  Nope.  They let Scott and the wagon in, and after some time of Scott not being able to find the car and having the wagon get stolen, and then having it found, we decided to call it quits and to get everything in the morning.  NOPE.  The Centaurs (what I call the mounted horse people) wouldn't let Scott out now, so while he had to go sleep in the car (it turns out not really, he got through a few hours later) Sarah and I had to walk a newly lengthened route back to the tent.  It was a miserable night for everyone.  Maybe not for Michelle since she had like 10 hours of sleep, but the rest of us rued the evening.

It's ok though, Bonnaroo is totally worth it

Tennessee Road Trip Part 2: Smoky Mountains

Continuing the journal entries from last time.  I'm pretty sure the weather improves a bit, and as a result, so does my mood.  Plus I was witness to some pretty amazing things.

Sat. 6/8/13
Fog socked us in this morning, so unfortunately no sunrise this morning.  Instead, we slept in a bit and had some bagels and other easy breakfasty stuff when we did finally wake up.  Cataloochee campground, our temporary home for the first two nights in the Smokies, is a bit further away from the rest of the park.  Good news is that our view from the far East side of the park encompasses layer after layer of mountains stretching westward.  The unfortunate part is that it takes about two hours at least to drive to the rest of the park for hiking or sightseeing.  But we toughed it out.
We drove along Blue Ridge Parkway, which is a lot of switchbacks and views.  HOWEVER the fog really ruined our chances of seeing anything, so it was slightly unimpressive.  Also, the hike we were going to try was on a closed road, so we had to continue to another visitor center in an attempt to salvage the day for hiking.  We did - we drove up to where the Appalachian Trail intersects the road that cuts through the park.From there, we hiked north along the AT for four miles to Charlie's Bunion.  It was really cool hiking along the AT; we actually had quite a few amazing views of mountains layered on to infinity.

The clouds cleared up too!

We are LOVELY

 The other cool thing was that on one side of the trail we were on North Carolina and the other was Tennessee.  Not sure if you could tell, but I got a kick out of it.

Hahahaha Wheeeeeeeee this is the best

Charlie's Bunion was pretty amazing.  Some good views as the fog rolled in around us.

But seriously, who named it?  Charlie's Bunion?  Come on, Charlie.

WE DO NOT FEAR HEIGHTS

Moar poses

It was only an eight mile hike, so we drove over to Clingman's Dome, which is the highest mountain in the park (and third highest on the AT).  A portly southern gentleman spoke to us in what you could describe as an "extreme accent," warning us of the treacherous physical nature of the trail from the parking lot to the top of Clingman's Dome lookout.  It turned out to be a paved half mile.  And while the view was not "one thousand miles," it was still really nice.  We hung out for a bit, just people watching (making note of a particular group of unicorn/dragon enthusiasts).  We ended up playing the game "mentally hilarious or southern?" in which there are no conclusions or winners.

Sometimes it bothers me that my phone takes really nice pictures

Big windy path up to the top of the lookout

Is it just me, or do those farther mountains look a bit... "smoky?" har har har

I'm betting sunset from up here is pretty swell

"Headed down south to the land of the pines, thumbing my way to North Caroline"

Now we are watching our foil dinners graaaaadually cook.  The ground beef has been hanging out in a lukewarm cooler for... the duration of the trip, so... that should be fine.  The lack of ice suggests that the meat might be slightly suspect, but the real concern here is the level of complaining that accompanies it.  The fire took a little while to build up so we're going to check out a nearby meadow for some rumored Elk before we start the cooking process.
We just got back from our little Elk adventure: we saw five large females in the meadow, which was really cool to see.  However, the number of mating insects... on my windshield... was surreal.  So many.  It was insane.  But still, the Elk were worth it.  Especially to see the sky turn sunset colors.  We are now a-cookin' up our foil dinners in the coals.  Driving around all day has worked up an aggressive appetite.  And dinner is turning out to be pretty damn good.

PRETTY

These are some serious collars on the Elk

Later on, Scott and I went back down to the meadow for some star gazing and firefly watching.  Words can't even begin to describe how truly epic of an experience it was.  The stars were out of control clear.  And the fireflies were just insane.  Thousands of them surrounding us in the meadow and in the forest.  And the most impressive part was the synchronous nature of their blinking.  Everything would be completely black for a few moments, and then all at once hundreds of fireflies would start blinking like an enormous, endless Christmas tree all around us.  And then this would repeat.  I've never seen so many of them before.  I can't even.


Sun. 6/9/13
The day had a bit of a slow start, but we eventually packed up camp and started on our way to the other side of the park.  Scott and I were actually able to pack up camp and pack up the car in a relatively decent speed - we're getting efficient at this.  On our way out we saw two male Elk on the side of the road looking majestic as fuck.

Helloooooo sir

REALLY big

The drive to the other side of the park (the north/Tennessee side) was long, but actually a pretty fun drive.  We made it to a few pretty good overlooks.  One of the things I've noticed about the Smokies at this point is that the farthest layers of mountains have a blue haze about them.  It definitely gives them that quintessential "smoky" look.

Almost offensively beautiful

Out first stop for the day was the Ramsey Falls hike: an eight mile round-trip hike to one of the more impressive waterfalls in the park.  It was also quite humid and steep, more so than we were expecting, so it was an extremely arduous hike as well.  But so absolutely worth it.  Plus, I got to hike fog's-out-guns-out all the way to the falls.  We then went for a "swim," or more realistically a walk under the falls, and it was amazing.  By the end of the hike all of our clothes were soaking wet, either from the falls or the sweat, which really only added to the horrific smell that my car has been acquiring.

SO DELICIOUSLY COLD

I'll take all the "showering" I can get at this point

We then continued on to our campsite for the next two nights: Elkmont campground.  This place is extremely popular this time of year because it is the best place to witness the mating synchronous fireflies.  Luckily I researched the crap out of this so that we were able to get two consecutive nights here.  AND we were able to set up our tent before it started raining.  Well... barely.  But it is more than we can say for either of the other times we've set this friggn thing up.  We scrambled inside and ate some "peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches," which can only be called as such because the crumpled smushed bread is still technically "bread."
With that ordeal behind us, we drove up for a short walk to another waterfall called Laurel Falls.  We were PROMISED a bear, but I guess that's some sick joke the rangers play on us, because there wasn't a damn one.  We did, however, get to see a nice waterfall that we climbed up on for pictures.  This started a wave of copycats.

The person taking our picture decided that getting the waterfall in the picture wasn't really important

I've stood on higher

Fully drenched again, we piled back into the car to obtain some beer in the sickeningly touristy town of Gatlinburg.  That place is so bad it made my skin crawl.  So tacky and touristy, even worse than a boardwalk.  But our beer obtaining mission was a success, just as the downpour started.  We had a difficult time starting a fire with soaking wet tinder, but our neighbors lent us a hand and we shared some beers and had a grand old time.
Once dark set in it was firefly time.  We were lucky that the pouring rain did nothing to dissuade them from the mating procedure.  And our campground was prime location.  Some people were getting bussed in from Gatlinburg - it was that big.  Only red lights were allowed so as to avoid messing with the firefly mating.  The combination of the lack of light and the torrential rain made it difficult to stick together, but we somehow all found each other after getting separated.  After our eyes adjusted a little it started getting really intense.  More fireflies than last night even.  It was overwhelming.  I don't know how long we stayed there, but we were fortunate enough to see a few iterations of the synchronous blinking.  One time it would start from the right and move left, passing along in front of us with literally thousands of blinks, all commencing at once.  Later in the night the blinking would start very far away from us, and then gradually sweep toward us along the forest in a wave of blinks.  It was so hard to believe that it is a completely natural event carried out by beings of this planet.  Just so incredible.  It's a feeling that's really hard to describe.  And unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures of it (not that it would do anything to justify it).


Mon. 6/10/13
Scott and I awoke early this morning for our big hike - a ten mile round-trip trek to Mount LeConte.  We woke up around 5:30 with the intention of catching sunrise, but the clouds were determined to thwart our plans.  We did, however, make it to the trailhead by 6:30 - well before anyone else, so we had the entire trail to ourselves for the morning.
The start of the hike was humid and rainforesty, but that early in the morning it felt great.  The trail followed a stream for about a mile and a half before breaking off into a rock-tunnel-staircase type thing.

Scott makes his way through the "tunnel" ok I have no idea what you call this

We then ascended a bit to the bluffs, which was a really unique rocky semi-cave structure.  We walked through a curtain of falling water to enter what looked like a wide half-cavern.  And the views of the Smokies were unbelievable.  They are aptly named because the mists and fog traversing the mountains absolutely looks like smoke.

So smoky!

The waterfall created a doorway into the cave area

Scott has made it under the ledge

I've not seen anything like this before

A few more miles of hiking through rocky, wet terrain (with some great views of the surrounding mountains) and we hit the point in which we entered a cloud, so it got a bit colder, wetter, and foggier.  But it wasn't too steep and summitting was easier than I expected.  We had a few snacks on the summit, listening to the wind blow through the trees, which sounded exactly like waves crashing at the beach.
And then the downpour.  I knew it was coming.  After just a mile we were completely soaked, but it was ok because I was still riding high from what a good hike up it was.  It didn't clear up until we made it back to the bluffs, but we didn't mind too much.  The other hikers that we passed were not of similar disposition.  By the time we made it back to the creek the cascades were torrenting and my dogs were barking.  And everything I owned was completely soaked.  But we completed the hike and made it back to camp in time to find Michelle and Sarah awake and antsy for things in the car.
Upon our return, we feasted upon a plethora of bagels, english muffins, and hummusy snacks.  We then slothed pretty hard most of the day.  I believe I briefly fell asleep on the picnic table, and perhaps in a sunny patch of grass by our tent.  After a few hours or so I decided to be a little active since it was suddenly nice out, so I went running along the river.  Holy crap, so hot.  I had to dunk in the stream afterward.
A few people wanted some odds and ends, so we made another trip out to Gatlinburg (UGH) to pick up some supplies.  Now we are about to set off into the world of pie iron pizzas before we head out for fireflies once again.
Time passes.  We ate.  Deal with it.
The fireflies, as expected, were once again epic.  I still can't even fathom how a phenomenon like that even occurs.  It is straight-up magical.  Thousands, maybe millions of these guys lining the forests and meadows and streams, all blinking in sync.

Thank you Smoky Mountains.  You are awesome.

Tennessee Road Trip Part 1: Boston to Asheville, NC

Here we go again.  Yet another road trip, traveling around the country like I own the damn place.  The following is a partial excerpt from the trusty ole' road trip journal.


Wed. 6/5/13
And so begins my foray into another road trip, along with my companions Scott (of previous road trip legend), Michelle, and Sarah A. (we're going to preserve her anonymity because the internet is a scary, wondrous place).  I had been crafting the preliminary plans for this particular adventure about four months ago.  The details of the trip developed gradually and with the feedback of many esteemed colleagues.  Our itinerary includes stops in Philadelphia (well, Malvern if you want to get picky about stuff), Shenandoah, the Smoky Mountains, Nashville (at a resort, mind you), the infamous concert known as Bonnaroo, Mammoth Caves, Columbus, and completing the round trip back to Boston.

The adventure started early in the day (pre-day we'll call it) as I picked up my compatriots in good ole' Soup.  (If you don't know the background story behind the name of my car, well the short story is I spilled a crapload of soup on the passenger seat this one time.  There it is.)  Unfortunately for us, Soup is not as spacious as we needed.  My mess kit became a frisbee.  Sarah and Michelle were ass-to-ankles in the back next to a mountain of stuff.  No matter: spirits were high and we made good time from Boston to Hartford, but Stamford got us at rush hour.  We were blasting some good music, which is typically the solution to most problems.  Oh did you hit traffic?  GUESS WHAT, HERE ARE SOME BEATLES SONGS.  We had a quick stop off at Sarah's house in CT to get MORE STUFF, including a sleeping bag BIGGER THAN PLANET EARTH, and then drove down the rest of the way to Philly.  Apparently a building collapsed, which is an unusual event even for the "exotic" city of Philadelphia, so the city was kind of off limits to us.  Whatever, we continued on to glorious Malvern for some steak sandwiches and Wawa.  Wawa, I have missed you.  Certainly not our final Wawa stop on the trip.  We decided a tour of the Victory Brewery was in order, so we got some good beers and headed home (my family's home "technically"), where my parents presented us with a veritable feast.  We also re-watched the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones, because that was was a DOOZY.

Victory Brewery, in all it's majesty

In order to try every beer on tap, we got four different flights

We used our remaining time to get some shoes for Michelle, because I guess we only knew this trip was coming up FOUR MONTHS IN ADVANCE.  And also some Rita's Waterice for our tummies.  And now I am extremely tired because I only had three hours of sleep last night and I drove all day.  Man, packing that car is a bitch.

Thur. 6/6/13
Rainy times be happening.  Oh well.  We will make the most of it.  At some point.

We woke up at my parent's house fairly early with the intention of getting the most of our day, but that is proving to be difficult.  Morale is... lower than I would hope for.  But that's because it's pouring right now and we just drove 80 miles along Skyline Drive with zero visibility of said "skyline."
Excuse the digression.  We woke up; my Mom was kind enough to prepare fruit salad for our departure... followed by Wawa soon thereafter.  The drive down to DC actually wasn't so bad, and we met Michelle's parents at her house for brunch.  It scratched me right where I itched (my stomach).  Very little to report except for a great cardboard box session with their cat.  Good times.
A few more hours of driving led us to the northern entrance of Shenandoah National Park, just in time for the rain clouds and fog.  Huzzah.  Good news is that I was able to purchase my third National Park Pass (after a slight miscommunication involving a Shenandoah-only park pass - no thanks).  The visitor's center had a movie that highlighted the beautiful scenary along Skyline Drive - all of which was hidden to us in this dense fog and rain.  Good to know everything we couldn't see is friggn gorgeous.  Memories of Mt. Saint Helens: we're driving through the inside of a ping pong ball.  This is a serious bummer.  80 miles of overlooks and we can't see 20 feet in front of us.  Just sitting in the car now, waiting for the rain to slow long enough to set up the tent.

Oh good.

BEHOLD: THE BEAUTY OF SKYLINE DRIVE

We decided to set our tent up when the rain died down a bit, which ended up being a moment when it rained the hardest yet.  So that's good.  Let's just say that we learned some tent setting-up methods for next time.  Then we played some cards in our damp, transient edifice, and Michelle had a coughing fit and that was our day.  Not much else happened.  We used the camp stove to cook dinner.  Spaghettification commenced.  It was probably a depressingly hilarious scene to look upon.  And then it was pretty much sleepyland after that.

"Fog Magnifies Small Details" - thank you visitor center video for your sublime haiku-like poetry

Fri. 6/7/13
It rained almost the entirety of the evening, but it turned out to be dry inside.  I was not expecting that: thank you, tent.  But the clouds were out, so our view was quite white.  Thus, we slept in.  When we finally arose, it had cleared a tiny bit.  By the time we packed our tent away our campsite viewing area, previously a blanket of fog, had become quite nice.  Finally a picture-worthy memory.

Turns out it was more than just "endless white"

LET'S BLOCK THE AMAZING VIEW WITH OUR BODIES

Pretty easy on the eyes

I then drove south out of Shenandoah to exit the park.  STILL FOGGY.  What the hell?  Give me a break here.  So yeah, not much to see leaving either.  120 miles of Skyline Drive with virtually zero views of Shenandoah valley.  Thankfully we stopped at a wonderful little place called Pink Cadillac Diner, where I filled up on basically every menu item.  This sated my hunger for the time being.  AND an opportunity to soak up the locals engaging in some sort of primitive form of communication.  They sounded like mere grunts and belches to our untrained ears, but somehow the waitress could understand the gentleman in the next table.  Not long until: TENNESSEE!  Whoo!  This is my 40th state!  We blasted "Wagon Wheel" more than a few times.  Due to the nature of the song's lyrics, it has become our official road trip song.

I still don't understand the gigantic King Kong statue

Shortly thereafter we drove into Asheville, NC for what we heard were some great breweries.  The stories were true.  We visited Wicked Weed, the Hedge, and Asheville Brewing for great beer and pizza.  Unfortunately we had to cut our visit a bit short because of how long the drive was.  Scott's friend was able to meet us for some dinner and beer, so it was cool to hang out for a little bit.
Then Michelle courageously navigated the twisty mountain pass to Cataloochee campground: our home for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for the time being.  We efficiently set up our tent in the rain (yep, more rain) and got unpacked in the dark.  We then took the opportunity to explore our campsite, situated right on a little stream.  This will make for some great music at night.  We went down to the stream and let our eyes become adjusted so that we noticed some of the famous Synchronous Fireflies surrounding us.  I'm excited for this park.
On our way in to the Smokies we stopped at an overlook: it was unfathomably beautiful.  Just enough fog to show the dozens of layers of mountains across the backdrop.  It was actually so impressive that I find it difficult to put into words.  ENJOY A PICTURE INSTEAD.

They just keep going

The females

Ok let's prepare for a good photo...

NOPE JUST KIDDING

Here's our backyard stream!