Tuesday: We slept in a bit, which worked out fine since we didn’t have a real full day to tackle. Hit a nearby Starbucks for coffee to go, and there was a carwash there, so we drove Mr. Lincoln through and got about five states worth of bugs out of his grill. Then some gas in the tank, and off we went, finally heading south. After about 120 miles through the Daniel Boone National Forest, there were some mountains starting to rise up.
And then…..
We started going up hill. We were on I-75, which could take us all the way home. But we’ll take a couple of detours. As we cruised along, we saw signs for Rocky Top. Sing along with me….”Rocky Top, you’ll always be – home sweet home to me. Good ol’ Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee.”. ☺️🎶. It wasn’t a very big place, inspite of the popular song. I was thinking it was a John Denver song… but NO! The Osborne Brothers recorded it in 1967. Aaaaand – it is the theme song for the Univeristy of Tennessee!! Who knew?
Our first stop in Tennessee was Sevierville… I spied a Muscle Car Museum on the map. 🚗🚘🚙🚖🏎
It was pretty cool. There were about 90 cars, and nearly a dozen of them were completely original…. paint, tires, interior, with less than 30,000 miles kind of original. Seriously! Like this red 67 Fairlane had 12,ooo miles on it. Why?! It made us wonder about the stories behind the cars.
This was my favorite. A 1940 Ford Coupe. ORIGINAL PAINT! Original upholstry. And the car had a small apartment for a trunk – which apparently was perfect for runnin’ whiskey! The car is 80 years old, with only 12,200 miles. Crazy! Cool, but crazy!
It was a great stop, and Kenny got to tell me all about a zillion kinds of engines and stuff. This sweet blue ride was actually for sale. Just $65,000. I had to say no. We have a boat.
Next on the itinerary was to make our way through Pigeon Forge. WOW! What a crazy place! It’s 13 square miles of amusement craziness. Dinner shows, mini golf, restaurants, arcades, Dollywood, ferris wheel, roller coasters, water rides, more mini golf, more dinner shows,…. we were utterly amazed. It’s an eight mile stretch of amusement ka-ching, ka-ching!
We finally got through that unscathed, (WHEW!) and found a nice five mile drive to Gatlinburg.
Gatlinburg is a much smaller town than Pigeon Forge.
It is loaded with shops and restaurants and amusement, but it is a walkable and more compact town.
Not sure where the trolley goes.
There’s a big convention center.
And the town was all decked out in fall decorations. Very cute stuff everywhere.
One thing I for sure wanted to do was go the the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery.
Yum – we did samples!
Our sample guide was really fun! And the various moonshines were everything from fire starter to yummy coffee cream. 🤤
We might have bought a couple of things.
This was at the distilling display…
And then…. O! M! G!! It’s the 1940 Ford! The same whiskey runner that we saw at the car museum!!
“Moonshine Runners. During prohibition, the law relentlessly pursued “bootleggers” who transported moonshine to eager customers in othe towns and cities. In response, bootleggers in the South began to create their own souped-up “stock-looking” cars with powerful engines and strong suspensions to improve their chances of outrunning government agents. Thus the term “Moonshine Runners” was born. The 1940 Ford was popular with moonshine runners in the 1950’s”.
How cool is that?! The very same car that we just saw. 😁
We had some pizza for dinner, then walked back to our lil Econolodge motel. Tomorrow we’ll drive through the Smokey Mountains National Park. There is a nice scenic loop, but it would have us make our way back through this little town in bumpe to bumper traffic. Not sure I can convince the captain to do that. We’ll see.