A Very Modern Grand Tour - Day 16, Monday

Still no rain overnight so the awning trick really does work. I woke to more sunny skies and rising temperatures with only the RMS Titanic on my mind. Yes indeed, today was our trip to the Titanic Museum/Attraction (their description, not mine) in the lovely tourist spot of Pigeon Forge, which is on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I find the prospect of a half scale model of the front end of the Titanic in rural Tennessee faintly ridiculous, but we'd booked to go and go we did.

Pigeon Forge, I'm reliably informed, used to be a forge and mill and nothing more. Today, though, it's a couple of miles of tatty tourist attractions (King Tut's Tomb, The Elvis Museum and numerous Adventure Kart tracks), hotels and fast food outlets. The traffic through there is constant and all the parking lots on this Monday morning well full, cars originating from all over the US and Canada. The Titanic attraction was no exception.

We were greeted by “Crew Members” in either maids' outfits (sorry lads, not that kind of maids' outfit) or Merchant Navy garb and led into the museum in a very orderly manner; no gum, cameras or cell phones allowed, though, on pain of being keel hauled. Far from being ridiculous, the museum was a pretty well stocked and excellently laid out affair, taking you through from the building of the liner, to it's maiden voyage and of course its demise. We were led through third, second and first class lounges and cabins, complete with much White Star paraphernalia, most of it not claiming to be from the Titanic but certainly of the style that would have been on that ship. It also concentrated on the people involved from financiers to architects to shipbuilders to crew and of course to passengers. On entering, everyone is given a card with the name of a passenger or crew member on it and you go round looking for references to that person and at the end, check them off against the roll of the dead and the survivors. I was Charles Lightoller, one of the ships' officers and the one whose memoirs formed the basis of the film A Night To Remember, I was Kenneth Moore for the day!

There was a full scale recreation of the top of the ships' Grand Staircase (surely not a nautical term), some ice to touch (cunningly woven into the model of part of the bridge) and a trough that contained water at 28F, the temperature of the sea that night just of The Grand Banks; boy it was cold.

We spent two hours in there, albeit that two minutes was too much for the Tadpoles (Where's the simulator? Was the cry) and actually quite enjoyed it. Mind you, it was cold in there, and not just on the exterior of the bridge, so it was a welcome relief to get back into the scorching heat outside.

After lunch we made our way up to Newfound Gap, 5,000 feet up and the lowest mountain crossing point in the area. The road up there was exceptionally good, well paved and although very twisty, was never very steep. The vegetation changed markedly from the bottom to the top and we followed a fast running stream for the whole distance, which gave the whole scene a varied look. At the Gap there is a parking area and a monument to a Rockefeller (can't remember which one) who donated money to buy the last remaining bits of land to form the National Park. The views up there were simply stunning, in all directions and I could have stayed for quite a while had we had the time. The parking lot straddled the State line between Tennessee and North Carolina so the front end of the car was in TN and the rear in NC, which I think you'll agree is pretty exciting stuff! It's also one of the points at which the fabled Appalachian Trail, or AT, crosses a road so I had to have a short hike along it (about 25 feet) just to say that I'd hiked the AT. OK so I still had 1200 miles to get to its northerly point at Katahdin, Maine or 900 miles to its southerly point At Springer Mountain in Georgia. If you've ever read Bill Bryson's excellent A Walk In The Woods, you'll know all about, especially Newfound Gap and the redoubtable Gatlinburg.

Of course, as we arrived and I switched off the engine on the car, the heavens opened and dumped a considerable quantity of rain on us. The air temperature was already ten degrees lower than in Pigeon Forge and the rain served to cool things off even more, but after the sweaty two weeks we'd had, it wasn't an unpleasant sensation. When the rain moved off, though, we were treated to a real natural spectacle as huge clouds of steam rose rapidly off the trees on every slope, looking for all the world like smoke from a fire. Well, these are the Smoky Mountains.

Running very low on gas, we took a particularly twisty route back down the mountain where I don't think I actually used the gas pedal and only met a couple of cars on the entire stretch, which was a relief. Yes, we managed to get down without running out of fuel but, on a slightly more worrying note, I think the Toadmobile has a slow puncture on one of the rear tyres. Tut.

Back at the campground, Mrs T and I took a rare opportunity to sit and chat in the sunshine whilst enjoying a drink, free from the Tadpoles' attentions; they were Facebooking, of course. The rain came later this evening and, as it had done at Newfound Gap, dropped the temp off a few degrees, allowing us to switch off the A/C and open the Towed Haul's windows for a change. Even now, at 11 PM, the wind is wafting in as is the sound of the Tree Frogs, making for very pleasant blogging conditions.

Tomorrow is a travelling day, 400 miles, and I hope I don't have to get that tyre fixed yet. Ohio is looming and the final excursion of the Grand Tour. Here's hoping that you'll tune in tomorrow.

A Very Modern Grand Tour - Day 15, Sunday

I woke up to a wildly flapping awning, grey skies and a stiff breeze; awning "in" should improve the weather I thought, and so it did. This campground is nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and the wind tends to funnel down the gap in the hills half a mile up the road, but once the awning was in, the wind dropped and the sun appeared so at at least I now know how to control the weather these days.

Today was the family visitation but first we had to head out to Wal Mart for some supplies, which was no great problem. We left the Tadpoles in bed with strict instructions to get up, make their beds and be ready for the off on our return. I had a quick chat with “Ozark Jim”, our neighbour, who has a rather nice custom built Winnebago motor home and a 650cc “scooter”, and off we trotted. A while later, on our return and having warned them we were nearly there, the Tadpoles let the side down with only one bed made, sheets and pillows still on the floor, and the other one not touched. Mrs T hit the roof (quite rightly) and said Tadpoles were sent in disgrace to the Bathhouse whilst we sorted the trailer out. It was very peaceful for the remainder of the morning, I can tell you, with the feeble excuses proffered being brushed aside, and the laptop computer hidden from from the miscreants.

Then it was time to visit the relatives, my uncle and aunt who'd left the UK in 1971 for a couple of years and never returned. Not that I think dear old Blighty was really the problem but the opportunities are so good over here if you have the wherewithal to take them, which Roger and Pauline did. I hadn't seen Roger in probably 20 years and Pauline the best part of 40, so it was good to meet up with them. Roger, being my mum's younger brother, looked and sounded much like my mum but also like my elder and younger brothers, which I suppose is what ought to happen but it's still a bit uncanny, though. Pauline was much as I remembered her and despite the passage of time had hardly changed at all. Their house was lovely, if a little on the large side for the two of them, in a nice part of town and was occupied by three enormous Golden Retrievers and an imported cat. Pauline helps run a rescue service for Retrievers, hence the dogs, and she inherited the cat from an Aunt in England, and I have to say all managed to rub along very well. I have to mention the enormous fish in the pond, too, because the Tapoles were agog. We exchanged photographs and reminiscences, as you do on these occasions, and then had a lovely meal at a local restuarant courtesy of Roger's company; it's OK, it's his company.

During the meal, Roger had ordered the Calamari as a starter and the big tadpole tucked into it, quite unaware that he was eating squid; he doesn't normally eat fish so we were surprised he'd taken such an interest in it. A few mouthfuls in and he was looking a bit green and, looking up, he said “I thought this was bread”. Calamari, Ciabatta, well you can see how it happened...... He's recovering now.

Still no rain and still exotic temperatures, we drove back to the campground watching the lightning light the clouds above the mountains. We battened things down and I sat out watching the storm lighting the clouds but here in the foothills it stayed dry and calm. Of course it did, I didn't get the awning out!

Tomorrow we head up into the mountains and to the tacky delights of Pigeon Forge. Where else but 3000 feet up in the Smoky Mountains would you find a half scale model of the Titanic? I'm also hoping to get to Newfound Gap, about 5,000 feet up and on the border with North Carolina and on the Appalachian Trail. If you've read Bill Bryson at all, you'll know about it. Check in tomorrow for more exciting adventures of Toads in trailers.