WORKING
9 TO 5
We did a
drive by the museum, and then parked the car so we could pose for pictures straddling
the border on State Street just because it was there. Establishments on either side
of this unique thoroughfare flew their state’s flag. It was a good stop, even
Janet said so!
Team VFH
had been to Tennessee a few years before when we visited my daughter in Nashville
where she was living at the time. THAT town is an incessant party along the strip
of honky-tonk bars on Broadway with every place blaring fantastic music, but after
three days of carousing there it was enough for us. Given today’s issues with
Covid-19, being jammed together, hooting and hollering to the extremely
talented musicians who are trying to make it to the big-time in the Country
Music world, just seemed stupid and dangerous.
Craving
travel though after three months of isolation we decided to go somewhere, but we
weren’t foolhardy enough to chance it by thundering about with the hordes.
Janet came to the rescue, of course, when she happened upon a cabin for rent on
the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in eastern Tennessee.
She found
it on AirBnB. We have traveled throughout the United States and Europe using the
website, which connects property owners with prospective guests. Other places we’ve
stayed using AirBnB have been several locations in Hawaii, England, Croatia and
Texas. Our little cabin in Sevierville is just outside the National Park and
near to all the attractions in Pigeon Forge, which is home to Dolly Parton’s
Dollywood amusement park, and Gatlinburg. The cabin sleeps 4 and has two
porches overlooking the mountains. On the lower porch is a hot tub and the
lower floor also has a recreation room with a pool table. It’s comfortable and
still rustic and fairly isolated.
Our plan for
the week is to escape, but still isolate ourselves. We have been going on hikes
daily in the Great Smoky Mountains and either cooking at the cabin or getting
takeout for meals.
COUNTRY
ROADS
The ride
down route 81 in Virginia is quite spectacular with the Blue Ridge Mountains
off to our left. It’s big wide-open country on a road that promises opportunity
as it goes deep into the center of the Shenandoah Valley. We picked up the
highway just south of Gettysburg and took it all the way to Tennessee. On our
return trip we will take the Skyline Drive that follows the crest of the Blue
Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah National Park and stay at a lodge there
called Big Meadow.
I had
downloaded some bluegrass music for appropriate onboard entertainment as we hurtled
down 81. Along the way we stopped in Bristol, Virginia AND Tennessee. The twin cities
of Bristol is considered the birthplace of modern country music. In 1927 the
Bristol Sessions went on at a converted factory building on the Tennessee side
of State Street. State Street is the border between Old Dominion and the
Volunteer state. The sessions were instrumental in recording regional music at
the time and it introduced America to the music of Southern Appalachia and Bluegrass.
The factory where the sessions were held has been converted into a parking lot,
but the Country Music Museum is a block away on the Virginia side.
 |
| IN VIRGINIA AND TENNESSEE, BRISTOL |
FITTING
IN
We finally
reached Sevierville in the late afternoon and bought food supplies at a Kroger
supermarket. We wore masks inside the store and wiped down the cart before
shopping. I would guess it was about 50-50 with the mask wearing, but no one
gave us a second look. Staff at the market all wore masks.
We had
heard that some places people feel the whole Covid-19 is a hoax and minimize
the threat of the pandemic and even consider people wearing a mask are complicit
in some sort of grand evil scheme, but so far, we hadn’t gotten that feeling.
Even at
our next stop before the cabin, Boss Hogg’s BBQ, we were the only ones wearing
a mask. It’s a rustic though clean place serving great bbq. We sort of felt out
of place wearing a mask, but they were polite. Boss Hogg’s came highly recommended
by our AirBnB hosts and the brisket and pulled pork did not disappoint, although
they had run out of potato salad…. We got our food to go and headed up rural
route 321 towards the rental.
DON’T
TRUST GPS!
The cabin
is along a steep, winding narrow patch of macadam with a steep steep drop off
on one side. I asked Janet what was there and she replied, “DEATH!” The GPS
though took us a different way that evidently is only open during the winter months.
We came to a gate and had to back down the treacherous road a couple of hundred
feet before we could reach the proper turn. A few times I could not see the road
as it pitched and rolled.
Finally
arriving at our place, we sat on the back deck overlooking the mountains to eat
our BBQ and then soaked in the hot tub and watched a brilliant sunset. We had
done all right!
Thanks
for reading. Hope you find such love and serenity in your lives as well.
Love,
Janet and greg
© 2020 by
GREG DUNAJ
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