The Northwest Corner of Georgia to Pigeon Forge, Tennesee
Vivian:
Hullo friends! (And fam!) today is Tuesday and I needed help to remember what happened.
Photo by Vivian. This is the person who remembers everything.
When we set off we drove to the New Echota Cherokee National Capital.
Photo by Vivian. You can peep our RV parked in the background.
There were some very cool monuments outside the doors, which I noticed had Cherokee writing under the English meaning. When we got in we watched a video about the Cherokee and their history on the land we were standing on top of. I got a little mad at the video because the white people HAD to do the whole Trail of Tears thing. Once the video was over we went outback and looked at the recreated buildings. We took a lot of pictures and walked around for a while.
Photo by Vivian.
Photo by Vivian.
After we looked at everything we got back in the RV. We drove until we got hungry and decided to eat at a Waffle House that was next to the road. I had pancakes for lunch, which was fine by me, Dory had waffles with pecans in them, and Mom had sandwiches. We payed and left and got back on the road.
Photo by Vivian. Typical scene out the window for this leg of the trip.
We drove through THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS and got to The Smoky Mountains National Park’s visitor center. Dory bought a Swiss Army Knife and we left the visitor’s center. We drove until we got to Clingmans dome. We looked at the skyline, which was impressive.
Photo by Vivian.
Photo by Vivian.
We left, drove through Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge, and chilled in our RV park.
Dory:
We went to New Echota (it is pronounced like the ch in chug) which is the capital of the Cherokee nation but is not the capital anymore because they were led on the Trail of Tears from there to Oklahoma.
Photo by Stephanie.
We looked at some replicas of buildings and then we took off.
Photo by Stephanie. This building is actually the only one that is not a replica. It belonged to a white missionary who lived in New Echota and moved to Oklahoma when the Cherokee people were forcibly removed.
We had lunch at a Waffle House, which has the name Texas on some items on the menu, and the toilet was not flushing in the men’s, and it had a yellow color in the toilet bowl. Then we went to the Great Smoky Mountain national park, and hiked up to the observation tower in Clingmans Dome.
Photo by Stephanie. It was a steep half mile walk up to the observation tower.
I did not like the heights of the observation tower.
Photo by Stephanie. Clingmans Dome is the highest point in the park. This concrete tower replaced the wooden one built by the CCC during the Great Depression.
Photo by Stephanie. The view really was fantastic. We learned that it is usually hazy like this, due to air pollution. Acid rain is what is killing some of the trees in the photo.
Photo by Stephanie. Mountaintop selfie. It was quite windy, as is demonstrated by Vivian’s hair.