Clear again today at 14C and very nice with light winds. The MRT likes windless days as she gets a bit of a shimmy when heading downhill with side winds and passing the big rigs (something Phil has yet to experience from my side, ha, ha) can be a bit of a ride. Especially with the Virginia/Tennessee speed limits at 70 mph! Whatever happened to the 55 mph fuel-economy speed limit? Doesn’t matter, it cost $135 to fill the MRT in Canada and just $80 here so lead-foot isn’t as big an issue except for David Suzuki perhaps.

Anyhow, I digress, after struggling through Tech Wars day 2, we received advice from the Verizon corporate store that was both timely and relevant. The Verizon device we bought from a Verizon Dealer store (not to be confused with a corporate store), to turn our MRT into a wi-fi hotspot, works incredibly well… as long as you are in any Verizon store. If you leave, it just doesn’t want to work, but just some times, just enough to make you really angry. And of course, the device isn’t solid enough to penetrate any Verizon store front window so we were unable to use the most obvious and satisfying solution. We now have a two month data plan with no way to access it. But the battle ain’t over yet. More coming later in coming days, I am sure…

End plan for the day was to reach the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. It straddles Virginia and Tennessee and was apparently not to be missed. And they were right, a very nice place with running rivers, brooks and streams, and trees a plenty. However, to get through to the serenity waiting, we had to pass through a surreal gauntlet of plastic and poor taste called Pigeon Forge. We don’t know of a proper equivalent although Old Orchard Beach in Maine comes within 10% perhaps. Pigeon Forge is a 30 mph zone though a main strip that runs for about 5 miles with every go-cart, dinner theater featuring scrapping hillbillies, KFC, burger joint (multiple), pancake house (multiple), Dollywood, mini-golf & Ferris wheels. Picture a Bill Lynch fair on nuclear steroids. Even boot stores that offered cowboy boots for $400 and included 2 extra pairs ‘free’. Anyhow, one tacky highlight was a ginormous King Kong up a skyscraper mock-up batting away at bi-planes circling his head. And also not to be missed was the upside-down full size mansion and of course, what inland entertainment wouldn’t be complete without the front end of the Titanic complete with the iceberg that sunk her. I have no idea how they managed to recover both the berg (without it melting) and the front end but I suspect from the lineups that they have enough cash to start the hunt for the aft-end now  At least the funnel count will then be correct.

The nice thing about this sort of cultural ‘fence’ is that the folks that favour Pigeon Forge don’t often venture into the wilds beyond and that is where we were headed. Negotiating the gauntlet was worth it. It was a very nice park as you can see below. Steak dinner with potatoes on the grill, a Caprese salad and a 7-year old Nicaraguan rum capped off another fun day.

We have until May 1 to pick up the speed and meet Phil and Di in the BRT and Jane and Ike in the LRT (RT = Rolling Turd for the uninitiated) in Grand Canyon so we will be picking up the pace in days coming…

April 24, 2013 – (Carla & Sean try and remember anything about Country Music)