Chattanooga to Gatlinburg

Day 5

Downtown Chattanooga is a great little town, streets are empty of pedestrians and traffic and thought that was quite odd. Also you can't miss that at the cities edge there are no less than six bridges that cross the Tennessee River in about a mile. ( Should have that much infrastructure at the Hudson! ) We started the day heading back out to a little town called South Pittsburg where we were going to follow up on a glimpse of a billboard for the Lodge Factory tour; unfortunately the cast iron cookware maker was merely a retail outlet so no tour for us mistaken travelers. Took another dip back into Georgia across the time zones having to reset our watches once again and H mentions that in an hour when we get back it will be right about now. spent the remainder of the afternoon crawling up Scenic TN 411 through Maryville destined for Pidgeon Forge and Gatlingburg. Both of these towns nestled in the foothills of the Smokies have lost their charm and have sucumbed to the Disney-esque and over commercialization of trash tourist entertainment on a grand scale that makes a NJ Boardwalk look like a ghost town. Not so sure Dolly is to blame for this but if you like Pancakes your in luck as there are probably no less than thiry eateries that feature the flapjack. We checked into our beutiful mountain cabin Moonlight Ridge where H promptly passed out and I relaxed in the hot tub sipping some Tennessee whiskey. I dried off she woke up and we headed for Food City to pick up our groceries for the next four days. Hey did you know that Cilantro was Chinese Parsley!?! me either.