Inspired by Dave Gorman's Unchained America Amanda and Myself embarked on a epic road trip where we traveled through 8 states and stayed at 3 excellent motels in North Carolina and Georgia! Dave Gorman's Unchained America is where the British comedian decides to take on Corporate America by travelling unchained (only giving money to mom and pop by only using independent restaurants, gas stations and accommodations) from the West to East coast in a old beat up 70's station wagon. It is a must see for anyone who loves Americana or road trips in general and I am sure it is available to watch on Youtube or Netflix.
 |
| The Pink Motel, Cherokee, North Carolina |
 |
| The Thunderbird Inn, Savannah, Georgia |
 |
| The Sunset Motel, Brevard, North Carolina |
Although our road trip was not quite so long as Dave Gormans and we did not even attempt to find independent gas stations (I have no idea where you would even look!) We ate and slept in some marvelous places and had a wonderful vacation! Our first stop was in Cherokee, North Carolina and was chosen due to its proximity to the Smoky Mountains national park and the Pink Motel. The drive down was a interesting one taking us through Ohio to the mountains in Kentucky and the churches in Tennessee before driving on the Newfound gap (the only passage through the Smoky Mountains) to Cherokee. We are a one car family and that one car is Amanda's pride and joy and so as a result I spent a lot of the trip sleeping in the passenger seat, Amanda gets nervous when I drive her lovely car when she is in it so this arrangement works well for all involved! I must have slept through the first few states (we had a ridiculously early start) but I have some strong recollections of the state of Tennessee, it seems to be full of churches and tat! Even off the highway it seemed every other building you saw was a baptist church of some description until the Smoky Mountains rear up in front of you and you find yourself face to face with the horror of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge! I have never seen so much crap and tat in all of my life, just look at these pictures below! It is undeniable that the Smoky Mountains are magnificent but with this magnificence and a fairly easy drive from the large East coast cities the Great Smoky Mountains are also Americas most visited national park and with all these hordes of visitors comes a serious amount of tat. I mean what trip to the Smoky Mountains National park is complete without visiting a scale model of the Titanic? Or maybe the 'Christ in the Smoky's museum' is more to your taste complete with lifelike waxworks of Jesus and some old coins form the Middle East! Dolly Parton even has a amuesment park in Gatlinburg called Dollywood and there is a Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers in Pigeon Forge, a little tat for everyone!
 |
| what a load of tat |
 |
| more tat |
 |
| Finally, what the smokey Mountains are really about! |
I am delighted we did not stay in the amusement park that is the Tennessee side of the Smokys but instead opted to stay in Cherokee on the Southern side of the Mountains, a long long long way away from the interstate highways. In America as soon as you get away from the interstates it is like you have time travelled back 50 years, you leave behind all the Holiday and Quality Inns and enter weird and wonderful worlds of the old motels. We chose the Pink Mote, because we loved the neon sign out front and everything was painted pink! They picked pink because whenever they send all the sheets to be laundered, as the only motel with pink sheets they could be sure they were getting the same sheets returned! There is also a small creek out the back which if you are lucky you'll spot the Elk meandering through in the late evening light. Unfortunately we did not see any Elk but it was still a lovely place to sit and relax with a good book!
 |
|
 |
| Apparently this is a great place to sit to watch the Elk in the river! |
Obviously the biggest attraction in Cherokee is not the town itself but the aptly named Great Smoky Mountains. This is a magnificent National park, originally created for the auto clubs of America who wanted an area of natural beauty and a great road with lots of twists and turns to test out their Studebakers and other fancy cars of the day. The National park is still popular with auto tours today but is also extremely popular with hikers, the Appalachian trail which is a 3'500 km trail that goes from Georgia all the way up to Maine (who has read Bill Bryson's 'A walk in the woods'?!) and passes straight through the centre of the park and is where Amanda and I decided to take a couple of hikes following the famous white blazes! With my friend Tim's recent Yellowstone bear experience still fresh in our minds we were careful to make as much noise as possible on our walks, banging stones together, singing songs and yelling 'hey bear' when we went round a corner in case we bumped into and surprised a bear! Luckily we did not meet a bear although later on on our trip while I was snoozing in the passenger seat Amanda did spot one by the side of the highway! Considering the Smoky Mountains are the most visited national park in America I was surprised at how quiet the Appalachian trail was, we only bumped into a couple of people on our 5 or so hours on the trail, even right by the road on a Saturday afternoon you can feel very much alone like you have the entire park to yourself. The scenery in the Smoky Mountains is unforgettable and really does make for some fantastic hiking, I cannot wait to go back.. just check out these pictures!
 |
| What a fantastic idea!!! a stand for your camera! |
 |
| As you can see it works great :) |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| The shite tree tops you can see are all the dead Fraser Firs |
 |
| Can you spot the deer? |
You may notice that a lot of the grand old Fraser Fir Trees in the pictures seem to have died, this is because of a nasty little beetle called the
balsam woolly adelgid which injects the trees with a toxin and slowly kills them. It was first discovered to be killing off the trees in the 60's and is still killing them off today, almost 60 years later. in that period of time America has put a man on the moon but has still not solved the problem of the beetle that is ravaging Americas most popular national park, Go Figure. In the 1930's and 40's before cameras became a common item in American homes visitors would buy picture folders in order to take home and show family and friends some of the adventures they have had, I have purchased a few of these folders and took one with me into the Mountains to show you all just how little this pocket of widerness has changed over the years, you'll notice how the white stumps sticking up through the forest are not visible in the old postcards, this is because the trees only started dying during the 60's after the postcards were made.
 |
| Then and now. |
 |
| Oreo pancakes and Peters! Yummm! |
After an awesome breakfast at Peters and another stroll on the Appalachian Trail we were back on the road and heading down to Savannah, Georgia where the sunshine and the Thunderbird Inn were waiting for us! As you may know by following this blog We have visited Savannah a couple of times before, including on our honeymoon! I believe it to be the most beautiful city in America, with 24 picturesque squares dotted about, many historic mansions and lots of Spanish Moss making up the historic district as well as being surrounded by some great beaches and old plantation houses. We spent he first day chilling on the beach and wandering through Savannah's sleepy streets before heading over to explore the Wormsloe plantation on our second day. We had not visited this place before and it blew us away, One of the previous owners of the plantation had planted 400 oak trees down the driveway to celebrate his sons birthday and they make for an awesome entrance, creating a shady tunnel all the way up to the old plantation house. Although the house itself is still a private residence and cannot be visited you can wander freely through the grounds which are chock full of nature, you might catch a glimpse of some of these blue tailed lizards or maybe even a snake if you are unlucky or a armadillo if you are lucky (unfortunately the only armadillo we saw was some roadkill by the side of the highway in South Carolina!) just look at how gorgeous the driveway is in these pictures!
 |
| The entrance to the Wormsloe plantation |
 |
| A tunnel of Spanish Moss covered Oaks |
 |
| A great drive! |
 |
| Inside the plantation |
After our trip to the plantation I thought it was time to sample some Southern Fare and so the road took us to 'I love sweet potatoes' a popular southern food spot located in a dodgy strip mall on the outskirts of town. yet still this food is SO delicious!!!! I had a shrimp Polish boy (fried shrimp, coleslaw and fries in a bun) and a sweet potato with a sweet creamy pecan butter sauce. Words can't describe how good it was and these pictures don't really do it justice, I want to move to the South!! We finished off our dinner by sharing a pecan pie which was as good as it looks! Unfortunately Amanda does not neccesseraly agree with me, Southern Home Cooking is not so good for vegetarians, Amanda had a sweet potato and some mac n cheese with some suspicious crispy bacon included... despite being assured it was meat free! After reviewing my pictures I never actually photographed the food, I guess it didn't say on the plate long enough but I did snap a picture of what was at one point in time the best Pecan Pie in the world!
 |
| The best food I have had in America so far |
 |
| Not much left of our Pecan Pie |
After a ghost walk (Savannah is not only Americas most beautiful city, it is also the most haunted!) to walk off all that Southern Home Cooking we spent our last day doing what anyone in Savannah should do, strolling through the old town, drinking iced tea and eating ice cream! we spent our night in the moon river brewery, one of the most haunted buildings in the city but even after a few beers I did not see a ghost which was disappointing!! I have spoken about Savannah in my blog before so rather than repeating myself I shall leave you with some pictures of our stay and move on to our next destination - Brevard, North Carolina!
 |
| Ah yes sun, sea sand and a James bond book! |
 |
| Sampling the brews at the hanted Moon river Brewing Company |
 |
| Can you spot Amandas car! |
 |
| Leopolds is the place to be for ice cream, this qeue was at about 10pm. Is that a ghost at the back of the line? |
 |
| I photographed an apparition in one of Savannahs historic squares after our ghost tour. |
 |
| Jim Williams House from the Garden of Good and Evil, I would like to buy this home! |
 |
| sunset over the Savannah river |
 |
| I am pleased with this picture, I am the only person in the history of the world to make a container ship look like is is moving quickly! |
 |
| Some postcards of the tbird Inn |
We finished up our holiday by spending a couple of nights at the sunset motel located in the small city of Brevard in Transylvania County, North Carolina. It is named after Transylvania because of the mountains that surround the town, not because it is frequented by vampires... unless those vampires happen to be white, fluffy and very cute! Brevard is famous for its Waterfalls and White Squirrels as well as being home to the one and only Cardinal Drive through and it's wonderful milkshakes! Brevard is located next to the Pisgah national forest which is home to over 200 waterfalls and lots of lovely hiking, We chose a nice moderate 8 mile meander through the shady forest to the Twin Falls, risking our lives on some rickety old bridges and at one point even braving walking by some horses which were blocking our path (I HATE Horses, and they hate me!) to be rewarded with a beautiful waterfall which also turned out to be a popular hangout for mosquitos... I got eaten alive! After our walk we took the scenic drive back to Brevard and drove along the blue ridge parkway for a few miles, the views nearly blew my head off! It is true that the speed limit is a little ridiculously slow but the views are so glorious I don't really know why anyone would like to drive fast along this road! Here are some nice pictures of our walk and drive!
 |
| We had to cross the path of this horse to make it to the waterfall. The horse hates me and the feeling is mutual |
 |
| Twin Falls Waterfall |
 |
| Our car on the Blue Ridge Parkway |
 |
| The Blue Ridge Parkway Selfie |
 |
| Another shot form theparkway |
Brevard is a quaint town with lots of little independent stores on the high street, all of them currently selling an abundance of white fluffy cuddly squirrely toys, mugs, tee shirts and anything else squirrel related you can think of! This is because Brevard is the best place in the world to see the White Squirrel! Apparently it all started in 1949 when a carnival truck overturned just outside the town, with a couple of the white squirrels it was carrying escaping and obviously liking their new surroundings, breeding like crazy and rest is history! There is even a festival in the Squirrels honour happening in a couple of weeks which they were busy preparing for during our stay, here is a link to the website for the festival! http://whitesquirrelfestival.com/. We never actually saw a squirrel, but there was lots of fake squirrels around to ease the disappointment!
 |
| a white Squirrel! |
 |
| Many White Squirrell gifts are available including wine and wine stoppers! |
 |
| poster for the festival |
 |
| Can you spot the squirrel! |
 |
| some cuddly critters |
The Sunset Motel was a lovely place to end our holiday, I loved the small town feel of Brevard, the friendliness of the people and just the overall ambience of the town, The Pisgah national forest is full of exciting places to explore and I feel that just a couple of days is not long enough to do this place justice. Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end and after a long old drive back past all the many churches of Tennessee and West Virginia we arrived back to a still decidedly chilly Ohio.... This morning we even woke up to a little bit of SNOW!!! On May 15th!!! I really cannot wait for it to warm up here :)
 |
| Brevard is located in the county of Transylvania... this is the Transylvania Times, what a name for a newspaper! |
 |
| Thought this was quite a clever idea! |
On the subject of clever ideas.... I thought I'd just include a quick shout out to Rich McCor AKA paperboyo and my old travel buddy who is gaining a great following (160k followers on instragramface!) for transforming global landmarks with paper cutouts, just check out some of his work here, it's fantastic :)
https://www.instagram.com/paperboyo/?hl=en
