Day 84 - Leaving Nashville; Homeward Leg of Trip

Day 84 - moving day. I realized at 5 am that I left my tripod at The Hermitage, so drove back to get it. Mailed some postcards on the way. Picked up the tripod, bought even more postcards and a mouse pad of all the U.S. Presidents with Andrew Jackson front and center for Brendyn.

Packed up the car, put the camper down, and got on the road (I-40 and I-24) by 11 am. Ran into a traffic jam in Nashville immediately. Had to stop in some tiny hamlet in Kentucky for a nap – took a whole 30 minute nap. Gassed up the car twice on the road, stopped at a couple of rest stops. Took some photos at Love’s travel stops – I do love Love’s while on the road. Drove over this great covered bridge in Kentucky, and drove thru this beautiful gorge along the highway in Illinois.

Illinois greeted me with a real downpour of rain as soon as I got over the bridge from Kentucky, but it only lasted for 5 miles, then another 10 miles of light rain.

Switched to I-57 in Illinois. Made it to Carlock, Illinois by about 9 pm. Jane had to talk me into her driveway. I never would have found it on my own. Jane, Bryan, and I chatted for an hour, mostly about retirement, and then called it a day.

Mileage so far on Day 84 = 9,765

The Hermitage

Slept in since I was out late last night at the Grand Ole Opry and still tired from the Smoky Mountain hikes. Wrote some postcards (about 20) and posted them. Went to President Andrew Jackson’s home – The Hermitage – on Wednesday. They advertise him as the “people’s President.”

The Hermitage is owned by the Ladies’ Hermitage Association, which was started by Mrs. Andrew (Amy) Jackson III, and her cousin Mary Dorris (a Donelson relation) in 1889. The Ladies’ Association owns the property and operates it as a museum. They have spent many, many years acquiring original Jackson family furniture and papers, and claim to have the most original furnishings of any Presidential home. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. I took several photos of the front and the grounds.

Andrew and Rachel Jackson are both buried in a tomb on the property. As is Andrew Jackson Jr., Andrew Jackson III and the IV and their wives. All of them had military careers.

You pay your entrance fee at the museum, and are given a self-guided tour for the grounds. But you are required to take a guided tour of the interior of the house, even though all the interior doors are barricaded

by a glass covering screwed in place from the rooms’ interiors. The house guides are excellent and really know their history. They are all dressed in period costume and the outside greeter was kind enough to pose with me for a photo. The fellow who took the photo also took one to show my sweatshirt saying to his mother, who I must assume is a woman of taste and refinement.

We had 3 guides inside The Hermitage – one for the living and parlor rooms – one for the private bedrooms of Andrew and his adopted son Andrew (and Sarah) Jackson, Jr. – and one for the children’s rooms upstairs. Junior had 4 children, 2 of whom lived to adulthood (Andrew III and the President’s favorite Rachel). Andrew Jr. was Mrs. Jackson (Rachel’s) nephew; his name is sometimes written as Andrew Jackson Donelson.

The rooms are beautifully decorated and not flowery as I expected. Rachel’s tastes ran more to geometrics. She ordered wallpaper of The Odyssey and Ilaid from The Louvre in France for the downstairs and upstairs lobbies (or vestibules). The house was decorated in a unique style. The living room was decorated with a lot of military stuff like guns and sabers. We saw Jackson’s bedroom with all the furnishings exactly as he left them on the day he died in 1845, at the age of 71. His study is about half the original and half reproduction furnishings and is attached via a communicating door to his bedroom. His son Andrew Jr’s (and Sarah his wife’s) bedroom is right across the hall, connecting via communicating door to the farm management office. The guide talked about the bound newspapers lying around on the floor and how the President preferred the New York papers because they were very pro-Jackson.

We had to revert to self-guided tour of the kitchen (separated by a covered porch from the house after the 1834 fire), and the dining room with its painted cloth flooring. The audio guide said it was rare for there to NOT be guests for dinner at The Hermitage – mostly military buddies of Jackson’s or local Nashville friends, but occasionally distinguished visitors from afar. Betty was the Jackson family cook in the detached kitchen for decades. She was also the mother of Alfred, who maintained Jackson’s horse livery. Both were slaves. Andrew purchased Grace Bradley, a noted steamstress to D.C. hostesses, and brought her back to the Hermitage as his daughter-in-law’s dressmaker. Grace married Alfred, and had children. Their slave quarters are still there at the Hermitage, but because all 3 of them were favored slaves, their quarters are bigger and better equipped than the field slaves’ quarters would have been. Alfred stayed on after emancipation and even into the years when the mansion was turned into a museum. He guided tours.

Quite some distance behind the Jackson mansion on the property is the first Hermitage that Andrew and Rachel lived in when they came to Tennessee. It is essentially a 3-room log cabin. There is a slave quarters just a few yards from this original house. The printed materials inside the cabin said that even the original Hermitage was later used as a slave quarters.

There were no photos allowed inside so I took some outside and bought postcards of the inside in the gift shop, where I left my camera tripod.

It started to rain as I was exploring the log cabin that was Andrew & Rachel’s first home on the estate. So, I left. I spent the rest of the day (about 6 hours) at Panera Bread on Old Hickory Boulevard working on my blog and photos. Entered the blog post on the Appalachian Trail hike (having trouble with one html tag), and the day I left the Smokies for Nashville. Paneras always have internet – and good food.

Grand Ole Opry - Tuesday Part 2

The new Opryland Hall is certainly bigger. This set of photos is from the exterior and one of the crowd near where I was sitting. The woman having her photo taken with one of our greeters was on a bus of Swedes - I heard them talking as I walked past them. A man in the group was saying, "Je har tenke de......"

I was in the balcony – Row E. The seats are upholstered bench seats – a bit odd. The stage at the hall has a large circle of the old Ryman Auditorium stage front and center so the singers always end up standing there when they sing - and the circle is unbroken. I think you can see the circle in this set of photos below - it is a lighter color than the rest of the floor.

Performers that night included:

• Connie Smith
• Michael Ray
• Riders in the Sky*
• Jason Crabb
• Charles Esten
• Del McCoury Band*
• John Conlee
• Chris Janson**

*My favorites

I sat next to a couple from Knoxville but originally from Iowa. We had a good time; it was good entertainment. Connie Smith, Riders in the Sky, John Conlee, and the Del McCoury Band were old-timers; the rest were new musicians still early in their careers. Although the Riders in the Sky were the only band to do a cross-over rap tune. The Grand Ole Opry is still broadcast live on WSM radio. It occurred to me that the Grand Ole Opry is a venue to showcase new talent. That is one of the reasons I really like Chris Janson; he is a new performer, but really original and authentic. I expect to hear more about him in the future. My seat-mates took a photo of me to prove I was there.

Historic Downtown Nashville and Ryman Auditorium

Cold last night – down to upper 30s, but I was toasty warm with the furnace and two sleeping bags. It was windy too.

Went first to Panera Bread to: (a) get directions to Ryman Auditorium, (b) find out more about the Nash Trash Tour (sold out for my entire stay), and (c) upload some photos to the blog and upload another blog post – now up to the second day in Pigeon Forge.

Then drove into downtown Nashville to search for parking and a visitor center (Tuesday, April 5th). Found the visitor center and Ryman while driving around on their maddening downtown one-way streets that abruptly end. Went first to the Visitor Center after parking at Music Center. They gave me two self-guided walking tour maps of downtown Nashville. I bought a bunch of postcards, and then started my tour.

The first things you notice are the guitar pick signs that say: “Nashville, Music City, LIVE MUSIC VENUE.” I wasn’t sure where or why these signs would show up since some bars with live music had them and some places with live music obviously streaming out of open windows or doors did not. Tootsie’s did not have a sign and they have live music on each of 3 different floors. The signs are on a pole on the parking side of the walk. What a great idea!

The tour took me down Broadway from 5th Avenue to 2nd Avenue – this is not just a live music hub, right around the corner from the Ryman Auditorium (home of the Grand Ole Opry) – but is also Nashville’s historic district.

I walked along Broadway, listening to the music pouring out of the bars and grills on Broadway, snapping photos of the historic buildings, some of them beautifully restored, others still waiting their turn, and enjoying the bright, sunny day.

I stopped at Ernest Tubb’s record store. Ernest Tubb was a singer/songwriter who: (a) wrote and sang “I Walk the Floor Over You,” (b) a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1943, (c) sometime host of the Opry, (d) the father of honky tonk music, (e ) leader of the Texas Troubadours band the developed a lot of young honky tonk talent, (f) hosted “Midnight Jamboree” a radio program that was essentially an after-party for the Opry at his record store, (g) appeared as himself in the movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and (h) is listed as #21 in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s line-up of country music greats.

I bought some post cards and tried to buy Rosann Cash’s album “The List,” but it was sold out. The clerk said it always sells out fast. I did buy Brent a shot glass there.

I walked a couple more blocks snapping photos of cool historic buildings – and then stumbled on the Johnny Cash museum. So I went in and paid my admission. He was born J.R. – just J.R. The Army insisted he had to have a real first name, so he gave himself the name Johnny. The museum did a good job of providing and displaying primary genealogy documents of his major life events. They did a very nice job of creating wonderful time-line boards. Side note: Johnny Cash was a regular on a radio show out of Shreveport in the 1950s: Louisiana Hayride on station KWKH. They had a movie room where they showed out-takes of his movie and TV roles, including an appearance on The Simpsons as a coyote spirit guide. And they had lots of little kiosk-type stands with music videos of him singing – these were also grouped by decade. And he had 5 decades as a singer/songwriter. They had even re-created a stone wall from his lake home that burned, using stones they recovered at the site. They also had actual costumes worn by him and June Carter on stage.

Continuing my walking tour, I stopped in the official Opry store on my way back on the opposite side of the street. I picked up some refrigerator magnets shaped like guitars.

Back at 5th Avenue where I started, I took a tour of the Ryman. I discovered that the Grand Ole Opry (for which I had tickets that evening) is in a new, bland building in the suburbs now. Ryman Auditorium is gorgeous!!! From the outside, it looks church-like; maybe a Masonic Lodge. Inside it is part church and part concert venue. It was built in 1892 by Ryman, a hard-bitten riverboat captain, as a Union Gospel Tabernacle to save the souls of the lost of Nashville. It also hosted concerts and lectures (like Booker T. Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt). In 1897, the balcony was added as the “Confederate Gallery” for a Confederate Veterans Association reunion. It should be noted that Tennessee remained in the union for the duration of the war, but its populace was deeply divided. Nashville residents still refer to "occupied Tennesse" but they mean occupied by armies from both sides.

The Ryman hired Lula Naff as the back of house manager in 1904, and then she started leasing the building as an independent agent in 1914. She is single-handedly responsible for all its success as an institution. She retired in 1955. In between, she booked all the acts, making annual trips to NYC to book Broadway shows and search for more national music talent. She was the booking agents, the CFO, the advertising department, the ticket seller (she would walk the streets of Nashville hawking tickets out of a shirt box). She brought in shows like Will Rogers, Helen Hays, Katherine Hepburn, Bob Hope, as well as boxing matches and political debates. She turned the Ryman into a national venue of great repute.

In June of 1943, Lula welcomed the Grand Ole Opry (a show put on by WSM radio that had grown too big for its space). The crowd was rowdy, but it built its own national reputation with Lula’s help. Early performers included Bill Monroe (of Prairie Home Companion fame), Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chet Atkins, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams,

Maybelle Carter, June Carter, and the incomparable Minnie Pearl, who was a regular on the show. My Grandma Birdie was a HUGE fan of Minnie Pearl’s. "Howdeeeee!" Elvis Presley appeared only once in 1954 and was NOT well-received. Later Grand Ole Opry members included Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, and Emmylou Harris.

National Life Insurance, eventually the owner of both the Ryman Auditorium and WSM radio, built a new home for the Grand Ole Opry in 1974 and planned a demo. Local and national celebrities started vocally advocating preservation of the “Mother Church of Country Music.” March 15, 1974 the last Grand Ole Opry show on WSM radio was broadcast from the Ryman. Minnie Pearl cried. In 1980, scenes from the movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter” – the Loretta Lynn story – were filmed there. In 1988, Dolly Parton started filming some episodes of her ABC variety show there. In 1989, the renovation began. In 1991 and 1992, Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers recorded two albums - “Live at the Ryman.” In 1992, an even bigger renovation began. Garrison Keiller brought a “Prairie Home Companion” there in 1994 for the Grand Opening of the Ryman – and returned in 2015. The musical "Always..Patsy Cline" also premiered there in 1994. In 2001, it was declared a National Historic Landmark.

I took lots of photos. They had some of the biggest stars in country music narrating about 6 different video history segments next to 6 different sets of display cases showing off the unique history of the place. At the end of the tour, I got a photo taken of me playing a guitar on stage at the Ryman.

I have to admit that, while I was watching the mandatory video, when they got to the part about plans to demolish the building, I started to tear up.

I walked to the corner hoping to find a seat at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, which is on the self-guided walking tour. I walked up to the rooftop, on the way passing 3 bands each playing on a different floor of the Lounge. The one on the 3rd floor (rooftop) was playing off key. There was no room to sit, but there was one guy alone at his table with 2 chairs. So I asked him if he would mind if I sat there. He said to please feel free. He was a songwriter originally from England, now living in Spain, there at a new songwriters’ conference trying to get some interest in his songs. At the workshop that day, one judge was very negative but the other one said that he is interested in working with this Brit country boy. We chatted while I ate a really good burger and had a couple of gin and tonics. I showed him the self-guided tour description of Tootsie’s. Apparently the wild lavender was a mistake by a painter a long time ago, but the owner has kept it because it makes the place stand out on a busy strip.

I walked a few blocks west on Broadway to see a few other historic buildings including the Custom House. Then it was time to head to the burbs for the Grand Ole Opry.

Taking Monday Off

I was exhausted and sore from all my activities doing walking tours around Charleston, keeping up with two elementary-age children in Raleigh, and hiking one Great Smoky Mountain Trail, AND the Appalachian Trail in Pigeon Forge. I needed a break.

So I slept in, took my time getting ready in the morning, and then went to Panera Bread for lunch because they have internet. I stayed there for 4 hours getting caught up on all my internet stuff - blog posts, Facebook posts, and searching for info on what to do in Nashville. I discovered that the Nash Trash Tour is all booked up for the whole time I will be in Nashville. Bummer.

I did have to go off in search of a laundromat because my campground does not have a laundromat, and the U.S. Corps of Engineers are lousy campground hosts. Their brochures say that there are laundromats "in the vicinity," so I stopped to ask them where in the vicinity I could find these unicorn-like laundromats. They had no clue. I drove around and only found one Chinese laundry that would wash and fold my clothes for $12. So I took them up on it. Ah, the joys of packing light.

I was not, however, too tired to go shopping. I made a trip to Target to restock on supplies, to buy a jar for my Boss Hogg BBQ sauce, and to pick up a few groceries. I got some hummus to go with the pita crackers I have been carrying around since San Antonio, and had that for dinner, along with the last of my Raleigh orange juice. I downloaded some photos from my camera after "dinner" and then went to bed early - like 8:30 pm early. It felt good to do nothing of any note for a whole day - almost like a vacation from my vacation. Plus there are no photos of me doing nothing. Bonus!

Y'All Come Back Again, But I'm Goin' to Nashville, Nashville Here I Come

Day 80 (Sunday) and it’s time to leave the Smokies and Pigeon Forge. Woke up at 7 am, feeling like an 85-year-old, showered, washed my hair, packed up the car, took down the camper. All done by 10 am. I drove to Fast Stop to: (a) take a photo of me in front of Mel’s Diner, and (b) gas up the car and buy ice. Then I went to Lid’l Dolly’s to buy a quilt and a gift for Kelly.

Pigeon Forge told me to come back again. Mighty friendly of them.

Hit the road – I-40 to Nashville. Had to stop at Exit 398 for a short 10-minute namp, and once again at a Love’s gas station, and once again at a Tennessee highway rest stop. I was tired, really tired. I had lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken at Exit 398 also, since Col. Sanders started his empire in Tennessee. They had a brochure for his museum at the counter.

Ran into construction along the way; drove 6 miles going so slow I had to do most of it in 1st gear, since the car would sputter in 2nd. Took forever. I had no internet at Creekside RV Resort the last morning and found no internet along the way, but a Tennessee Welcome Center at Carthage had a map and the attendant said there was a Stewart Ferry Pike Road exit off I-40. This same rest stop had a plaque up memorializing U.S. Senator Al Gore, Sr. for his role in helping Eisenhower create the federal interstate highway system (and from the photo you and Mary Krueger will note that I found a boiled peanut stand in a gas station along the way - right between the front door and the ATM machine in case you just can't wait for a boiled peanut fix on the go).

Stopped for gas and a dreamcycle fudge bar in Mt. Juliet (a suburb of Nashville) and they confirmed that Stewart Ferry Pike does have its own exit off the freeway. The welcome center map got me to the campsite (7 Points Campground run by the U.S. Corps of Engineers) about 7 pm. Still daylight – a first for me. But my back-in campsite went uphill AND curved. Yikes!!! A really nice fellow camper helped me back in. Whew!!!

Mileage on my car this trip so far = 9,140

Hiking the Appalachian Trail on Top of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Saturday, April 2nd – the day I chose to hike the Appalachian Trail. I have to now since yesterday I mailed off a bunch of postcards (about 30) to my friends saying that I was going to AND I bought a medallion to attach to my walking stick. I am committed.

I woke up at 7 am, got ready quickly, had a hearty breakfast, but still managed to waste enough time so I didn’t get started on my hike until 11 am. I did, however, get the sleeping bag laundered.

I had to stop at the Sugarlands Visitor Center to get energy bars and chocolate for the hike. The clerk talked me into 2 chocolate bars. It wasn’t hard. I visited the facilities and then drove to Newfound Gap parking lot, which is the jumping off place for a hike to Charles Bunion on the A.T., which the Ranger had suggested as a more moderate hike.

When I got to Newfound Gap, there were no directions to Charles Bunion, no map, and the only sign pointed the way to Kephart Prong Trail and Boulevard Trail, and Maine (yes, the State of Maine). None of which were on my map. As a note: on the way back to the car, I ran into some hikers heading to Georgia who had the same problem, but there were going north instead of south, and they meant to go south.

No one I talked to knew which way went to Charles Bunion. One local person pointed to the Kephart/Boulevard Trail and said that is the only one he ever takes. So I did. There seemed to be a lot of people heading in that direction.

First a note, from Newfound Gap park-ing lot and a few places along the trail, one can clearly see Hwy 441 cut across the mountains across the valley. Hope my photo of same turned out.

I decided to take the trail slowly since I started at 11 am and didn’t have to be done til 6 pm – 7 hours for an 8-mile hike seemed doable. So, I took my trusty walking stick and my day pack with camera, wet wipes, Kleenex, water bottle, energy bars, and 1 of the two chocolate bars, plus a rain poncho for a hike.

I walked slowly up the dirt, stone, and tree root path letting others pass me. It was a beautiful, sunny day and you could see for miles. Since you have to watch where you are step on the narrow, rocky trail, I stopped periodically to lean on my walking stick and look around, or to sit down on a clean stone or recently cut tree trunk, and take in the Smokies. Side note: my nose dripped the whole time, so I used my sweatshirt as a Kleenex for most of the trip. Whenever I sat down, I would take a swig of water from the bottle in my day pack. But not too much as there are no biffies on the trail.

Observations on the walk:

• People hiking the Appalachian Trail are very happy and very friendly. They always asked how I was doing, said hello, or excused themselves for passing.
• People walking up have the right of way, which one experienced hiker explained to me when I wanted to let him pass by me when he was going down.
• People, like me, going slowly have to pull over and let the speedy ones go past.
• The mountains are eroding. You can see evidence of the trail being undermined, and even occasionally moved over closer to the peak.
• Someone (probably volunteers) have placed some logs across the path in strategic places to make the walk easier and to prevent more erosion.
• Same someones have laced some pretty big rocks in places to shore up the path and prevent a cave-in/
• The Smokies are incredibly steep mountains – much steeper than the Rockies. If someone bumped you in the wrong section of the trail, they would find you at the very bottom, unless you splatted on a big, live tree.
• The trees at the tops of the Smokies are dead or in the process of dying. There is a bug that is eating them. The Canadian Fraser Firs up there may not survive global warming, which even the Park Service doesn’t have the nerve to mention in their printed materials about the dead trees.
• These dead trees periodically fall down. Mostly the Park Service leaves them where they fall, but they chain saw any parts that fall across the path, and probably use them on the path later. These newly cut trees don’t have moss on them yet, and make good benches for senior hikers.
• The mountain tops are nice and sunny, but windy. The sides of the mountain have trees in layers above and layers below, plus the mountain peak on one side, so are shady and dark, but at the top, there is just one layer of trees so the sun pokes thru. You don’t know how much you enjoy the sun until it bursts in on you when you reach a peak.
• When you reach a peak, you think you are finished going up. Oh, no, no, no. There is always more up a little further along the trail.
• The mountain peaks are very narrow across – most about half a football field or less and fairly flat. It was like walking thru the woods in Minnesota – but with more dead trees.
• Even with all the dead trees there, new baby fir trees are trying to grow. I hope some of them make it.
• I stopped at this one beautiful, flat, meadow-like spot with 2 other people. It was a gorgeous view across the valley of ridge and ridge after ridge of beautiful blue and purple mountain ranges. You can see why they call this chain of mountains (to which the Smokies belong) the Blue Ridge – they really ARE blue.

This woman (50ish) was one of the two admiring the scenery. I took a photo of her with that backdrop and she took one of me. Trail magic. I saw her again later on the way to Icewater Spring Shelter.

• When no one comes by for a while, you really feel the peace and tranquility of the mountain. Glad at those times that I was alone – it’s hard to feel that when you’re talking.
• Did not see one single bear.
• The flowers blooming up there on the ridge tops are very tiny – but they are present and happy.
• It was thrilling to reach the Kephart Prong Trail branch-off and: (a) discover that I had just hiked 1.7 miles, (b) that Boulevard Trail was just one mile away, and (c) I was never going to make it to Chas. Bunion. But thought I could still do Clingman Dome after I was finished here.
• I sat down on a grassy hill in a sunny spot and ate my energy bar (never tasted anything so delicious), drank my waters, and took a very short video of me walking the Appalachian Trial.
• I truly did love the walk along the relatively flat ridge tops. It was magical!
• When I reached the Boulevard Trail branch-off, the sign said that the Icewater Spring Shelter was only 0.2 miles further, so I went there. I had to see it.

Side note: the people who manage the Appalachian Trial don’t want the long-distance hikers to stake their tents and start campfires just any place they feel like it, so you can’t take a tent with you on those back country hikes. Instead, they provide yurt shelters with very, very primitive toilets and fire rings. Everyone has to stay there; some people cheat and bring hammocks with them. I’m sure the Park Service doesn’t want them attached to their dying trees either. The yurts inside look like the steerage accommodations on a 19TH Century immigrant ship – two long, deep benches on which people spread out their bed roll and sleeping bag so they are sleeping side by side in two rows – one up and one down. The non-windy side of the yurt is covered with a translucent sheeting, held down by rocks. And there is a pretty fancy pulley-type contraption for keeping your food away from bears – or raccoons.

• At this yurt, I saw a chipmunk, a warbler, and an indigo bunting. More wildlife.
• This was my zenith, and then I started the trek down. On the way down, my heart was not racing and I was not flushed, but my knees did not like it, and I kept losing my balance, which can be fatal in the wrong place up here.
• I tried to take a photo at the Boulevard Trail – Icewater Spring split, but they came out fuzzy. So, a nice young woman hiking with a fraternity, took the photo for me. P.S. they made it to Chas. Bunion and then passed me again on the way down.

• I was surprised at how many people were still hiking up as I got further down. There were a lot of people coming up after 4 pm – one guy wearing expensive Italian leather loafers – and I wondered if they would be walking down in the dark. I bet he didn’t have a flashlight either.
• I met a couple with big backpacks with lots of camping gear coming up and they were just gleeful that they had received some trail magic in the parking lot. Someone had arrived with sandwiches for the long-distance hikers. They don’t have much opportunity to go shopping while on the trail, so trail magic is much appreciated.

Just before I reached the bottom, this young couple called out to me from behind. He had cut his hand badly on his pocket knife and they needed a band-aid. All I had was wet wipes. They bandaged his hand with wet wipes, and were extremely grateful. The trail ended and my feet hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurt, even my toe nails hurt, and I felt like I had just gotten off a boat, but I did it!!! I did a 6-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail (3 miles out and 3 back).

I took a 20 minute snooze in the car, then headed back my by campsite. It was a little after 5 pm. Clingman Dome will have to wait for a return trip. On the way back, I called Bryan at Bzzzz Auto Repair and he and Charlie came out and put a new headlight in and changed my oil in the trusty Subaru. Now I don’t have to worry about being pulled over on the interstate for not having a right side headlight.

I was too tired and sore to go out to eat, although I had planned to go to the Old Mill Road Restaurant which I heard from everyone was excellent. But instead I ate the chocolate candy bar and called it dinner. It was, after all, dark chocolate. I was also too tired and sore to sleep, so ended up calling both Brent and Grant around midnight.