Southeast States Trip Day 9

Southeast States Trip Day 9 Tuesday June 2, 2015

Today going from Knoxville, TN to Canton, NC
Through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park

Places Visited Along The Way, Photos, and Notes

Knoxville, Knox County, TN

Hotel: Comfort Suites - Knoxville 811 N Campbell Station Road

Not in a hurry this morning, not far to go. So I ate a relaxing breakfast and headed out on my way

The weather looked a bit dark, maybe it will clear up

Heading east on I-40 (see map below) I saw a sign for a HD dealer that I had not found in my research
A bit out of the way, but I'm in no hurry so I took a side trip

On the way, I came across the Smoky Mountain Knife Works
"The World's Largest Knife Showcase"
This place is amazing. The size of a Costco inside. These photos show only a tiny portion.
I did not go downstairs which is large enough to have two large water falls.

selling knives, swords, guns, ammo, assault weapons

I chuckled at the man's t-shirt.
"God is Good All the Time" If that is so, then why is he shopping for an assault weapon?

On display, every sort of stuffed animal

All sorts of pithy sayings are everywhere:
"If you can read this sign, you are in my sights"
"Tresspassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again"

Pigeon Forge is a carnival of a town similar to Myrtle Beach

Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson - Pigeon Forge
This is one of three HD Smoky Mountain HD dealers
I do not have time to visit the other two. Perhaps some day...

I did not put it together until later, this is the home of Dollywood
My sister admires Dolly Parton and Dollywood is on her wanna-visit list.

I headed out and got back onto I-40 and it began to rain real hard.
So I turned off and holed up in a Waffle House for about 45 minutes

When it let up a little, I decided to put on my rain gear.
I had been clever and put the rain jacket on the saddle to keep it dry.
The storm was cleverer, it blew the jacket off into a large puddle.
I put it all on and was relatively dry in the light rain.

I-40 crosses from Tennessee into North Carolina
and NC has a welcome area and rest stop
The rain had stopped and the road was dry so I took off the rain gear.

You guessed it, about half an hour later it started to pour.
It rained so bad that many of the cars on the interstate pulled over to the side
Not being able to see well, so did I
Then the hail started. Hail about the size of a kidney bean

I stood there without rain gear for about 15 minutes getting soaked

Finally, with no let up in site, I pushed on.
At about 40 mph, hail the size of a fingernail doesn't hurt very much, but it is really irritating

First opportunity, I pulled off into Canton, NC and stood a while
under the canopy of a gas station.

No let up in sight so I checked into Comfort Inn - Canton
I was able to do laundry and dry most things out.
As I write this, there is thunder outside. I rue for tomorrow.