FERNANDINA BEACH FL trip
Sep. 12-17 2021
PART 6
Entering Great Smoky Mountains National Park on US 441. I'm reminded of the commercial (from back in the days of the soup wars and the People's Forum) that showed people in different eras posing with one of the signs like this. The scene for 1975 was accompanied by a music bed that sounded like the theme from S.W.A.T. (which was a spin-off of The Rookies, which likely inspired the famous "EAT THE ROOKIES" e-mail).
Elk loom.
Into the clouds we gooooo!
I told you elk were looming and you didn't believe me! I guess you had to trust CNN instead.
Look at this beautiful elk!
Another candid elk photo!
Today's big foe? Fog! Lots of it!
US 441 - those in the know call it Newfound Gap Road - goes through this tunnel. It appears to be just after we enter Tennessee. One map also labels this road as TN 71.
US 441 again.
This is where US 441 famously crosses over itself.
Another tunnel!
The Gatlinburg Bypass goes under Campbell Lead Road.
As the bypass ends, we rejoin US 441, which picked up US 321 in Gatlinburg. Here we go under the southbound side of that road.
US 321/441 is the Foothills Parkway here. The northbound side uses this tunnel. The road is a divided highway, with the Pigeon River running down the middle. This setup appears to date from the 1970s. Before then, both sides used what is now the southbound side - though part of the northbound side overlaid an existing road.
Gum Stand Road! Guess what you can do with gum? You'll never guess! Why, you can blow bubbles with it!
Traffic jam on US 321/441 in Pigeon Forge - with a big Dolly Parton billboard! Google Maps marks something called Dolly Parton's Stampede, which brings to mind a hilarious image.
The traffic jam continues. The 1960s-era car at left actually had a Georgia plate dated 1965. It's sort of like how I kept seeing a car in my neighborhood that still had an LBJ sticker.
US 441 again.
As a Trump sign towers over the spoils of another election, this is west on I-40.
As we cross the Holston River on I-40 on the east side of Knoxville, this is looking north to the US 11E/25/70 bridge.
I-75 at Rocky Top, Tenn. The town changed its name from Lake City in 2014, following a court battle with the copyright holders of the song "Rocky Top." This reminds me of the time in 6th grade when the music teacher wrote the words to "Rocky Top" on the chalkboard, and somebody erased part of it and replaced it with crude parody lyrics.