Thanksgiving in Smoky Mountains National Park

We were very wrong when we thought we would have the park to ourselves for Thanksgiving. Apparently EVERYONE in the surrounding area decided Thanksgiving Day would be a goods time to take a drive through the park before their big feast. We got caught up in a see of people and even more vehicles!! Many of the park roads were closed due to snow and ice they received a day or so before we arrived. In fact, we postponed our trip into the park by a day to miss some of this chilly weather. (It’s funny that we now think of 20 degree weather as cold. Our friend Bob in Alaska told us it is has been negative 20 degrees for the past month. But when you live in a van and are constantly exposed to an outside temperature of 20 degrees it can take its toll. I now understand why it is common to see homeless people wearing winter coats when it is 60 degrees outside. Once you get a chill, it can stay with you for days.)

Entrance to the Park

Smoky Mountains Scenery

Things got better when we finally made it to a campsite within the park. Although there were still a fair amount of people there, we were able to find a nice spot nestled in the pines and in full light of the sun. We settled in and began the long process of creating a Thanksgiving feast that only took 15 minutes to consume.

Thanksgiving Cheers

We got up early the next day to avoid the crowds at Laurel Falls. The mile and a half hike was a great way to work off some of our turkey stupor. We were successful and had the falls all to ourselves.
Cades Cove, the other main attraction in the park was a different story. We arrived there at peak visitation time and it was packed. It took us most of the day to finish the eleven-mile auto tour. For those of you who haven’t made it to this park Cades Cove is an area that was settled in the 1820’s and eventually grew to have 125 families living there. A variety of the old buildings are still standing and open for public viewing. We got a big kick out of seeing first hand how these people lived.

Cades Cove Scenery

Cades Cove Cabin

Appalachian Mountains

After leaving DC we headed west to Shenandoah National Park. We only had time to drive the northern portion of the park because we were trying to get to Charlotte, North Carolina in time for a punk show we already had tickets for. Ironically we ran into more haze or “smoke” here then we did a few days later in Smoky Mountain National Park. This made it tough to get any real good photos but the scenery was spectacular and we were glad to see some of the park.

Entrance to the Park

Shenandoah Scenery

In Charlotte we caught a Leftover Crack show. dave has been listening to this band since 1999 and never thought he would get an opportunity to see them live. The guys in the band lead a pretty interesting life. Even with the fame their music has brought them, they still choose to live outside the box of normal society. They sleep in vacant building, eat out of dumpsters and are basically able to live off the waste of others. Here is a clip from their web site: “We are ANTI-RACIST, ANTI-SEXIST, ANTI-HOMOPHOBIC, and ANTI-BREEDING but PRO-CHOICE.” All four bands we saw that night put on a great show and the audience was returning the vibe. To top off the night we were able to spend the night right there in the parking lot.

Leftover Crack Band Members

From Charlotte we moved into the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests in western North Carolina. We did our best to stay off the scenic highway because believe it or not it was crowded with people. I guess we are getting further south and the tourist season is still active. It was strange for us to be bombarded with folks at all the attractions after all the months of having things to ourselves. The National Forests in this part of the country get a lot of use throughout the year. As a result they have created a bunch of dispersed, free camp spots across the forest to minimize the amount of the damage to the land. Even with hunting season in full swing we were able to find these gems. Following are a few of the better photos we took.

Looking Glass Falls

Slide Rock (During the summer months thousands of people a day come here to slide down this rock into the chilly water.)

Appalachian Scenery

Dry Falls (You could walk behind this waterfall.)

Throughout this area we frequently saw evidence of people damming rivers to control the water flow for energy production and in the process created a series of lakes for recreation.

Washington D.C.

From Baltimore we headed south to Washington DC. dave had never been there before, plus two of our friends live nearby. Justin worked with dave in Alaska. He now lives with his fiancée, Sarah, in Rockville, Maryland. Ashley worked in Louisiana with us before we moved to Alaska. She is currently living in Arlington, Virginia.

Washington DC is an amazing city. In addition to the Mall where most of the monuments are, there are smaller, eclectic neighborhoods surrounding the city. Ashley brought us to Adams Morgan, a popular part of the city but with an international flare. After dinner we went to the Queen’s Café, a favorite spot of Ashley’s, to smoke shisha or hookah. Since alcohol is forbidden in most Muslin countries, the men relax by smoking shisha with their friends. This particular place was owned by an Egyptian. There were many other languages being spoken throughout and Arab pop music videos were playing on the TV. We spent the night hanging out and enjoying the mild, fruity smoke.

This is Ashley with her personal hookah she got in Egypt.

This is Justin and "Sarah" in front of their new condo.

The major monuments are arranged in a cross formation on the Mall. The Washington Monument points to the sky in the center while the White House, Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial make up the points. The scale is hard to describe if you haven’t been there. The Washington Monument is hundreds of feet tall. The Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials have huge, marble stairways leading to the statues of the men. Pivotal quotes from these past presidents are etched out of marble and granite fifty feet high in some cases. Past wars are also remembered here with the Vietnam, World War II and Korean memorials. DC is a tribute to our founding fathers, the radicals of our country’s youth. These men stood up and started a new country. It was exciting to see our country through the eyes of these men and the promise this country still holds if we are willing to speak up and get back to our roots.

The Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

White House (Notice the migrant workers in the front yard … hummmm even the White House lawn wouldn’t be landscaped without them)

Peace Vigil outside the White House (You should enlarge this photo by double clicking it. It was pretty neat.)

Lincoln Memorial

Vietenam Memorial

Korean War Memorial

The Capitol

FDR Memorial and Quotes

Baltimore, Maryland and Old Friends

We came through Baltimore, Maryland not only because we have never been here before but because one of my high school friends, Jacob, lives here. Once again it was a very short visit but we did go downtown to do the tourist thing and even got to try Ethiopian food (which we both highly recommend).

Their house was built back in the early 1900’s. Jacob and Nick have taken on the monumental task of completely renovating the entire thing top to bottom. The place was beautiful and even a novice eye could see the potential for what the house can be in the near future.
This is their dog, Basil. Otis and him played nonstop the entire time they were together.

Downtown Baltimore

Edgar Allan Poe’s Grave Site

This is the USS Constitution, the only remaining Civil War ship.

On Our Way to Baltimore

There are numerous gorges and waterfalls on our way from New York through Pennsylvania. We visited a few of them despite the rainy weather and were not let down.

Taughannock Falls State Park, New York (Just north of Ithaca, New York)

At 215 feet this waterfall is the tallest waterfall in the eastern US. Notice the trail down below.
This photo was taken from the trail near the base of the waterfall.

Treman State Park, New York (Just south of Ithaca, New York)

This trail was impressive because you wouldn't see the waterfall until you were right on top of it. Notice the incredible trail work in the background.Another example of how close you could get to the waterfalls.

Ricketts Glenn State Park, Pennsylvania

We stayed the night at this particular state park because it was the only place to legally camp for miles around. We were surprised when we woke up in the morning to find there was a trail that led past 22 waterfalls. We didn't visit them all but the ones we saw were pretty impressive.

Once again notice the incredible trail work out of solid stone.

New York Welcomes Us with Outstretched Arms

Neither of us had been to western New York state before but we were both pleasantly surprised. The landscape was very hilly and intermixed with forests and farms. Our destination was friends I had worked with in Coldfoot, Alaska. They have a beautiful home on nearly 200 acres in the western Finger Lakes region. Their hospitality was extremely generous. Not only did we get a personalized tour of the area but we were fed a lot of great home cooked food!! Although we only spent a couple of days with them it was an incredible experience and we can’t wait till the next time we can visit.

This is Don and Nita, two of the nicest people on Earth. They were the campground hosts and worked at the visitor center in Coldfoot for two summers.

They have lived in this beautiful house on almost 200 acres for 42 years.

This is a photo overlooking their land.
Unbeknownst to us western New York is wine country. The hillsides surrounding the nearby town of Hammondsport were covered in vineyards. The lake you see in the background is Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes.

We visited the Bully Hill Winery for a tour and a tasting of five of their wines.
Nita even grabbed some of the grapes to bring home she liked them so much!!
Hammondsport is also the hometown of Glenn Curtis, the inventor of the float plane. He started out working in a bicycle shop before he started inventing small motors capable of mounting on a bike or a plane. He was the fastest man alive in the early 1900’s after he went 136 mph on an 8-cylinder motorcycle he invented.

Detroit

We spent two weeks in our hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Unfortunately most of that time was spent running errands that accumulated over the course of our travels. As usual there was not enough time to visit everyone we hoped to and eat at all our favorite restaurants. I guess that means we will have to come back for another visit soon.

Detroit got a ‘makeover’ for the recent Superbowl. Sadly the money it brought into the city didn’t make a dent in the many struggles Detroit is facing today. The amount of crime is staggering and deters a lot of people from visiting the city. The unemployment rate is rapidly rising primarily due to the cutbacks from the auto industries. In spite of all this we eagerly went downtown to reacquaint ourselves with the city we both used to call home.

Detroit Riverwalk

When this walkway is completed it will run the length of the Detroit River through downtown Detroit.

Heart Plaza

When we were kids there used to be a variety of ethnic festivals and live music concerts held in this plaza.

Labor Movement Sculpture

This huge sculpture is proximately displayed next to Heart Plaza on Jefferson Ave.

Quote form Labor Movement Sculpture

The bottom of the sculpture has a bunch of quotes about labor from Martin Luther King to Emma Goldman.

Spirit of Detroit

When the Red Wings are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs the city will put the Spirit of Detroit in a Red Wings hockey sweater. While we were home the Detroit Tigers were in the World Series and the Spirit was wearing a Tigers jersey.

Comerica Park

This is the relatively new baseball stadium where the Tiger play.Attack of the Tiger

I almost got attacked by one of the Tigers standing guard as I walked by.