[mobike008]

This is a story of our roadtrip that happened during the July 4th weekend this year. During this long weekend, each year we plan to go somewhere to enjoy the long Weeknd holiday where most of America's is on a holiday and usually traveling. We weren't sure where to travel and as always our first bet is always Boston (since sister lives there and we normally meet in Boston and travel to different locations together which are close-by from Boston as primary intent is to spend time with family). However, this year she had plans to visit India so we decided to do something else.

After putting our finger on the map of USA, we finally honed down to Smoky Mountains in Tennessee as a close friend had visited that place in April 2021 and was raving about it. Till he mentioned, we never even knew that Smoky Mountains is one of the most popular destinations in Tennessee. We immediately thought about this destination and anything interesting surrounding it. I heard from a friend long back that if you love to party, there is no place like Nashville and not to mention their delicious HOT fried chicken. That comment was struck in my head and decided to check the brouhaha around Nashville.

First step was to book the hotel, hotel tariffs hit the ceiling at this time and decent places which normally cost $120-$150/night was going for ridiculous prices almost touching $400/night. We managed to find something that was not too ridiculously expensive and booked it right away.

Plan was to spent 2 Nights in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN and 1 Night in Nashville, TN.

Let's start with that as a background. Also, do treat this as a photoblog as the intent is to keep the commentary to minimum and share pictures/videos so you can virtually enjoy the moments we lived during these 4-days road-trip.

Rough route map of our entire trip that was covered over the July 4th holidays (July 3rd-July 6th, 2021) which was a 4-day trip covering 1350 miles



The Smokies



Entire Downtown Nashville was converted into a Music Festival- Never seen anything like this in my life



World Famous (in America), Fried Chicken in Nashville, Tennessee





P.S : All pictures are taken with my iPhone 12 Promax and you can click each image to see it in full glory and also to enjoy quality of images.

P.S 2 : Apologies for not captioning pictures as it's a lot of effort and no shame in confessing that I'm lazy

[mobike008]

July 3rd, 2021

I'm sure everyone here who enjoys roadtrips can concur that excitement is super high previous night and we are no different. It's hard to get any sleep despite getting in bed early.Plan was to leave at 4:00am as we had to cover 550 miles (900kms) and we knew it would take around 8-hours with stops.

After twisting and turning in bed finally slept at 1:00am and after just 4 hours of sleep, we headed out at 4:30am and target was to reach around noon. This start wasn't too bad as we were just 30 minutes delayed compared to a few other trips where we left a few hours late as we were too groggy and just couldn’t get up.

Entire route was driving south, crossing Michigan entering into Ohio and driving further south towards Cincinnati. I’m quite familiar with this route as back in 2018/19, I used to drive from Detroit to Cincinnati every 2 weeks to meet one of my customers (Worldpay) and knew all the hotspots of Cincinnati and one of which we had planned to enjoy on our way back to Detroit (More on that as we move forward with the story).

I never drove/visited beyond Cincinnati and was curious to see how the states of Kentucky which will be large part of the drive and final destination of Tennessee would be. To be honest, I always had a below average impression of these southern states (Kentucky, Tennessee, New Orleans etc) as I thought their infrastructure would be in tatters and people are eating fried chicken as their main meal . The only thing I love about these states is their lilting “Southern Drawl” which is used aplenty in western movies. And, of course they're amazing Bourbons.

The moment we crossed into Kentucky, I was so pleasantly surprised to see the landscape completely change (Ohio is pristine, broad roads but, boring like hell) to hilly terrain, lots of foliage and roads curving all the time. It was a memorable drive covering most part of Kentucky to cross over into Tennessee which is small part but, this is where the Great Smoky Mountains lie.

When we crossed the border into Tennessee driving towards Gatlinburg TN, the landscape turned even more beautiful and we totally enjoyed the drive and infrastructure was top-notch.

As mentioned in my previous post, with this trip planned with short notice, we decided to skip staying in Gatlinburg as all hotels were making merry by charging 3X or 4X. All hotels were priced in range of $300-$500/night. We decided to stay in Pigeon Forge which was also swarming with toursits (It’s like Tirupathi of Tirumala, if you can understand the analogy) from here, Gatlinburg is around 7-8 miles up into the mountains. We reached the hotel around noon and quickly checked in and freshened up and left the hotel room by 1:00pm.

We drove through the beautiful curvy roads towards Gatlinburg and parked the car in a safe parking garage ($20/Day) and headed to the main attraction which was taking a ride on the Skylift. There was a huge line as expected and we got the tickets that gave us 2 rides valid for 24 hours costing around $100.

We enjoyed the ride to top from where you can check out entire Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Smoky Mountains in the distance. We had refreshments on top and generally sank in the beautiful scenery. We also walked through the Skybridge which had a major portion with glass bottom.

It was scary for sure as there were high winds and bridge swayed dangerously but, we walked across this swaying glass bridge a few times to enjoy the thrill as at a particular point the bridge would shake dangerously with everyone holding on to rails and screaming. We rode the SkyLift down, grabbed something to eat and then took a ride again to the top and spent entire afternoon on the top enjoying the views.

Since it was summer and we had the luxury of sun setting late, we headed out of Gatlinburg around 8:00pm towards Pigeon Forge to check out the beautiful lights at the entertainment center. We were completely mesmerized with sound & light show and spent a lovely time enjoying the light shows before finding a restaurant (with a lot of difficulty and lots of waiting...) for dinner.



























Attachment 2244581































All roads in Smokies was like this. Beautiful curvy roads with thick foliage around us. Total fun to drive roads !!!

https://youtu.be/UXd9vXw5GUM

A beautiful view point somewhere on the mountains

https://youtu.be/PdS1Mtd5Gqg

[b]Another video of the beautiful beautiful roads we got to enjoy[. Hope you can hear the beautiful note of the 3.0 Liter, 6-Cylinder Beast of an engine /B]

https://youtu.be/SzvEe78Tym8

Gailinburg Sky Lift Ride #1

https://youtu.be/x0U8hGW5bQ8

[mobike008]

July 3rd, 2021....Contd

This post is a continuation of Day 1 in PigeonForge, TN where we spent the evening enjoying these beautiful lights and a late night American dinner before calling it a day around midnight.

















































Gaitlinburg Sky Lift Ride # 2

https://youtu.be/lZE2_xR1Wzo

Beautiful Sound & Light Show in Pigeon Forge which is a city below Gaitlinburg at a distance of < 10 Miles

https://youtu.be/-KCtiIsz_GA

[mobike008]

Day 1...Cont'd....

Everything that is famous is used, stretched beyond imagination to make money on it's fame. Tennessee Hot Fried Chicken was no different, the real deal or the original is supposed to be in Nashville but, Gaitlinburg had many outlets selling this famous chicken which is served in multiple heat levels and with a special dry rub and sauces.

We tried this from an outlet that came highly recommended. It was so delicious that we repeated the order thrice

I even chatted with owner and he showed me the special sauce they use to make it and even let out the secret where it can be bought.

[mobike008]

July 4th, 2021

The day before we waited till almost midnight to check out the Fourth of July Fireworks but, we could not see it up close due to lot of traffic and holiday crowd everywhere. We had to be content from watching the fireworks in sky from a distance.

Sorry for repeating myself but, the holiday crowd was so much that it felt as if half of US population descended to the smokies, this is during/post pandemic so can't imagine how this place would be prior to this epidemic. It was swarming with people and traffic was backed up like crazy. As an example, it took us about an hour for a U-turn covering 500-800 meters to get into our hotel premises post midnight on July 3rd. Anyways, after reaching our hotel we just crashed and went out like the lights till 8:00am.

Next day, we freshened up and got ready to hit the road around 10:00am and we decided to have a quick breakfast from America’s cornerstone of nutrition (McDonalds). and then drive up into the mountains going past Gatlinburg and much higher into mountains to the popular scenic places like :

Cade’s Cove Loop

This is a 15-Mile loop inside deep forests in the mountains and a very popular loop. We joined multiple other cars and drove around bumper to bumper (you can see in some pictures) at an average speed of 5-10mph generally enjoying the beautiful mountain scenes and stopping at some scenic passes for pictures etc.

Smoky Mountain National Park is extremely popular for Bears as it’s generally knowns as “Bear Country” and we were lucky to spot them twice in our short visit. One of them at Cove Loop. As we drove around the loop, some cars stopped on side and people getting out. I knew something was spotted. So, I whipped out my powerful binoculars and there it was- A small baby cub of Bear far in the distance in the woods. I felt bad for folks who were around me as they could not spot it with naked eye so I passed on my Binoculars to them and they all enjoyed the cub as if it was right in front of their eyes. Bino passing on went on for quite a few people and we all had great fun watching the bear cub playing in the woods.

The other spotting was when a huge bear just passed our car, it happened so alarmingly quick that there was absolutely no way to take a picture. But, it was a memorable event and our intent of coming to Smokies was ticked off (so as to speak).

We finished the loop around 1:00pm and then headed even higher where the state of Tennessee ends and we enter into state of “North Carolina”. It’s quite unique that a state park spans across two different states and we actually crossed the border line where we stopped for a picture.

Another interesting trivia about Smoky National Park- It is the most visited national park in USA (One of the picture in this photoblog shows that as well) which was a huge surprise for me personally as I thought it might be Yellowstone or Yosemite. But, nope it’s the Smokies apparently.

We stopped at state border as it had some stunning views and we spent a long time sinking in those beautiful sights. We also spotted some bikers parked their enjoying the beautiful scenery. I went over and had a quick word with them and passed my compliments on their beautiful motorcycles and told them I'm an ex-Motorcyclist.

It felt great to live my motorcycling memories with them. They were riding different places and met in Smokies and riding through the entire ranges together. I envied them. Sigh !!

Clingman's Dome

We drove further upwards where the elevation gets higher and weather becomes colder (This is Tennessee/North Carolina where it’s not so cold in summers) and we can practically feel the chill in air even though it was sunny outside. We finally reached our destination- Clingman’s Dome.

Clingman’s Dome is a mandatory visit for anyone visiting the Smokies. The base area where we parked the car, it felt like we are on “Top of the World”- One of the pictures on rock depicts just that feeling of being on the clouds…LOL!. It was just breathtakingly awesome and we spent an hour just sinking in the sights and as it was getting late in evening, we then decided to hike up to the actual Clingman’s dome. From the base it’s a 30-minutes walk higher up on a steep elevation.

Believe you me, I walked for 10 minutes and gave up and wanted to come back as the path is ridiculously steep and it was knocking the wind out of me. Then my wife pointed out some old folks walking up…LOL. Well, suddenly a zing came into my step and I breezed through to the top. OMG, what an amazing view from there, I would have kicked myself if I had returned back to base area without making an attempt to walk up there. Thank god, small inspirations makes you trudge along and rewards you with fruits for all your hard work. This moment was exactly like one of those moments. It was quite cold up there and we regretted not getting a jacket and we decided to hike back just after 15 minutes as it was getting unbearably cold. But, sights from top were surreal and totally worth the hike to the top.

It was around 8:00pm and was getting dark so decided to drive to Gatlinburg and had a nice meal in the city before driving further down the mountains to Pigeon Forge to our hotel to call it a night. It was a memorable 2-days spent in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge and totally enjoyed being in the Smoky Mountains. I just can’t wait to go back to the Smokies. It did leave a beautiful impression on us.

Next day, we checked out of the hotel started driving towards Nashville. I was driving fast as now my focus shifted towards the HOT Fried Chicken that was waiting for me in Nashville. Haha!

[mobike008]

July 5th, 2021

Next day, we got up leisurely as we knew there was not much driving to be done to reach our other destination- Nashville, Tennessee.

It was a 220 miles and about 3.5 hours drive.

We checked out and headed out around 10:00am and I skipped breakfast as I wanted to dive straight into the Fried Chicken lunch that I was eagerly looking forward to The drive was beautiful through the TN freeways which had a smooth tarmac, winding highways and beautiful landscapes which is what we had come to expect from this gorgeous state. After a nice drive, we reached Nashville around 1:30pm and got caught up in a funny situation.

I normally book Hilton (I used to travel lot on work and always used Hilton Hotels and have an upgraded membership) and at that point, I thought our booking was in Hilton and went straight to one of them situated in downtown Nashville. While wifey was waiting in car, I went inside to check-in and they just couldn’t find my name in their reservation. I was like “What the heck” and asked then to double check and he still couldn’t find my name. I was then told, there are 2 more Hiltons in the area and we are probably booked in one of them.

Came back to car and wanted to check my emails for reservation but, my gmail stopped delivering emails (this was the time Sundar Pichai decided to make us pay for using their products free for over a decade..LOL). Literally sitting in the parking lot, I paid and subscribed to GOOGLE ONE and suddenly the mails starting flowing in (Sundar got a customer because of this fiasco). To our surprise when I reviewed my emails, we were NOT even booked into a Hilton.

It was actually a Marriott in downtown. ROFL!

We both laughed for a long time at my fantastic (or, lack of ) memory power. Well, booking at last minute has it's own perils is what I understood from this experience. We then drove down to the Marriott and checked in and after freshening up (Nashville was blistering hot and around 80F), we headed to most popular Hot Chicken outlet in Nashville- HATTIE’S B.

There was a huge line and we waited in sweltering heat for nearly half hour. I was excited to see the menu with different heat options. I wanted to take a risk and ordered one above mid-level and for someone like me who loves spicy food, it was unbearable and I could barely eat one or two. I then realized that Americans can make spicy food and there is a population who eats such spicy food. I had to order again toning down the spice level and it was simply delicious as the actually flavors were coming through.

After an enjoyable lunch (Actually, we went back again morning to pack it packed for our drive back to Detroit as well) we drove towards other part of downtown where the real action was waiting for us. It was around 6:00pm and we parked the car in downtown Nashville and started walking on famous street famous for music “Music Row”. This street gets converted each weekend into a open air theater and entire street gets converted into a music festival. Imagine, every weekend. Crazy. Huh?

I was completely blown to see that entire street was cordoned off by cops and there was a live show happening right in middle of downtown. We were lucky to note it was the famous and hugely popular country music singer “ Chris Young“ we enjoyed the live show for about couple of hours and then moved into the various bars that line up that entire 1 mile stretch of Music Row.

We have never seen anything like this in our entire life and we have been to some real party places globally. That one mile stretch had several bars and every bar had a live gig happening. It was the loudest evening of my life with people hanging out on streets, drinking, dancing and going in and out of bars to enjoy different artists playing. Nashville completely blew us off our mind, I don’t think even a New York City can be compared to the amount of partying that happens in this city.

We kept moving from one bar to another bar to enjoy different artists singing and atmosphere was literally on fire. It was most definetly a night that we will never forget. Post midnight, we trudged back to our car (We even forgot where we parked the car and had to walk for a couple of miles to reach the garage...LOL!) and then our hotel. What a Night !!!

I’m definitely going back to Nashville !!

July 6th, 2021

This was the day we drive back to Detroit. A few years ago, I used to visit Cincinnati quite a lot of times and each time I visit, I would never miss eating this vegetarian thali @Amma's Kitchen. Take my clients or just go there with my colleagues but, Amma's Kitchen was always on the agenda. I had hyped it so much that my wife wanted to eat their thali so we planned to reach Cinci late afternoon to enjoy this awesome thali (never had such a good thali anywhere in US) and Mirchi Bajji.

It was an uneventful drive back to Detroit which reached around 10pm at night. This roadtrip will go down as one of most memorable holiday trip ever.

Hope you enjoyed living through this trip via. this photoblog.

Cheers to Travels & Roadtrips !!!































































Here are some videos of the eclectic scenes in Nashville.....


It was an amazing atmosphere

https://youtu.be/_cUYAleka4M

https://youtu.be/f_FZlLwf2SA

Anyone recognize this legendary song?

https://youtu.be/l0sy_pOaOaA

Live Concert

https://youtu.be/yY27xw12jEQ

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Amrik Singh]

Mesmerising trip beautifully captured. Covid factor has curtailed long trips but the fewer that are made have to be kept alive by Photologues.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Amrik Singh

Mesmerising trip beautifully captured. Covid factor has curtailed long trips but the fewer that are made have to be kept alive by Photologues.

Thank you sir! Covid indeed has created havoc on travel plans especially business travel and how we interact with our customers.

However on the personal front, it's been quite different for me. Since March 2020 when COVID struck, till now which is roughly 21 months, I have clocked greater than 30,000 miles (~50,000kms) as we would prefer to be in outdoors and not visit any attractions that were indoors.

I have several stories of such roadtrips to share. Hopefully, it will unfold one after another here on forum as and when I get time.

[catchjyoti]

Great travelogue. Your photos did the talking!

Did you get a chance to visit the Walk of Fame in Nashville? I believe the Star of Elvis Presley is there.

[2legit2quit]

Gosh! All these pictures of food have my stomach growling! Great to see Amma's kitchen be featured in your travelogue as well! I stayed in Cincinnati for over 3 years and Amma's was always the most well kept secret for Vegans and Indian food lovers!

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by catchjyoti

Great travelogue. Your photos did the talking!

Did you get a chance to visit the Walk of Fame in Nashville? I believe the Star of Elvis Presley is there.

As described in my post, we reached Nashville around noon and left the city late morning the next day. Our single handed focus was on HOT CHICKEN + MUSIC FESTIVAL.

Hopefully, if and when we get an opportunity to visit next time will do a proper sight seeing.

Originally Posted by 2legit2quit

Gosh! All these pictures of food have my stomach growling! Great to see Amma's kitchen be featured in your travelogue as well! I stayed in Cincinnati for over 3 years and Amma's was always the most well kept secret for Vegans and Indian food lovers!

Haha! Nice to know Amma's Kitchen is famous on Team-BHP too

I love their food and keep telling folks who go to Cincinnati to visit them (Hey, no I don't get any commission for recommending 'em. LOL!)


Here are some pics that I missed sharing of the Clingman's Dome which I described in one of my posts. This is a mandatory visit for anyone who visit the Smokies.

Hope these pictures show that we were really on "Top of the world"

[rvracer88]

Originally Posted by mobike008

World Famous (in America), Fried Chicken in Nashville, Tennessee

Attachment 2244545

Attachment 2244546

Mouthwatering!! Miss Nashville hot chicken from Hattie B's. Had my fair share during my b-school at Vanderbilt. Nashville is an amazing place. Miss the southern hospitality till date!

Originally Posted by mobike008

July 3rd, 2021


Attachment 2244571

Hope you have a nice radar setup for additional support. I got my first ticket the day after I bought my M40i. Ended up picking Uniden the next weekend

Also, did you know about the "tail of the dragon" drive near Gatlinburg? It has over 318 curves in ~11 miles, a perfect drive setup for the M40i. You should visit it the next time you are there.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by rvracer88

Mouthwatering!! Miss Nashville hot chicken from Hattie B's. Had my fair share during my b-school at Vanderbilt. Nashville is an amazing place. Miss the southern hospitality till date!

Oh Yeah! We made a trip specifically to Nashville only for Music and Hot Chicken. Both did not disappoint at all.

Nice to know you studied in Nashville. I am sure you miss the eclectic scene of Nashville. I loved the place.

Originally Posted by rvracer88

Hope you have a nice radar setup for additional support. I got my first ticket the day after I bought my M40i. Ended up picking Uniden the next weekend

Also, did you know about the "tail of the dragon" drive near Gatlinburg? It has over 318 curves in ~11 miles, a perfect drive setup for the M40i. You should visit it the next time you are there.

Who does not know about "Tail of the Dragon"

When I was in Detroit, we were contemplating a drive meet to do 555 or Tail of Dragon and we decided on 555 as it's longer than ToD. Check the link below of our drive meet of famous 555 Triple Nickel in Ohio where we drove 90 miles on those crazy roads. It was one of the most exhilarating drive of my life. I'm sure everyone's BP shot up after that drive as our body went through some crazy moments.

Check the post and subsequent posts for pictures, videos and report.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-...ml#post5079464 (Team BHP USA meets in Detroit)

When I was going to Smoky, I knew would be very close to ToD as we crossed over to NC border but, since it was a holiday, wanted to enjoy a peaceful drive.

Any pics of your drive on ToD? Please do share it here. Cheers !!

[Simple_User]

The Smoky mountains are amazing, especially during the Fall color season. Need to checkout Nashville sometime.