What a wild 2 months that was. Our first adventure out of Minnesota/Wisconsin in the camper is in the books. For this post, I want to do a couple of things… and I think I will do this for each state we visit. I want to talk about how we came to be in that state, what we loved and didn’t love, and what our takeaway or lesson learned is. So, with that- bottoms up! (Or something like that…)
So, one of the questions we were asked a bunch was “why Tennessee?” To answer that in the most honest way… we have no idea. Here is what I remember:
“Ok. So where are we going to go once we have the camper?” Justin asked me as we feverishly packed our belongings from our now-sold house.
“I have no idea. We will figure it out.”
And somehow, some way, we decided on Tennessee. Perhaps because it wasn’t too hot (for the dogs) and wasn’t too cold (for us), and like Miss Goldilocks, we needed to find someplace in between. We Googled monthly weather patterns, and 45 degrees, though still cold, was much warmer than the negative degrees our home state boasts this time of year. There might have also been something to do with the mountains, but I have no idea. I also decided to work in a store again (best decision ever, it was beyond fun) super part time, and there was a store in Knoxville.
Alright. We decided on TN. Now, how the heck did Sevierville (yep. Dolly Parton’s hometown) come into play? Again. No idea. Here is how that one played out. We were in Lexington, Kentucky for the night. In the morning, we packed up and headed to Tennessee. Toward Knoxville. We still didn’t have a RV park to stay at. So as we drove through the mountains, with spotty to no internet the whole time, I was Googling places to stay. Then I would call (which would inevitably drop) ask if they had a. internet, b. allowed dogs, c. the price for the month (including electric, septic/water and 50 amp connections) and most important, d. availability. This doesn’t seem too hard, right? Well lemme tell you something. It sure ain’t easy. I completely spaced on writing these things down, which meant I called a couple of places twice. Or thrice. And since I don’t have a southern accent, most of the folks would ask “honey, you just called, didn’t cha?” Whoops. And so it was. More coffee, more calls- and finally we found The Ridge RV Park in Sevierville. Which I will get into in the “what we loved/didn’t love” section. And that is it. That is how we picked Tennessee, and Sevierville. Complete happenstance. There is something both really fun and really overwhelming about having the world as your oyster… you can literally pick wherever you want to go, and that is really freeing, until you realize you can literally pick wherever you want to go. Ok, onto “The List.”
Now, before I hop into this- I want to say a couple of things. First, these are my (and some of them Justin’s) opinions. I am not trying to bash anyone’s hometown pride- being an outsider gives you a good, honest glimpse with fresh eyes. So with that, I will also say that I in no way, shape or form think that Wisco/Minnesota are perfect, and could also easily come up with a list of love/dislove (my own new word) for those 2 states too 🙂 So, without further ado, here it is!
The Ten Things of Tennessee- a Best and Worst of list:
1. Feature.
The BEST feature of Tennessee is hands down, the Great Smoky Mountains (side note- it has bothered me from the beginning, and I don’t know why, that it is spelled Smoky and not Smokey, and I think that is because of Smokey the Bear, but I can’t put my finger on it.) Anyhow, the mountains are breathtaking. The waterfalls coming down either on the trails or falling from the rocks as you drive through. Every hike we took was along a river, and for the most part, the river was this absolutely stunning arctic green color- like what you would see from a glacier-fed lake. Even though we were there in the winter, the moss and flora/fauna reminded us a lot of walking through the rainforest. Massive trees, moss hanging from each tree and blanketing the bark. It was almost surreal. And no matter how hard we tried, no picture could do it justice. We also enjoyed that since it was “winter” (a term I use lightly, given what we are used to with that word), there were relatively few people out and about. I think we heard that when it dips below 50, people hole up in their homes. Fine for us, that is when we loved being out.
The WORST feature was also, hands down, the fact that dogs cannot go into the Great Smoky Mountains. I get it that it’s a National Park, but the reasons are silly at best. Especially since you can hike on side roads, but not on trails. Again, living in Wisconsin, where we have many of the same animals- you can hike anywhere. A bear is gonna be on a trail the same as it’s gonna be on a road. I am super thankful for Justin, he found some paths that dogs were allowed on and they bested trails IMHO. Note: We heard over and over again that people don’t really care if you are on trails with dogs- and saw tons of people take theirs into the park, so there is that.
2. Food.
Before diving into this, I should say that Justin and I are not “foodies” by any means, so this is a terribly skewed item on the list, but I want to keep it consistent state to state. So please take this with, a grain of salt. Haha- that is a good one. (We didn’t try BBQ so that wasn’t on the list, sorry!)
The BEST food we had was El Paso Grill Mexican Restaurant. One doesn’t go to Tennessee for Mexican, but Justin and I could eat it everyday if we were allowed (and if my pants would always and forever fit). That said, the queso here was everything. And I very legitimately would have swam in it. Or slurped it with a straw. And maybe, just maybe, I did one or both of those things.
The WORST food was at China 1 in Sevierville. You know those nights when you are just wiped and want to grab takeout, eat yourself into a coma and fall fully and peacefully asleep? Well, that is what we were looking for. Now, I know, getting Chinese is ALWAYS a gamble, so I shouldn’t have been too shocked, but this food was under a lamp for at least 3 days. It was dry, flavorless, and- just gross. You have all been there to experience this, so you know exactly what I mean.
3. Sign.
I know… What a weird thing to take notice of, but I have to. The BEST sign we saw was this huge, hand painted sign that said “Praying will get you into Heaven. Trespassing will get you there faster.” And every time we passed it, we just laughed. Here is why… there is a discernable difference in wealth around the area we stayed. There were either gigantic homes on a huge hill overlooking the mountains, or tiny little shanty-shack like things. Now, I live in a camper, so I am not judging on one’s humble abode- but it was always these homes that looked like one strong wind would knock it over that had these massive “No Trespassing” signs. There was one other one that both made me laugh and shake my head, and that was a billboard ad that said “GOLF & GUNS. Machine gun rental” Ok where do I even start? How does one say to themselves “you know what today is good for? A little put-put and maybe a little pew-pew.” Just seemed an odd combination… and the whole machine gun rental thing was a little over the top for me, but it still just made me shake my head.
The WORST signs we saw, and I tread lightly with this, were the pro-Trump signs. I will stay away from being overly political, but since this is my own opinion, it was very hard to be in a conservative state when I am more liberal in a lot of ways. To be fair, the people I interacted with- no matter the partisanship, were kind.
4. People.
I feel like this is a nice transition from #3. There are 2 people in my BEST category. First, I learned more about Dolly Parton than I ever, ever thought I would learn in my whole entire life. It makes sense, since we were one whole mile away from Dollywood (no we didn’t go, and that is ok)… that said, I learned that she provides a book a month to kids when they are part of her foundation, until they are 5. Which I think is absolutely awesome, and the reason is due in part to the fact that her dad was illiterate. I also learned that Dollywood has an unofficial “gay day,” and from my aforementioned liberalism, human rights are really important to me. So, having a bit of a shoutout like that made me smile. She also funded a cancer center that is either top in the state or region, but either way, was pretty cool. She’s a cool chick. I have never heard her music, but I like her as a human. My second BEST of goes to the people I met- whether casually or those I got to know. I was called “honey, miss, darlin’ and sweetheart” and it made me feel special. One particular instance, I was leaving the grocery store and sneezed the biggest sneeze I have ever sneezed on my way out, and this man literally stopped in his tracks, took his glasses off his face and gave me a hearty “bless you.” As in, he went out of his way to acknowledge that this was a heartstopping sneeze, and wanted to offer his condolences. My WORST of goes to the mayor of Sevierville. I have no time for bigots, and that is all I will say about that.
5. Random.
The BEST were the southern colloquialisms. One of my favorite was “The Lord Bless,” of which my girlfriend said was used a lot like how “Bless your heart” is used, but over time has just been reduced to “Theyyyyyyyyy” and it makes me laugh. Then there is “Boo-koodles,” which means A LOT. The gals who taught me that made me say it about 100 times and it was never NOT funny. I am sure there are more, but these were a few that I really enjoyed. On a side note- Justin asked me how I thought crows cawed in the south, and I decided they say “y’all” the way you’d say “caw.” I laugh at my own jokes often, and this one is no different.
Oh man. I am sure this is the case just about everywhere, but dear lord in heaven, my WORST of random selection goes to the traffic. With 4 lanes of traffic each way, one should expect to get from place to place fairly swiftly. Not in Tennessee. And I am not alone in this thought. EVERYONE I talked to would lament on how awful traffic was. A 20 mile drive easily took over an hour. Most of the roads have little to no shoulder, and are switchbacky and twisty, which is really fun- but is also kind of annoying.
6. Weather.
Ok, I get it. Every place has weather of some sort. This one should be taken lightly. The BEST part of the weather was the lack of serious cold. We got snow twice in 2 months, and it was a light dusting (sometime in mid-December. But was also almost 70 on Christmas day). It was comical how many people told us to “put clothes on” when we were bopping around, because for us, 50 is flip flops, shorts and sweatshirt weather. And for Tennesseans, it is puffy coat, hat, gloves… the whole get up. Like I mentioned earlier, it was perfect hiking weather. Especially when we did 10-15 mile hikes- which for us was more often than not, because we HAD to take advantage of the nice weather. Keep in mind, this time in Wisconsin/Minnesota is so cold, your face literally freezes. But, since we have dogs, we still have to hike them- so it is literally the most miserable months of the year (for me). A few years ago, it was NEGATIVE FORTY FIVE degrees out. I will take POSITIVE 45 degrees any day of the week when I know what the latter is back home. The WORST part of the weather was, hands down, the wind. Now again, it’s part and parcel for where we were. We were in the mountains. so there are crazy weather patterns. That said, we had no idea going into this adventure. The place we stayed was called The Ridge, and is every part what you think it is. We were situated on a hill- a hill on a ridge. In the mountains. The first week we were there, we had a high wind advisory. Ok, fine. What’s that mean? Oh- you know, 75 mph wind gusts. What. How on this earth were we supposed to withstand that in a CAMPER? I hopped onto online forums faster than you can say “gust” and started begging people to tell me what their campers could withstand- and fast so we could plan our getaway if needed. It turns out, you can handle pretty high gusts in a camper (especially heavier ones, like ours). However, most people also said you should move your rig to face the gust so it hits head on. Um. We didn’t (and still don’t) have a truck to move this thing. So, we were stuck. Also noteworthy, the auto-level feature on our whip doesn’t work (thanks, Jayco) and until we figured out how to manually level it, we were only on 4 of 6 stabilizing jacks, so you can imagine how fun that was. And, to make it even more exciting, we also had a tornado warning. That same day we were told from a lifelong Sevierville-ian, that tornadoes don’t happen here. In all, I won’t complain because it was exhilarating, but also part of the adventure here.
7. Environment.
Yes, I am talking about our Mother Earth. I go into detail a little more further down, but the BEST part is the mountains, and for the worst of that I mention in a second, the parks are pretty clean. Trails marked well, and really has something for everyone- if you want to do a little hike-let or, if you want to hike for days… it’s all there.
And for the WORST, trash happens, everywhere. I know that. I don’t know if we were spoiled in Minnesota, but there just didn’t seem to be a ton of trash all around. That wasn’t the case in Sevierville. Or a lot of the parks we visited. I don’t know what it is about tires, but they are discarded EVERYWHERE. One park we visited- absolutely beautiful. Until we saw the hundreds of tires scattered about. The rivers and lakes are dammed up in the winter, so there is a lot of shoreline exposed, that showed just how much shit makes its way into these incredible bodies of water. It was really sad to see. And I am not talking a little bit of trash, I am talking “picture a hoarder going through their house and taking what was inside and throwing it outside” kind of trash piles. On the sides of the hill ridges, in the lakes, in the rivers, along the road… everywhere. And, we found out early on that recycling isn’t a “thing.” There are places to drop your recyclables, but that is if you are so inclined. It shouldn’t be hard to recycle. And, you can’t recycle glass. It was one of those eye-opening moments. In the end, it made me want to do better, so I will take that as a positive, but for the people who don’t live for a clean environment, I can see how tossing it is easier.
8. Sports.
Ok, in this case, I am only posting the BEST part. I saw more Packer/Badger/Brewer/Bucks fans than I would have expected down south. And that made me feel a bit at home, and a lot full of pride. One fun(ny) story. Justin and I had walked into a store, and the clerk at the register yelled “Go Packers!” Which, of course incites an immediate high 5 from me. I looked, and he was wearing a University of Wisconsin- Superior shirt. He had a thick southern accent, so I asked “are you from there or…?” To which he replied that he wasn’t, but he was moving there in the spring to live with his longtime girlfriend. I immediately asked him the coldest temps he had ever been in… “Gosh, I don’t know, 30 or 20 maybe?” And I felt for this guy. He had no idea that he was going to be heading to the Frozen Tundra. Duluth, which is about 15 minutes away is consistently ranked as the Coldest City in the U.S. I offered my condolences, told him to enjoy summer up there (it’s truly outstanding) but that the winter more than makes up for it, and off we went. Anyhow, it was fun seeing people root for the team that makes my heart flutter.
9. Roadtrips.
Oh man. We did a lot of exploring and driving around (typically to get to a place to hike). The scenery here is OUT OF THIS WORLD. In some ways it is very much what you would expect, and in some ways, you just can’t even put into words. The early morning fog that hangs onto the mountain tops, the light blue/gray haze that gives the Smoky’s it’s name… stunning to say the least. Check out our Facebook page Expedition: Happiness and the art of wandering to see pics!(https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionHappiness2019). So many miles of just farmland at the base of the mountains, with abandoned shacks. Livestock laying in said fields. Rivers raging alongside the roads, driving in the mountains, and coming up to a tunnel. And then driving through the mountain in the tunnel. There seemed to be cemeteries everywhere (generally speaking, I view cemeteries as people landfills, but it was kind of cool to see gravestones from the early 1800’s) and in the middle of nowhere, which is eerily neat. Homes made of old barnwood… the kind that we look at and want to put in our homes to make it “rustic,” but this is rustic in it’s own authentic way- as it is original. We came across a number of homes that were now historical markers, made of just wood and mortar, or just wood- some nearly 200 years old, and it was a moment to just reflect on what it would have been like to live in that home. And then the sheer impressiveness that it is still standing, and structurally solid. Sidenote- these homes are “leveled” by stones stacked on top of each other, forming a stone stack that is supporting the whole thing… just crazy. One of my favorite images is of the mountains, with a light dusting of snow, where you can clearly see the ridges. It is a beautiful feeling for sure.
I don’t have a worst of for this category either, because it was all stunning.
10. Lodging.
We only stayed at one place, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but if you have an RV/Camper or- if you want to stay in a not-in-the-trees, but called a Tree House or in a yurt-like tent, then The Ridge is your place. It was a newer campground (and church? I don’t know, but there is one on site), that I would argue is more glamping than anything… but it was great. Especially in the winter- the rates couldn’t be beat. Boo, one of the groundskeepers (yep, Boo), would drop wood off for us when people left it behind after checking out, we could have mail delivered for us (huge), the gals at the front were really friendly, there was a great on site fitness center, a heated pool and hot tub, laundry and a super nice bath house (Beanie Girl got a bath in there too, so she agrees on the facility)… overall, we were pretty pleased with the place. The location is both great and not so. Great in that we were a mile away from all of the tourist mayhem, but on the other side, so it thinned out significantly over by us, and we could hop to the grocery store pretty easily, along with a bunch of other places we frequented. Not so in that there are really no hiking paths or places to walk dogs (or for yourself). I imagine it’s a bit of a different story in the high season, but for us, it was a pretty nice experience.
And that rounds out our experience in the Volunteer state. Overall, Justin, the pups and I had a great time. On one of the last hikes we took, we both had kind of a sad feeling leaving. I think we spent just enough time here to let it grow on us a little. Of course, we knew we wouldn’t stay, but we had a great time.
The lesson I would take from our first excursion is two-fold. First, it is both ok and not so ok to have no plans until you are literally skidding into a state. I want to better plan where we are going to stay, and maybe have just a little more perspective on everything. More important, I am typically a go-with-the-flow gal, who can see the positive in just about any situation, that said, I can also sometimes be pessimistic until proven otherwise. With 260 miles of hikes under our belts in 2 months in TN, I learned that you shouldn’t judge so quickly. Beauty is everywhere, you just have to dig a little to find it. And when you do, it will take your breath away.
Cheers everyone, never stop finding the beauty in your own life.
Nikki
#MeyersGoMobile #TTFNTennessee
Expedition: Happiness (and the art of wandering) 