Catchup - Wednesday

Knoxville is the gateway to the Smokey Mountains. So we ignored Knoxville itself and headed south, reading the guidebooks and marvelling at all the things we would also want to avoid/ignore. Dollywood, and the entry price. A quote about one town: "no-one ever went bankrupt by underestimating the taste of the American public". We did go through Pigeon Forge, which is meant to be a bit higher class if not by much, and the main strip at least was incredible in its naff-ness. But it did have a nice little olde-worlde bit, where we found a Bear (will post pics in a bit) and a Dulcimer shop or two (more on Dulcimers later, they deserve their own post). And we learnt about Taffy.

Then on over the Smokeys, stopping to admire/photograph the view, and down into Cherokee country. Did a museum (will add links later), and stayed in yet another motel - Fairfield this time. With, sadly, a duff Wifi connection, which is one reason why I'm behind in updating LJ. Do not stay in Cherokee unless you want to go to the casino. Next to nowhere else stays open in the evening. We had a choice of burgers, burgers, or Long John Silver (American equivalent of a fish&chip). LJS was quite nice as fast food goes.

Smokey the Bear

We met a New Bear in Pigeon Forge. Well, we met a lot of bears, but only one decided to adopt us. soren_nyrond told us to "Meet intersting bears", so we did. This one is called Smokey, which would have caused some confusion if he'd stayed in the shop, but is fine as long as each bear goes to a different Human.

He's enjoying the travelling, and the view from the car window.

UFO identified

The Unidentified Food Object from breakfast is now a known quantity. This place labelled everything. It's sausage gravy, and I had a nice chat with a lady from Ohio about different gravy types. Apparently I should look out for "red gravy", made from cooking ham, and also served on "biscuits" (those things like scones - yes, I had identified them correctly).

UFO2 - Taco Bell

I have now had the Taco Bell experience. The salad wasn't bad at all. But one of the accompaniments was an Unidentified Food Object. Small red strips. Brittle. Vaguely savoury.

Any guesses?