Tennessee (Part 1)

9/6/26 - Our RV park was near Gatlinburg, on the north edge of Great Smoky Mountains (GSM) National Park.

Our site backed up to a stream with woods beyond. Pat made friends with the small fish in the stream by giving them pieces of ham and crackers.

9/8/26 -

We drove through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge (both tourist attraction madness on an epic level!!)...

...to visit Sevierville, the town Dolly Parton would visit as a child. Since she passed away so recently, there were many tributes to her in all of the towns we went through.

In the evening, we went to the Titanic replica and museum in Pigeon Forge. The "first class dinner" experience was hokey but the museum was actually quite good.

9/9/26 - We enjoyed GuideGuy's commentary as we drove through a small portion of GSM National Park.

We hiked 8 miles roundtrip on the Appalachian Trail. We gained new respect for the hikers that do the entire 2198 miles from Georgia to Maine. Pat successfully navigated the two of us around a recently-downed bees nest. When we saw (and smelled) a couple of AT hikers, they said they had been stung. They also said they'd seen black bears but we did not.

After our hike, we slogged our way up the hill to the observation tower at Clingman's Dome to get some 360-degree views

9/10/26 - We got up early to drive 1.5 hours to reach the town of Oak Ridge by 8:30am for our bus tour of the (past and present) nuclear physics facilities. This sign does the best job of explaining the area's interesting history:

Although our bus tour was poor, we learned a lot at the different stops:

• K-25 Site - Now demolished, it was the world's biggest building at 0.5 mile long by 0.3 mile wide and employed 12,000 people (most who didn't know what the plant was making).

• Y-12 Site - Another huge area (roughly 2½ miles long and ½ mile wide) that is still in use today to maintain and produce components for nuclear weapons, manage nuclear materials, and ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

• American Museum of Science and Energy - covered Oak Ridge National Laboratory's role in The Manhattan Project, and its current role in national security, scientific research (supercomputing, neutron science, materials research), nuclear/other energy technologies, and nuclear cleanup/remediation. It also shared what it was like to live in "The Secret City" in the 1940s.

The Y-12 complex today

We plan to spend some more time in GSM before we move towards Nashville.