Notes & Quotes Along I-75 South

At 8 o'clock this morning, I backed my light blue Toyota (2007) out of the driveway.  The car knows the way!  We've traveled parts of Interstate 75 dozens of times, from close to the northern border, clear down to the south of Florida.  I fully expected to have to fight to stay awake and not be  overcome by terminal boredom.  I didn't even bother turning on the GPS (global positioning system) until close to Knoxville, Tennesse, to avoid confusion on the spaghetti turns.

Not so!  There were so many new things to see, and the scenery became increasingly more colorful, I was fully engaged. It was a perfect day for road travel: the sky was overcast.  It's hard on your eyes to go south in and out the the bright sunlight over and over again.

Hardly twenty miles down the road, just short of Richmond, Kentucky, I spotted a large dead deer on the side of the road.  Was this a portent of things to come?  I thought that I'd better be extra alert this trip!

First sign: "156 miles to Knoxville."  And I smelled a dead skunk!  It's been a long time since my last encounter with a dead skunk!  When daughter #8, Jeannie, and I commuted from Danville to Lexington, there were so many dead skunks along the country roads, we counted them. Jeannie brought along perfume to spray in a futile attempt to mask the foul odor. . . Traffic is light this morning, thankfully.

I pass "Relax Inn," one of those by-gone, old-fashioned original motels with a long row of small rooms having identical doors leading to the parking lot, NOT one of a big chain corporation.  I pass a semi-truck with "Hill-Rom" on its side.  That's the company that makes "air beds" for hospitals and nursing homes.  The beds are so expensive they are rented, not bought, by the institutions.  They're used for people with huge bedsores.  They give equal pressure on all areas of the skin, important for healing.  Once my nursing home previewed their new "sand bed," for the same purpose.  It looked like a large bathtub; inside was a large mattress filled with sand.  Air circulated the sand. It was quite comfortable but even more expensive.  I never saw it again - anywhere.

The cliffs along side the road, "cuts" into the hills to create the highway, have many frozen waterfalls.  I was quite surprised to see them, this early into the winter.

Right before Exit 83 there is a large black barn with a quilt emblem on its front.  There are quite a few of these in Kentucky.  Interstate 75 is 99% rural with fields and hills dotted with horses and cows in neat farms.  The farther south you drive, the more the hills get bigger and turn into mountains.  It's quite beautiful and peaceful any time of the year!

Exit 77: the town of Berea, famous for its arts and crafts' festivals, the home of many fine artists and craftspersons.  One year, my nursing friend, Marianne, and I went to Berea. It was cold - March or April - and there were only a few tourists here and there.  We had the full attention of the shopkeepers.  It was fun!  We had lunch at Boone Tavern, a really, really old building with colonial decor and really, really good food!

My first view of the mountains, or 'big hills' today, just south of Berea, KY.  I always like to see the long line of mountains stretching from east to west.  11-26-14.

Exit 62: Renfro Valley and Mount Vernon.  I've passed Renfro Valley Country Music Entertainment center several times but never went to it.  I love country music and need to go there, just for fun.  They always have lots of very well-known singers and even more lesser known stars.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN THE MOUNTAINS WHEN:
   *you need to turn off your car's Cruise Control because the downhill is way too steep and the car has to try too hard to keep the same speed.
   *you pass many very slow semis trying very hard to go UP the mountain.
   *there are so many tiers of cuts in the mountains for the road it looks like a wedding cake.  The frozen water coming out of the cliffs looks like icing on the cake.
   *you peep over the guard rail and it's really far to the bottom of the hill.

Road Signs: Exit 49: Camp Wildcat Civil War Battlefield.
Exit 41: Wildcat Flea Market, Flea Land, London, Manchester, Hazard, Long Rider Leather.
Exit 38: Crooked Creek Golf Club; Pottery, Propane, Gifts at Dogpatch Trading Center.
Exit 29: Hill Billy's Country Cookin', Cumberland Gap National Park, Cumberland Gap Parkway.  Somewhere around here is Pine Mountain State Park.  I have so many friends in these mountains from my nursing days, when we used to visit all the dialysis clinics (45 or so?) in the area, around Somerset, London, Barbourville, Corbin in Kentucky.

The vegetation is much greener just a short way south.  It's amazing that the season of Fall is not the same everywhere.  Most of the trees in Lexington are bare, surrounded by puddles of colored leaves - yellows, oranges, and reds. There was a light rain.  The mountains are shrouded in mists.

Some of the exposed rocks are black, reminding me of the coal in this area of Kentucky.

Exit 11: The small town of Williamsburg, in a small valley, clean, progressive, friendly.  My nursing friend, Tammy, a Nurse Practitioner, works here.  I wished I could visit her today but I don't have time on my long trip. Darn!

Just south of Williamsburg is the first sign to Jellico, Tennessee.  I always like to see that!  Close to the border now!

There's another deer warning sign.  Definitely pay attention to these!  Many people are killing by running into these large animals every year.  Personally, I ran into deer with two different cars!  It was so expensive - but I was lucky no one (except the deer) got hurt.  Be careful, particularly at night.

Next sign: Thunder Sam's Fireworks ahead.  Now I know for sure I'm close to Tennessee!

Large sign across the entire southbound highway: "Eyes on the road and your head out of your aps."  I will see three of these new signs today.  Good idea!

Into Tennessee again!  This welcome center is very welcome!  I was about overdue for a stop!

The Tennessee Welcome Center was decorated very nicely for the Thanksgiving holiday and for Fall.

Can you believe this log cabin is the Tennessee Welcome Center! Surprisingly, it was crowded with tourists today.

Exit 156: Rarity Mountain Road.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN THE MOUNTAINS WHEN:

   *They have to put up a metal cage on the rocks in the cliffs to keep them from falling on the road.

   *In addition to the cage on the rocks, there a tall mesh fence between the road and the cliff for further protection.

On the top of the mountains after Jellico, Tennessee, the rocks are reddish-orangish- pinkish colors, reminding me of the red dirt farther south in the state.  Of course, I passed the Titan Missle and ferris wheel.

Again, I passed the big dinosaur - my daughters have convinced me it is a Dragon.  Anyway, the dragon has been repainted a lighter green.  It is quite lovely, I like it!

Skirting Knoxville, Tennessee, the rain has let up.  On I-640 now.  The trees on the mountains were just spectacular. There must have been 10,000 shades of oranges, golds, with the reds near the top of the mountains.

Exit 402: Seven Islands State Birding Park.  It's neat to be surrounded by mountains.  The rain has stopped and I could see layer after layer of mountains in the distance.

Serious mountains close to Asheville but still in Tennessee.

There's a sign, "White Water Rafting."  I was too busy trying to avoid hitting the cars and trucks next to me, not to mention the concrete median, to even peep over the edge trying to see this.  Once I glimpsed a stream full of churning white water, running very fast.

11:07: Welcome to North Carolina!  There was a lot of white salt residue on the mountain road.  This was surprising to me this early in winter.  Today I passed through three short tunnels through the mountains.  When I was growing up, my grandmother always told me, when we went through tunnels, "Hold onto your teeth, Janice!"  I never lost my teeth in a tunnel, I must report!

Really, I would have liked to stop about a thousand times to take photos.  Even with the semi-rainy weather today, the valleys below the mountains, off the road, were interesting, picturesque.  But there are no areas where a car can pull off and stop.  There was one unique area with diagonal layers of exposed rocks, with lines of frozen waterfalls vertical.  The tall, bright green pine trees contrasted beautifully with the fall colors of the non-evergreen trees.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN THE MOUNTAINS WHEN:

   *You're on the Interstate, the speed limit is 45, and people are putting on their brakes!

Sign outside Canton, North Carolina: "Last restaurant for 90 miles: FATZ (just kidding)."

My GPS flashes: "continue 147 miles on I-26E" - a big stretch of highway!

In Asheville, North Carolina, the sun emerged from behind the clouds, after extreme effort.  The outside temperature, which started out at 37 this morning, is up to 57.

11:51: Welcome to SOUTH Carolina!  The fall foliage is quite different than the last time I was here, last summer!

Exit 17: Sign for the FATZ Cafe: "Free Smiles!"  In South Carolina, I-26 East is the "Palmetto Prideway," home of their Palmetto Palm trees.  Every once in a while, I looked in the forest areas, trying to spot a palm tree but didn't see even one today.

Exit 54: The actual FATZ Cafe, quite large.

Preview of tomorrow: I'm spending the night in a hotel close to Interstate 95, which runs down the East coast.  Quite an expected, almost adventurous trip (avoiding accidents in the FAST interstate traffic IS an adventure!!) Good-night!