Fall Creek Falls - Day Four

Friday, October 19, 2012 - Pikeville and Places Unknown

This morning, as soon as we’d cleaned up the breakfast dishes, I said, “Let’s get out of here.”  Last night, Joel had mapped out a route to Pikeville.  We climbed in the truck and headed out.

Just outside the park was an Indian trading post, and we stopped to browse.  We told the guy running the store that we were going to Pikeville.  He said we’d miss it if we blinked.

We found it.  We parked the truck on the main drag and got out to look around.  I found a store called “The Loom” that had fabric and a little bit of everything else.  I scored a few tiny skeins of honest-to-goodness tatting thread (I haven't tatted in years, but now I may have to dig out the shuttle and re-learn the art).  Joel found a gun & ammo store that was going out of business and lucked up on a bargain or two.

After we’d pretty much seen all there was to see in Pikeville, we decided to just drive south for a while to see what was there.  If we’d kept driving, we’d have been in Dayton, Tennessee.  I’d already been to Dayton, site of the Scopes Trial, and had no urge to go back there.  We eventually turned around and headed back the way we came.  Before we got back to Pikeville, Joel suddenly turned left and said, “Let’s see what’s up here.”

Pikeville is situated in the Sesquatchie Valley.  To the west was the escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau.  We drove up a little road that was very steep, and so curvy we could almost see our tail lights as we rounded bends.  At the top of the hill, the road forked.  We picked a direction and kept driving.

All this time, I had the laptop open with Streets & Trips loaded, and I was trying to find us on the maps.  The road signage wasn’t the best in the world, and I couldn’t determine our location.  Figuring it was futile effort, I plugged in the GPS and told it to take us to Fall Creek Falls.  After about 10 minutes of “Acquiring Satellite” (during which time we aimlessly drove around) it finally located us.  It said we were only 12 miles away, and that we should keep going the way we were going. 

The roads got narrower and narrower.  If we met a car (and we didn’t meet many), we had to move onto the shoulder to let it pass.  Finally, the GPS shouted "Turn left!"  onto Fire Tower Road.  Joel didn’t much like the looks of the road, but the GPS showed that it led straight into the park.  I convinced him to go.

The pavement gave way to gravel real fast.  We went across washboard ruts, and through mud holes so deep that we feared being swallowed up by them.  Took us about 20 minutes to go two miles.  Joel said, “I hope we find civilization soon, ‘cause I need to whiz.”  I said, “Well, hell…just get out and go.  Who’s going to see you?”  About that time, we topped a little hill, and there was the main road into the park.  We both breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of pavement.

Back at the camp site, we decided to start packing up to leave tomorrow.  When that was finished, we sat outside the camper and spent the afternoon feeding peanuts to the squirrels.   It doesn’t take much to entertain us, eh?

At 6 p.m., we drove over to the Inn.  We’d heard that they put on a good seafood buffet on Friday nights.  Apparently, everyone in three counties knows this and comes to eat on Friday night; there was a line a mile long to get into the restaurant.  Thankfully, the line moved quite swiftly.  To be honest, the buffet wasn’t “all that.”  Catfish, fried shrimp, fried frog legs, crab legs, hush puppies, and sides.  There was also salad and dessert.  We left the restaurant as full as ticks, but thinking that the food hadn’t been quite worth the $24 apiece we’d paid to eat there.  At least we didn’t have to cook.

It’s dark at the campsite now.  The kiddies are hanging close to their own camp sites.  It’s pretty quiet, save for the multitude of dogs barking around the park.  There's an owl hooting somewhere in the trees above us.  Joel said, "I hope that owl swoops down and carries off that little yappy-ass dog up the road so we can get some sleep tonight." 

We leave in the morning.  We’d thought about driving on down to Georgia to see some friends, but we are really just ready to go home.  After four nights in the camper bed, I’m longing for my sleep number mattress, and my garden and my sewing machine are probably missing me.