Great Smoky Mountains

September 10, 2009
This morning we drove up to the north end of the park looking for dry roads. We were confident that in a couple of hours we would be able to collect. The only problem was that in a couple of hours it started to rain again! We decided that we want the license plate on our new truck to say "H8RAIN" for hate rain. We then drove to the east side of the park and found some dry roads. We got a total of 11 routes done. It is better than nothing but still not great (or very productive). We stopped in a parking lot quick to use the restroom (which turned out to be locked) and we saw a mom bear with two cubs. They were pretty cute. I got a photo of the mom bear but couldn't one of the cubs. There was another car in the parking lot and they were hogging the spot right in front of the bears and wouldn't move even though they they probably got several good photos. We went to dinner and the rain started again. Who knows what tomorrow will bring but I'm thinking it will be more wet roads :( .

Great Smoky Mountains

September 9, 2009

I am officially tired. We have done a lot of driving the past few days and have worked 35 hours in 3 days. This is looking to be another long week. I hate waking up tired.

We had a delay in the morning again due to rain. We were able to collect one 6 mile route and then the down pour started. One of our computers also decided to randomly turn off and not turn back on so we had to change the power supply. Changing the power supply isn't that bad but it happens to be the top computer in our rack so getting it up and down from the rack isn't much fun. We were soon on our way again to try to find a dry area of the park. We were lucky and were able to collect until about 5pm when it really started to down pour. It is weird being in a canyon and hearing really loud thunder, you can't see the sky. Any odd noise in my mind is coming from the truck so for a second I thought we got a flat tire or something...wouldn't that just complete our day nicely :). Since our collection day was over due to rain we decided to take a break from work and go to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museums in Gatlinburg. It was interesting. The huge tire in their entry goes on a huge mining truck (see photo)!!!! The tire is 12 feet tall, is 6,500 lbs and costs $25,000. Those are the trucks I'd love to drive some day, they are so BIG! The lady I took a photo of is outside a mini golf place and she moves from side to side, I thought it was pretty funny. That would be a fun place to play mini golf.

Great Smoky Mountains

September 8, 2009
This morning we had to drive up to the FHWA office in Sevierville, TN to get the Great Smoky's gate key. It was about an 1 & 1/2 drive. After that we were on a mission to find routes that were dry. It took some looking and some driving but we found some. It ended up being a pretty good day (14 hour work day) and we collected 22 routes / 60 miles. We did a route called Cades Cove Loop Road that took us an hour to get 10 miles and we ended up having to stop 17 times due to traffic. Each time we stop our pavement images go black but I'm sure the park service is aware of the congestion on that road so the pavement is what it is. We also were not able to go fast enough to get roughness data but the road was in such bad shape the whole road is going to get a rating of poor anyway. We did see some bears along that loop. I tried to get a few photos but it was difficult and I was not about to get out of the car and walk by the bear like other tourists just to get a good photo. Why do people think that is safe??? There are a bunch of old cabins and farms along that road and I took a quick photo of one. This one is the Carter Shields cabin. Here is info from the website link below..."George Washington "Carter" Shields (1844-1924) bought this land and cabin from John Sparks in 1910. The cabin dates to 1830-40s. Shields lived in the cove until 1921."

http://www.smokyvacations.com/cades-cove.html

Great Smoky Mountains

September 7, 2009
It rained this morning. We were able to find 11 dry routes, or routes that were dry enough to collect with a few damp spots. It rained again around 4pm. We drove around the whole park and got stuck in a huge traffic jam...everyone was leaving to head home after Labor Day weekend. The traffic today was much, much worse than anything we experienced in the DC area! The only story I have for today other than the rain is that we decided to go to the casino buffet for dinner (our choices are very limited around here). When we walked in Jeff got by with no problem and I got carded. I looked at the security guy and said "really" and he said "yeah" and then I laughed. I showed him my id and he said "there is no way" and I said "yeah, that is why I laughed, but thank you." He said "well, you have a nice time." I might look young but I don't think I'd pass for being 21.

Great Smoky Mountains

September 6, 2009
Today it rained in the morning and then scattered showers all afternoon until about 3pm. The road stayed wet enough that we couldn't collect today. I worked in my hotel room for about 6 hours and then we went to check out the park. Our first stop was an old Grist Mill. It was "built in 1886, this historic grist mill uses a water-powered turbine instead of a water wheel to power all of the machinery in the building." Our second stop was at Clingmans Dome. The hike was straight up and it was another reminder that I have exercise asthma and should really have an inhaler. We made it to the top pretty quickly while others were "dropping like flies". The engineer who designed the trail decided that switch backs were not going to be utilized...who knows why. Once we got to the top the view was great and I took a few photos before our hike down. We then tried to find the trail for Mingo Falls but we were given bad directions by the NPS guy at the visitor's center. We'll save that for another rain day. We decided to walk around the local park and we found a grove of bamboo trees that seemed out of place but was neat to walk through.