We are booked at the HIE also. Getting excited!

 

We booked the Ramada just a couple of miles down the road.

 

We can't wait!

 

Here is a great place to eat that we try to frequent every time we are down there. Great food and huge portions with a country atmosphere. Worth considering for dinner some evening.

http://www.applewoodfarmhouserestaurant.com/

 

Sounds great. Sure glad we have the benefit of your experience and local knowledge. It would be a shame to miss out on any of these "don't miss" venues!

 

LilRebel is getting her annual check up and new shoes on Thursday and will be ready to MOTOR with Louise at the helm and Thelma as co-pilot. Plan on heading out early Sat morn. Any last minute instructions?
We'll be taking some time to check out the mountain artists...http://www.gatlinburgcrafts.com/

 

We have been on the Craft Loop a few times and there are more crafts than you can check out in a day.

 

Here's another possible idea for a "full day" day trip if you like waterfalls, scenery, and quaint little towns...with the caveat that I don't know much about the roads other than what I can see in Google Street View. Though, they sure look mighty twisty, and US-64 is well advertised as a destination route...

US-441 through the Park to Cherokee; left on US-19 to Waynesville; turn right on Russ Ave which becomes US-276. Take a right on US-64 near Brevard; left on NC-281 which becomes SC-130; right on State Road S-37-413; right on SC-107 (becomes NC-107); then left on US-64 at Cashiers. Turn left on NC-106 at Highlands for two miles to Glen Falls, then back-track to Highlands and turn left to get back on US-64. Turn right on US-441 at Franklin and take it all the way back to Sevierville. (I originally considered including the Hellbender and the Dragon on the way back but it unfortunately made the route too long for a reasonable day drive.)

In addition to the chance to check out the mountain hamlets of Cashiers, Highlands, and Franklin, this route takes you past these falls in the following order: Sliding Rock Falls, Whitewater Falls, Silver Run Falls, Glen Falls, Sequoyah Lake Falls, Bridal Veil Falls (which you can drive behind), Dry Falls, Bust Your Butt Falls, and Cullasaja Falls. Most of these are right along the road or a short hike from the parking area.

Here it is on the map for your consideration: http://tinyurl.com/k2ew96l

Those with local knowledge, feel free to improve on this.

 

We've been on the road to Cherokee and this is a great road thru the park with many twisties, we saw a few black bears crossing the road in front of us here, There is a Cherokee Indian museum in Cherokee also. This looks like another great route with the bonus of all the falls to check out along the way and the scenery Im sure will be what we dont see in Iowa. I am getting excited just thinking about all the fun this will be.

 

Since I'm workin' on the road this week, while hanging out in my hotel room last night I decided to map out Steve and Peggy's Dragon - Cherohala Skyway route just for fun:

Note: This link also includes the correction pointed out by smieska in the subsequent post.

http://tinyurl.com/l86osju

One might think I'm already stoked up for this trip. And they'd be correct.

 

Gary, Thanks for doing that. I was going to ask what you used to route it out so fancy on a map so I could do the same but you beat me to it. Can you then load the route in your GPS? Not that Im evaluating your skills and work but I think you may have missed a very cool portion of the route in the beginning. If we go down thru Gatlinburg on 441 to the Sugarlands Visitor Center and then turn right on Old Hwy 73 Scenic/Little River Rd to Townsend there is a river we follow with some very nice scenery and avoid some backtracking on the same road. If anyone is interested in stopping at the Visitor Center it is pretty cool as well. I am also getting excited as you can probably tell, I check for updates daily from others and we are going thru some of our collected tourist flyers to come up with other things we think the group may be interested in. I think we are less than a month away.

 

You were correct! Thanks for pointing out the error of my ways. I wasn't looking at Gatlinburg the first time with enough granularity to see that road. Definitely looks like a path that shouldn't be missed! I'm presuming you want to go out on this road and then stay on US-321 on the return trip.

It should be fixed now. Use the same link as in the previous post.

(It's amazing...the "Waterfall Route" I came up with is only ~40 miles longer than this one but it looks so much larger on the map. I guess that means your Dragon - Cherohala route has a hell of a lot of curves on it! )

 

Perhaps we can motor together...what time are you heading out and from where? Thelma & Louise are starting from DSM.

 

We are leaving from just north of Dubuque. Our plan is to take 61 to I80 at Davenport, take I74 to Indianapolis, then pick up I65 there. I hope to leave here at 6:00am. We are an hour and a half from Davenport. What route did you guys plan to take?

 

I can see from the routes posted that I need to lift some weights to build up my arm muscles for all the steering through curves I will be doing! Nah, that sounds like a lot of work. I will just bring extra ibuprofen.

 

I am thinking hot tub and some grape juice when i get back to our room. Should be enough to get me in shape for the next day.

 

These should be a Wirlpool tub in each unit and there are a couple of outside hot tubs close to the condos. They feel pretty good after a long day in the saddle. Make sure to bring your swim suits.

 

We'll be taking the same route & hoping to leave at 6AM but we're a couple hours from Davenport so you'll be ahead of us. We'll keep an eye out for ya. With pit stops and such we may just meet on the road somewhere.

 

If you guys want, there is a BP gas station in Le Claire, IA-212 S Cody Road. It is the last exit before Illinois. We could meet up there and motor together.

 

Try as I may I can't seem to reply with the quote. It keeps telling me to login. I guess I need lessons.
Anywho..I don't want you & Tom sitting there waiting for us when you could be motoring. Now that Gary has distributed our phone numbers how about we just give you a call once we're on the road & see where you're at and the possibity of meeting up with you.
Thelma and Louise are SO pumped for the trip! Can we leave now????

 

We will keep in touch on the road. We are so ready to head out, too!

 

I was doing some more drooling over the western NC map today.

If some folks make a day trip over to check out Asheville, it looks like TN-339 to TN-32 might be an awesome shortcut to take on the way there. It joins up with I-40 right on the TN-NC border.

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And for those who might want to take a second crack at the Dragon while we're there (in the opposite direction) I came up with this little beauty as a possible option:

http://tinyurl.com/na4p4pd

It incorporates most of the Hellbender (NC-28) and also a local segment called Tilley Creek Road or Ellijay Road, depending on which end of it you're on. It seems to be a good quality road surface...and I was exploring this route using Google Street View and the first image I came up with was this...

 

This looks like yet another good choice. We did a portion of this a couple of years ago and every road we went on was very well maintained and smooth. I guess they dont have the frost to deal with like we have in Iowa which makes for better road conditions. How many days left?

 

I'm probably the last person to know about this, but I spied this little feature along US-441 in GSM Nat'l Park (which we will experience more than once). Reminds me of Iron Mtn Road out in the Black Hills...

 

This should give Linda's arms the workout she has been looking forward to. This is the location we saw the 2 black bears cross the road in front of us, mama and cub and they were not in as big a hurry as I thought I was before we saw them.