Day 37 - Asheville, NC to Cherokee, NC to Knoxville, TN

The Titanic building in Dollywood
The upside-down building called "Wonderworks"
The castle place called "MagiQuest"
Me atop the "bald" that we hiked at Great Smokey Mountains
View of the Great Smokey Mountains
The both of us at the Great Smokey Mountains

After waking up in a Walmart parking lot that was excruciatingly hot and humid, we made our way into Asheville, which we only knew to be "really beautiful and liberal." What we found were a bunch of closed shops, and some cool bookstores, as we were there far too early for the normal gift shopper. After putzing around and going to the Visitor Center, we decided to head down the road to the Cherokee Indian Reservation, since it sounded more interesting.

Cherokee, the city, is filled with tons of shops peddling "Indian wares." We took this opportunity to ask one of the local shop owners where we could buy some wholesale leather, to make a version of this really expensive leather-bound journal that Pete saw in New York and which was too expensive to buy. She directed us to the holy land of Indian ware supply stores, and we lavished ourselves by getting two large pieces of excellent leather for $15 (mine is for a potential purse I'm going to design) and some pieces of turquoise for $4! The shop had all the turquoise, cut and uncut, that you can imagine, as well as beads, feathers, fabrics, and everything else that you need to make your very own authentic Indian wares...what a deal for us!

We finally went looking for a restaurant (of which there are only, like, two in the entire city of Cherokee) which took foreveeeer and everything was fried. There was a sign disclaiming their slow service, saying, "We are not a fast food establishment. Everything is made to order, and takes a long time."

Next was the Museum of the Cherokee, which Pete remembers having gone to when he was a boy scout. It is a maze of dioramas depicting early Cherokee life, and though educational, seemed to drop off significantly when it came to describing the current situation that most Cherokee live in. We wondered, but enjoyed the history lesson nonetheless.

On the way to our next destination, Nashville, we stopped the Great Smoky Mountains for a hike (and our weekly exercise!) before coming down on the wonder that is Dollywood, or in other terms, Las Vegas without gambling or prostitution. It's a line of crazy stucco buildings depicting the Titanic, a castle, an upside down Caesar's Palace, and a bunch of other entertainments apparently owned by Dolly Parton. It's the manifestation of her popularity, taken form in bright lights, cheap prizes, and really really tacky buildings = tons of money for Dolly. Crazy!

Another Walmart parking lot for the night in Knoxville...somewhat less hot since we bought a battery powered fan at...you guessed it....Walmart :)