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14th January 2023, 01:00
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| Distinguished - BHPian   | BMW X3 M40i goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee Prologue This is one of the many road trips that I did in US in the last few years. Hopefully, I will try to share them one after another as and when I get time. Ever since we heard wonderful tales about the Smoky Mountains from our close friends who made this trip in 2020, we have been planning to go to Smokies based on their feedback. They were quite impressed with this national park and kept goading us to make a trip. We had initially planned to this trip with them as they didn't mind doing it again within a year but, as you know what we plan rarely happens. We ended up planning this trip on our own and the timeframe decided was to make it happen during the Independence Weekend of 2021. We were aware that it's the wrong time to go to any tourist destination as it's usually chaotic and everything gets super expensive but, with limited choices and holiday dates, we went ahead with this plan. Here is a route map of our trip. It was ~ 1500 miles over 3-days of Independence Day Long Weekend (July 3rd- July 5th, 2021)  Day 1- July 3rd, 2021 We were surprised to know that Smoky Mountains National Park is the "Most Visited" National Park in entire US. I thought it would be the Yosemite, Glacier or some other in West Coast would be the most visited. This came as a pleasant surprise.  As it’s with any roadtrip, the excitement is super-high the previous night and it's hard to get any sleep despite making plans of sleeping early and getting an early start. Plan was to leave at 4:00am as it was a 550 miles/ 900 kms drive and we knew it would take around 8-hours with a couple of stops. As we thought got just around 4 hours of sleep due to the excitement and instead of 4:00am, we headed out at 4:30am which wasn't too bad. Our target was to reach around noon. Entire route drive was seamless our drive consisted of driving south crossing Michigan entering into Ohio then to Kentucky and finally reaching Tennessee. I’m quite familiar with this route as back in 2018, I used to drive from Detroit to Cincinnati every 2 weeks to meet one of my customers (Worldpay) and also knew all the hotspots of Cincinnati including one of the best Thali places which I promised wifey to treat on our way back.  I never visited the souther part (via. road) beyond Cincinnati and was curious to see how the states of Kentucky which will be large part of the drive and final destination of Tennessee would be. To be honest, I always had a below average impression of these southern states (Kentucky, Tennessee, New Orleans etc) and always thought the infrastructure would be below-average and people are talking in southern drawl, drinking bourbon and eating fried chicken as their main meal (lol !! ). On that note, I did learn a lot about bourbon, moonshine and fried chicken a lot. For us, it's the East Coast or the West Coast. Everything else in America is an outlier. ...But, boy when we moved here I realized, that I was quite wrong. While the coasts are definitely a lot better from all aspects (Jobs, Scenery, Food Scene and Infrastructure) but, the Mid-West and some of these other not-so popular areas aren't too bad. The moment we crossed into Kentucky, We were pleasantly surprised to see the landscape completely change (Ohio is pristine, broad roads and boring like hell) to hilly terrain, lots of beautiful foliage/trees and curvy roads. It was a memorable drive covering most part of Kentucky to cross over to Tennessee which is small part of this route but, Kentucky is the state where the mountains start and continue until reaching Gatlinburg, TN. When we crossed the border into Tennessee driving towards, Gatlinburg, TN, the landscape turned even more beautiful and we totally enjoyed the drive and infrastructure was top-notch. Since this trip was planned within 2-3 days notice, we decided to skip staying in Gatlinburg as all hotels were charging 3X or 4X of the usual rates. All hotels were priced in range of $350-$500/night. We decided to book in decent hotel in Pigeon Forge for around $200 a night (Pigeon Forge is like what is Tirupathi to Tirumala, if you can understand the analogy). Pigeon Forge is at a lower sea level and we have to drive about 10 miles up in the mountain to reach Gatlinburg which is a small hilly town which is super famous for everyone who visits the Smokies. We reached at 12:30pm and quickly freshened up and left the hotel room by 1:00pm. We drove through the beautiful hilly roads towards Gatlinburg which was 10 miles up in the mountains and parked the car in a safe parking garage ($20/Day) and headed to the main attraction which was taking a ride on the Skybridge. As expected, there was a huge line and we got the tickets that gave us 2 rides valid for 24 hours costing around $100. The cable ride was really enjoyable. You can get down at the top and enjoy lunch on the top and then take a ride back whenever you want. There is no time limit to how much you want to spend at the top. The cable ride to the top was lovely from where we can view entire Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Smoky Mountains in the distance. We had refreshments on top and generally sank in the beautiful scenery until late afternoon taking one more additional ride to ground level and back up again. We also walked through the Skybridge which had a major portion with glass bottom. It was scary for sure as there were high winds and bridge swayed dangerously. Off we go in the morning...  Coffee Stop was our first break in the morning  Wifey took over the wheel while I chilled for most of the drive.  Entering the state of Kentucky  Must be going to the drag strip..  Never new an M of this size/model existed. Haha!  Beautiful freeways of Kentucky and Tennessee   At the Skybridge entrance after the cable car ride.   Gatlinburg was lively, eclectic and amazing with tourists aplenty.   Cable Car Ride   Famous Nashville Fried Chicken in Gatlinburg. I loved it.  Asked him sauce. He showed me this. I took a bottle back home.   Us in Gatlinburg Downtown    Tennesse is the birthplace of Moonshine- It's like high ABV % alcohol which took birth in Tennessee. They use to bootleg this stuff across US back in the day. But, now it's legal. They come at as high as 75%-85% ABV with different flavors.  This cable car ride was awesome. Some amazing views of the Smokies from up there. Last edited by mobike008 : 18th January 2023 at 07:16. |
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14th January 2023, 01:09
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| Distinguished - BHPian | Re: BMW X3 M40i Goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee Day 1 (July 3rd continued)... After spending the whole afternoon up in Gatlinburg, we drove back to Pigeon Forge where our hotel was and decided to spend the evening in and around Pigeon Forge which is a slightly larger town than Gatlinburg as it's in the plains. This city is also set up for the tourists and was thriving with activity and there was too much traffic on the road due to the long weekend. There was one particular U-Turn that took us nearly 30 mins covering probably 100 feet of total distance. So you can imagine, the traffic on roads. July 4th weekend across America is literally chaos. We went to this beautiful place in downtown Pigeon Forge where they had this musical fountain show. It was simply beautiful. Spent time until Midnight enjoying these colorful fountains and grabbing something to eat from the many eateries around that area that we enjoyed by the fountains. We could not see the fireworks as it was at a different place and I was no mood to take the car out in the traffic to go to fireworks location which was a couple of miles away. Retired back to the hotel, post midnight marking completion to an eventful Day 1. P.S : Click and view the pictures and video for full resolution. All pictures/videos are taken from an iPhone 12 Promax.               Last edited by mobike008 : 18th January 2023 at 07:18. |
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14th January 2023, 01:31
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| Distinguished - BHPian | Re: BMW X3 M40i Goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee July 4th, 2021 Next day morning, we got up leisurely and headed out around 10:00am and enjoyed a hearty breakfast at the local Starbucks with Bagel, Coffee and their legendary lemon loaf as didn't want to risk going to any regular restaurants due to the rush. Plan for the day was to visit the Cade's Cove which is a 11-mile loop through the mountains, jungles and there are high chances of spotting bears. Smoky Mountains is known as Bear Country and it's normal to run across bears while driving through the mountains. We were lucky to spot 2 of them One large bear darted right in front of our car. It was too sudden so no pictures. Second bear we spotted was a "baby bear" which we saw about a few hundred meters in the jungle through the powerful binoculars that I was carrying. Bucket list of spotting bears in Smokies was completed.  This post has some pictures of our day spent in the beautiful Smokies going through the Cade's Cove Loop of 11-miles which was done slowly (20mph or less speeds) as there were at least 30-40 cars in line and we all drove through in convoy as everyone was doing exactly the same thing. Showered and Fresh to tackle Day 2   Beautiful roads in the mountains    A mandatory car picture outside the signboard  Convoy of cars during the Cade's Cove 11-mile loop.  One of the spots where we stopped during the loop drive.   Binoculars were put to good use in this trip.                Last edited by mobike008 : 18th January 2023 at 07:25. |
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14th January 2023, 01:48
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| Distinguished - BHPian | Re: BMW X3 M40i Goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee July 4th, 2021.....CONT'D After the Cade's Cove Loop Drive which took almost 3-4 hours to complete, we decided to drive even higher up in the mountains to a place called "Clingman's Dome" You can read more about it here : https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvis...ngmansdome.htm As we go up, the scenery keeps getting prettier and interestingly, you will cross the border of Tennessee and enter into North Carolina as Clingman's dome is in NC. We stopped at several locations during this drive and I have to make a special mention that roads were really BMW drive-worthy as they were curvy (Indian Ghat Roads type) and just amazing greenery all around which was a treat for us.  Even though this was peak summer time, weather here was mildly cold (around 5-8 Celsius) and once we reached the base point of Clingman's Dome it even dropped to 0 Celsius. We parked the car and had hiked 0.5 mile to the top of the dome. It was the steepest 0.5-mile hike of my life. (Well, I think it would be a piece of cake now after doing the crazy hikes in Washington...haha). But, at that time, it took us 30 minutes to cover the 0.5 mile steep path to the top. The base point where we parked was cold and foggy and it was just amazing weather and this was around 4pm in afternoon. When we hiked up, the weather dropped drastically and we regretted not getting a jacket. We spent about 30-minutes on the top enjoying the gorgeous views of the Smokies National Forest and Mountains before coming back down and driving back to Gatliburg where we spent rest of the evening. A nice viewpoint in the mountains of Smokies. At the border of Tennessee and North Carolina  Base Point of Clingman's Dome-Literally at the top of the world.   I was jealous to see these bikers at the state border. I miss my motorcycle. It would be super fun to ride in the smokies.  Base Point of Clingman's Dome Parking lot. It was beautiful weather.      Steep hike of 0.5 miles to the Dome.     Gorgeous views from the top       Beautiful curvy roads of the smoky mountains. Check out the greenery. It was lush and green. Last edited by mobike008 : 18th January 2023 at 07:24. |
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14th January 2023, 02:06
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| Distinguished - BHPian | Re: BMW X3 M40i Goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee July 5th, 2021..End of Trip Next morning, we checked out from our hotel in Pigeon Forge, TN and headed towards our next designation which was Nashville, TN. This was around 200 miles/3 hour drive to the "Music Mecca" of America. I love music and have been a fan of all kind of genres except the latest genres which is new-age like Electronic, Club Music types. I am old school in my music taste and absolute love listening to Rock, Hard Rock, Country, Hip Hop etc. And, I listen to a lot of music (at least 1-2 hours per day). During my younger days, my craze for music was so much that I travelled and attended almost all rock shows in India in whichever city they were performing (Def Leppard, Roger Waters, Metallica etc. etc). During the college days to compliment my pocket-money, I even organized a rock show as well. With that said, I heard a lot about Nashville and was always wanting to visit this place as whoever I speak to who have visited Nashville would speak of it highly from it's music and party scene perspective. Hilarious Incident- We reached Nashville around 1:00pm and headed straight to Hilton Hotel in Downtown. When I went to lobby to check-in. He said, we were not booked there. Front Desk told me, I was probably booked in another Hilton a few blocks away. We then drove there and same answer that we aren't booked there. I was totally taken aback and checked my emails to reconfirm our exact hotel booking details. Unfortunately, during this time Sundar Pichai (Google CEO) had mandated payment to access emails/photos etc. And, my emails were not downloaded. Sitting in the car under hot sun in the parking lot, I paid Sundar the $2.99/month fee and then my emails got downloaded on phone. What I realized after emails were downloaded- We were not even booked into the Hilton. As our booking was in a Marriott in another area of downtown. LOL For all my work travels, I automatically book Hilton to collect points and use them once in a while for my personal trips. Hence, I thought that we were booked in a Hilton. After checking into Marriot, we got ready and our immediate first stop was to eat the world famous "Nashville Hot Chicken". We headed to Hatte's B and stood in the line in searing hot temperatures (It was 100F) and after 30 minutes got a seating and placed our order. Btw, I can eat spicy food. But, their 3/5 hot rating was delicious but, ridiculously spicy so I can't imagine who will eat 4 or 5 spice rated chicken. It was a great experience as that fried chicken is very different and unique to Nashville. After the hot but enjoyable meal, we headed to downtown and parked the car in a safe garage in downtown. Then walked to "Music Row" which was about 0.5 miles away. Music row is a 1-mile long street with bars on either sides and every bar is having live music. It was the most eclectic environment that I ever saw in my life. As soon as we reached Music Row, It was a sight to see as we got lucky as it entire downtown was cordoned off by Cops and all police folks were parked on street and we walked to middle of the Music ROW and we got to know that there is a "LIVE CONCERT" about to begin in an hour. We never knew and this made us really happy as LIVE CONCERTS don't happen every weekend and our timing by chance was lucky. The music star was none other than the popular and famous country Music star " Chris Young" playing. Looking at the atmosphere that day, New York City would pale in comparison. Believe you me. !!! People were drinking on streets, there were Jack Daniel vendors selling drinks and people would walk with drinks in hands and walk into one bar, then move on to another. You stay where you like the music the most. It was the craziest environment that I ever witnessed in my life. Even at midnight, the streets were filled with people and looked like 6pm in evening. Had a fantastic evening listening to LIVE SHOW of Chris Young and listening to a lot of live music in bars (we hopped to at least 8-10 of them during the evening), we retired at 1:00am. Next day, we checked out and started driving back to Detroit. On the way, we had to stop in Cincinnati as I had promised my wife the famous Thali from "Amma's Kitchen". That was one defacto meal whenever I am in Cincinnati on my work trips and always use to praise it to her. After that delectable late lunch, we reached back home safely around 11:00pm. Summary : It was a memorable road-trip that went smoothly and was crammed with activities. Hope you enjoyed reading the travelogues and travelled to these locations via. this T'log. Cheers and Keep Driving !!! Off from Gatlinburg, TN to Nashville, TN- 200 Mile Drive  Live Show in Downtown Nashville- Great Atmosphere  The famous Nashville Hot Fried Chicken- Spicy but, Delicious   Musicians Hall of Fame  Our hotel room in the famous Marriot in Nashville Downtown.     Nice old Chevy on display outside Hattie's B  Vibe in the downtown as eclectic.             Round 2 of Hattie's B the next day before heading back home. Haha!    Entering Ohio   Best Thali I ever had in US.   Live Show in Nashville Downtown- Check the video to feel the vibes. Loved the live shows inside the bars- Playing one of my favorite rock song. Can you guess the song? Last edited by mobike008 : 18th January 2023 at 07:39. |
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18th January 2023, 08:36
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19th January 2023, 15:54
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| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Pune
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| Re: BMW X3 M40i goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee Loved the travelogue, thanks for sharing  . Wonder how you recalled so many details from so long ago.The weather seemed fabulous to tour out there! The guy in the Nashville Downtown bar can swing his guitar to whatever glory, but ain't gonna come close to the original "Sultan of Swing", the one & only Mark Knopfler  And btw, that happens to be one of my favorite songs too! |
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19th January 2023, 20:22
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| BHPian Join Date: Nov 2020 Location: Detroit & Pune
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| Re: BMW X3 M40i goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee Awesome. beautiful photos.  I am in Detroit & soon planning for a road trip to KY state. I am now tempted to go further to see these Smoky mountains. Will it be a good season to visit this place in Feb.? |
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19th January 2023, 21:49
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| Newbie Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Solapur
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19th January 2023, 23:53
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| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Bangalore
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20th January 2023, 22:33
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| Distinguished - BHPian | Re: BMW X3 M40i goes to Smoky Mountains, Tennessee + Nashville, Tennessee Quote:
Can't say the same about Nashville as it was almost 34 C and it was searing hot. I tend to remember all my major trips and events. In fact, Will share a huge bucket list that we ticked off last year of driving from Seattle to San Diego/Tijuana, Mexico hugging the coast. This was done in December 2021. Will share that TL in next few weeks. Yeah, Mark Knofler is the greatest guitarist and musician and I would rate him higher than Slash. Good Catch, Btw. Quote:
If you are traveling to KY then Smokies is a must. Don't miss it! February will be cold in the mountains. I would recommend May to October as the best season to visit Smokies. Quote:
Thanks for sharing. Quote:
If in that area, Nashville is mandatory. | ||||
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