This year on my drive from Boston to Philmont Scout Ranch I took a different route which brought me through a few of the southern states. Going this way doubled the distance, but that’s ok because I like driving. One thing that is different about this blog is that it is broken into a few different parts so that you aren’t reading for hours and another feature is that I wrote it like journal entries. Err having said that, this blog is pretty long as it took more than one day to run out of cookies. Hope you enjoy!
Day 1, April 27
I left right on time this morning at 1am. On the way to New York there were patches of mist and fog which made it hard to see since it was so dark. The GPS found an alternate route through Connecticut which supposedly saved me 20 minutes. I took the GW bridge at 4:25am and went through in a few minutes. There was traffic but it was moving very fast. The New Jersey turnpike has been surprisingly great at 4:40-5:15 am. Not many on it. I have just taken a nice little break at a service center just past Trenton, NJ and now I’ll get more gas and continue on to Catoctin Mountain Visitor Center. I’m a little tired, but I think that is to be expected at 5:50am. One great thing about this drive was that mom had packed 3 boxes of snickerdoodle cookies! So I ate a few of those in the morning.
After I reached Catoctin mountain park I tried out hiking to Wolf’s Lookout point, but about halfway up I decided it was too difficult for me being that I didn’t have the correct footwear so I headed back down. Instead I tried the Chimney Rock loop, but I ran into a similar problem and turned around. In total I walked about 3 miles so it wasn’t a complete waste of time. The trails are really nice and you get a good sense of being away from the hustle and bustle of civilization. Once I got back I was pleased to see that the visitors center was open so I headed inside and got my stamp and patch.
I was going to go straight to the next location but since I had 30 minutes of extra time I went to Subway for lunch first. It didn’t take long and was ultimately a great decision as I didn’t have time for lunch the rest of the day.
Next up was the Washington Monument. Not the one in D.C. mind you. This was the one that George Washington actually went to first. Google maps had me travel on all backroads. It turned out to be great! Unfortunately the monument was closed because they were repaving the road 🙁 so I kept going.
I then traveled a few miles away to Antietam National Battlefield where I got a few bb8 pictures and toured the whole park. Basically the main man in the confederate army died so General Lee took his place and marched on Antietam. Union soldiers were there to meet him and they both slaughtered each other. Long story short it was a draw because the Union troops had awful strategies that killed tens of thousands. Confederates eventually withdrew and Abraham Lincoln was like “if you don’t surrender in 3 months then I will free the slaves!” 10 months later Lee returned to Gettysburg and, well, I’m sure you know the rest of the story. (I’ll cover it when I tour that battlefield).
Last stop of the day was Harpers Ferry and wow was it cool. At Antietam I learned that HF was a garrison that surrendered to the confederates. Nowadays it’s home to the Appalachian trail and a bunch of nice people. You can do the typical walk through the exhibits and walk all over the town. Many many cool shops for souvenirs. I went through almost a whole box of cookies today and it is only day 1.
I’m now about to drive 2 hours to my hotel where I can edit todays blog, eat dinner, and sleep. See you tomorrow!
Day 2, April 28
Today I left at 8:15am, 15 minutes later than planned. I drove 1 hour 30 minutes to Appomattox Courthouse NHP. Google maps took me the ‘fastest’ route once more and it happened to be the scenic route. The one with just me! Did you know Virginia has vast plots of land used for logging? Neither did I! One side of the road was endless tree trash (branches, stumps, leaves…) and the other side looked like a Christmas tree farm with all the trees being regrown. At Appomattox Courthouse I learned about the very first surrender of the Confederate army. Basically Robert E. Lee tried to retreat, got boxed in instead by the Union troops, and was forced to surrender. (Or fight to the death, but that wasn’t as appealing).
After the courthouse I saw Julia in Lynchburg! You can read about that trip in my Virginia blog. She was feeling super tired and we ended up just having lunch, which was ok by me. No worries! We went to a Mexican food restaurant called La Carreta, which was ok but not the best Mexican food I’ve ever had. luckily I still had a box and a half of cookies to keep me company.
Next up I decided to go to the Booker T. Washington NM. Once there I met Ranger Brittany, who is a wonderful park ranger. Booker was a slave to a family on a plantation and this park talks about how after he was freed he went to go to school. There he became an honors student and after he graduated he became famous for his civil rights speeches. It was such a beautiful day that I did the nature walk. There was a horse there and some sheep so I think it is still a working farm. *not a plantation
I had no time to waste after Booker T. Washington and headed straight to Raleigh where I met Ethan. He is also a good friend of mine and even though he wasn’t in the official plan, I was able to stop by and say hello. (Although he added 144 miles to the trip, totally worth it in my opinion.) We had dinner then went to the bar and I had a Negroni. (1 part gin, 1 part Campari, and 1 part vermouth) I love Negronis, but Ethan…not so much.
After visiting Ethan I hit the road again and for the past 3.5 hours I’ve been driving in the dark surviving on cookies. Anyways, that’s it for now. Bye Bye!
Day 3, April 29
Today the plan was to leave at 7:30am, but since I got in so late the night before I left about an hour late at 8:30am. Not too deterred I left shortly after I got up and headed to the Andrew Johnson NHS. My trip brought be through what I thought was the Great Smokey Mountains. At one point there was a sign warning of extremely high smoke in the area. I couldn’t really see the smoke but I could smell it in the car no problems. Later I figured out that I had actually gone through the Appalachian Mountains instead. It was really beautiful. Think of a Philmont to Taos mountain road drive, but 80 miles instead of 60.
Once at Andrew Johnson NHS I learned about how he almost got impeached. Compared to the most recent impeachment his was really stupid I think. I’m on the side who would be against impeaching him, however I don’t really want my blog to turn political so that’s about it on that subject. Before I left, the 2 rangers wanted me to relay a hello to Jeremy the ranger at the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. I will definitely say hello! Once finished in Greenville I drove north.
The Cumberland Gap NHP is a place that I’ve been wanting to see for ages and to finally be there was so exciting! Getting there was actually not too hard, it just took a long time because I was going through mountain passes the whole way. Right before entering Kentucky I went through a big tunnel. The signs kept saying “Hazardous Materials exit right!” (All hazardous truck cargo had to be escorted through)
Once on the other side it was a short journey to the visitors center. The tunnel is in Cumberland Gap. There’s also a town with the same name. At the visitors center I got my patch and picked out the trails that I would be hiking. The total milage was just 2.4mi round trip. Easily doable, except it was a fairly steep trail and very hot out. 75F. I decided to do Pinnacle Overlook first. It was easier to get there since you could just drive to the top. The drive to the top put the drive through The Notch to shame. Once at the top is was an easy 600ft walk to the overlook and wow was the view break taking. I could see for miles and miles. The wind was light and helped cool me down. After a few pictures and with not much else to do I went back down to my car and headed down to the Thomas parking lot to start the hike to the tai-peak overlook.
This is the earlier moderate hike I was talking about. It first starts on a gravel road and then about .4mi up it changes to the average hiking trail of rough dirt, rocks, and tree roots. The whole way either flies or bees would buzz aggressively next to my ears so I was super anxious and if you know me you know of my “waaaaaa” cry as adrenaline kicks in and I run away arms flailing. The summit of this mountain was really cool because I got to stand on the triple corners of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. BB8 made it to the top too, but sadly he left his antennas in the car.
The way down was more dangerous than the drive to the park because at one point a bee flew past me, I freaked out and started sprinting down the trail full speed. Imagine if I had twisted and ankle or broke a bone trying to escape that bee? I don’t know what I would’ve done. Anyways, I made it back to my car without much effort and proceeded to debate what to do next.
The plan was to see the Big South Fork National Scenic River and Preserve, but since I was so late in getting up I missed it. (It was 2 hours from Cumberland Gap to the Big South Fork national park). I looked over the map once more and decided that there was nothing that I could get to on time to see. I called a coal mine to try to see if I could make it to a tour, but it closed at 5pm, it was 3:30pm and 1 hour away. Not enough time. Kind of bummed I drove the quick 1 hour 30 minutes to the hotel at Cedar Bluff near Knoxville, TN.
The room I have is great! I have a Best Western Executive Suite, which means it comes with a small kitchenette, a couch, more room and a bigger king sized bed. Perfect for tired me. I prefer king beds when traveling alone. (Just for note, it really didn’t cost that much more than a regular king bed room). After taking a shower and freshening up I drove to downtown Knoxville for dinner.
After a quick search on Reddit I decided on the Stock and Barrel. It is a gourmet burger restaurant with a 2nd location in Nashville. I sat at the bar and had 2 sour beers and the Farmhouse burger. This burger had a fried egg on it and was delicious. I had a glass of water to try to equalize the beer and after still feeling a bit tipsy decided to go for a walk before driving back to the hotel. I was basically next to the famous Market Street, which like the name implies, has markets that line the street. There are loads of restaurants as well. Downtown Knoxville has a very fun vibe and I would like to return again. Upon feeling good enough to drive I returned to my car only to discover that it was gone!
You see there are a lot of parking garages in the downtown area and I was having trouble remembering which one I parked in. I had walked into the wrong garage and was like “I knooooow that I was on level 3!! My car should be here lol” After some searching I located the correct garage and found my car. The drive back was easy and I’m glad I don’t have to go to bed at 1 am tonight. With that said I wish you goodnight.
Day 4, April 30
Today I headed out on time for once and headed to the Manhattan Project National Historic Park in Oak Ridge, TN. I wasn’t sure what to expect and so I had only planned to be there for a total of 1 hour. When I got there I started talking to the park ranger and it turns out that there was a lot to talk about so we kept at it for about 45 minutes! After talking I watched the park videos, which were short personal stories from people who worked in Oak Ridge, I headed to the International Friendship Bell. You see the national park is essentially the entire town. Back in world war 2 the us government basically told the citizens to pack up and leave. Then they turned it into a facility that enriched the uranium for the first atom bomb dropped on Japan. The plutonium for the 2nd bomb was created in Hanford, WA. Lastly everything was tested in Los Alamos, New Mexico. To get the complete stamp in your national park passport you need to visit all 3 locations. Ah and I got off track, but oh well!
The International Friendship Bell…is a bell. It was put in Oak Ridge after world war 2 and is a symbol of hope and everlasting peace. It’s styled after a Japanese bell and to ring it you pull a big log back and let it slam into the bell. Pretty cool!
Next up I headed to the K-25 site. This is the place that pioneered gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment. Basically the uranium becomes a gas and the different isotopes get filtered. At one point it was the largest building of its kind in the world. Now it is gone because eventually all that work enriching uranium poisoned the land around it and it had to be demolished. Quite a task! There was such a job as Acid Master by the way. Just something you pick up walking through the museum.
Next up was to go to the Obed Wild and Scenic River. It was about 30 minutes west of Oak Ridge and sort of in the mountains. A wild and scenic river is a river that hasn’t been touched by humans and most likely never will be. Obed also happens to have a wonderful night sky because it’s in a part of Tennessee without much light pollution. I went on the boulder trail first. This is a short .5 mile round trip trail that takes you to a field of rocks that you can boulder. Bouldering is climbing without a rope. I got a neat shot of BB8 there and met some climbers who once went bouldering in Martha’s Vineyard. Before I left I quickly did the Overlook Trail. This one gives you great views of the river.
It was at this point, right after Obed WSR that I ran out of cookies. It was such a depressing moment. Within the next few days I somehow need to restock on cookies.
Next on the itinerary was to go to the Stones River National Battlefields and I’ll admit that I didn’t spend a huge amount of time here because it was really crowded (the scenic drive would’ve taken way too long) and I was rather tired. Basically just like most civil war battlefields both the Union and Confederates threw troops at each other until someone won. This time the Union army was victorious and the confederates hobbled away.
Now that all the adventuring was done I headed to the hotel. I had originally picked the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, but after seeing some weird reviews I changed my mind and went to the Read House instead. It is the first ever 4 star hotel I’ve been to and it was really nice. The room was sort of the same as a normal hotel room, but with nicer furniture/shower. Like instead of a regular pot coffee maker there was a Keurig. I felt kind of bad when I got there because I was in shorts and a t-shirt when most everyone else had business casual. However I had more national park stamps than probably everyone else combined. Heh! That night I signed up to go on the hotel ghost tour.
Did you know that The Read House is the hotel that Al Capone stayed at when he was on his trial? There was also a murder in this hotel room and that’s where the ghost tour comes into play. All/most of the furniture is authentic from the time and during halloween / October you can stay in that room for $666 a night! Would you stay in a haunted room? I would! Since I felt like I wasn’t fancy enough for the hotel restaurant after the tour, I went to the bar instead and had about 4 cocktails. They were really good and I would’ve had more, but it was getting really expensive so I called it quits and went to bed about an hour later.
Day 5, May 1
Today I left a bit later since it was my ‘Rest Day’ so to speak. The plan was 100 ish miles to help give myself and my car a break from all the heavy driving days. I left the hotel today at 9:45am, but since the valet line was so long I didn’t leave until 10 am. That was fine though! The first stop of the day was Russell Cave National Monument in Northern Alabama. I have never been to Alabama before and it was cool to finally see some of it. It’s sort of like eastern mountainous Tennessee except the forest is more like a jungle I’d say. It only took about 45 minutes to get there and I got there just in time for the Ranger talk!
I quickly headed over where I learned about fire building and how to throw ancient spears with a throwing tool called an altalt. It was cool to see the fire demonstration and I got a video. The whole time the talk was going on there was the constant hum of bees buzzing which put me on edge. I kid you not, it was loud! Anyways, once the ranger finished and it was time for the kids to try I headed out as I had decided I had seen enough. Plus I wasn’t interested in seeing the kids fail multiple times.
Walking to the cave was nice, but really really hot. There was a sign next to the trail that said “watch out for venomous snakes.” I didn’t see any though. The cave itself is pretty big at 7 miles long. Unfortunately you can’t go inside because you would be disturbing the artifacts still inside and it floods. There is also a sink hole which I got to look into although you don’t get a great view because of the plants in the forrest. The water that goes into the sinkhole makes its way through a bunch of unknown caves and out into Russell Cave.
Next on the list was the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Battlefield and Military Park. However, about halfway I got hungry so I got some pizza at a nice little pizza joint in rural Georgia. I say rural, but take that with a grain of salt because there were a lot of people. Earlier on my way I had passed a cool looking state park so while I ate I googled it and found that it has a disc golf course!
After lunch I tried my hand at the course. Almost every hole was in a flat open field. There were some bumble / carpenter bees on the edge of the forrest that freaked me out, so the motivation to throw good shots was high. Each hole was a par 3 and between 200ft – 400ft. Par score is: 54. My score was: 61. So I was a grand total of +7 over par. (I’m happy with that).
After playing, I was really hot and sweating a ton so I took a moment to cool off in my car then moved on. Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Battlefield and Military Park was next! It was only a 36 min drive and that drive brought me through more of Georgia. It seems like another one of those states where if something breaks or becomes junk you just leave it in your front yard and no one cares. I think that is interesting because back home if I had a junk yard in my yard people would notice and judge my family hardcore. (I think it helps that most houses have rusty trailers and such though).
The park itself was America’s first national park and it’s biggest. Although I’m not sure how a park like the grand canyon isn’t the biggest. I watched the park film and basically the confederates tried to push the union troops out of Chickamauga and technically won, but with a cliché great many losses. (Cliché because it seems like most battles had a heavy amount of losses.)
“Yes! Woooooo! We won!” “But general we lost 23,000 men” 🙁 “Who cares soldier we won!!”
That’s the general vibe I get from most civil war battles.
After getting pushed out of Chickamauga the union troops held their ground in Chattanooga at the fortress and eventually Ulysses S. Grant showed up, took over command, and pushed the confederates back to Georgia. Ultimately the Union troops won the battle, which opened up a gateway to the deep south.
After the movie I remembered to relay the hello message from the ranger girls at the Andrew Johnson NHS then headed back to The Read House. First I stopped for gas in Georgia because the gas there is a wild $3.59 a gallon which is suuuuuper low right now! (It’s $4.50 in Boston). Then I stopped at a post office to mail some post cards. And eventually I got back to The Read House hotel where I just took a shower. For dinner I headed just 5 minutes away to the Pickle Barrel, which is a pub that is pickle themed. It has burgers with pickle stuff, pickle juice martini’s, and just a really cool vibe. It’s not far away and would give me a small chance to see the city before I leave tomorrow.
That’s it for this Part 1 of the blog! I think this was fairly long and I’ll try to break up the next segments a bit more. Thank you for reading!
Stats
- Estimated miles driven: 1652mi for days 1-5
- National Parks seen so far: 13
- Detour miles: 144mi
- States driven through: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York (City), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama
- Best Best Western: Cedar Bluff, Knoxville, TN
- 44,500 steps
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