On to Tennessee

We packed up this morning and headed across the park to Elkmont Campground, which is near Gatlinburg. The drive across on Hwy 441 was steep and winding as we expected. The views were wonderful even though visibility was limited. It took just over an hour to drive the 32 miles. We drove into the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking lot but decided to go on to the campground.

We registered and asked where we could fill up with water. It turned out that the drinking water and dump station are across from Sugarlands, so back we drove. We hooked up to the fresh water and started to fill our tank, but the water pressure was only 20 psi, so it was very slow going.

I had pulled well forward so that another rig could use the dump station, and after a bit one pulled up behind us. We struck up a conversation and had an interesting chat. They were just leaving Elkmont after a nine-day visit, and they said they come every year. Just before they finished and pulled away, the folks in the Cougar who had talked with us at Smokemont pulled in behind us waiting to fill up with water too. They are from New Jersey and are very friendly, so we talked about hiking and bears and such.

By now we had been hooked up to the fresh water more than half an hour, so we put a Y on the faucet and invited them to hook their hose up. However, when they did, the pressure going in to our rig dropped to nothing. After a while, though the gauge was still reading medium, we gave up and headed for the campground. We’ll just have to pour water in by funnel (no fun).

We got set up, had lunch, and then drove back to Sugarlands (for the third time) to ask about laundromats and groceries. We got direction to a grocery and ended up finding a laundromat on the web.

Traffic in Gatlinburg was completely jammed, partly because of road construction, but mostly because only one main street leads through the town, and tourists clot the sidewalks and the streets. Gatlinburg appears to be one tourist attraction after another, restaurants and shops piled atop one another with lodgings in between. We got in the wrong lane at a crucial Y intersection and ended up going miles out of our way, because there are no through cross streets, evidently because of the ridges that run through the town.

We finally found the laundromat and got our clothes clean for another week. On the way home we stopped at the Food City for some groceries. We looked for diesel but didn’t see any, so we’ll have to hunt tomorrow.



Back at the rig, we put away the refrigerated food and then went for a walk through the campground. Like everything else around here, it’s up and down, with ridges rising from Jakes Creek and Little River. Lots of tenters, lots of campfires, and a lovely evening among the trees. Back home we ate supper and made plans for tomorrow’s adventures.