We left Chicago on Friday afternoon - equipped with maps and directions to Pigeon Forge in Tennesse. We had to drive 600 miles SouthEast of Chicago, and would be crossing over into Eastern Time.
The drive out of Chicago was crowded and needed a lot of patience, since the first 75 miles took over 2 hours. Luckily, Neel was at the wheel, so thing were calm. Once we headed out of Illinois, it was clearer - and after crossing Indianapolis, it thinned out considerably. The rental Hyundai V6 gave us lousy mileage, but a decent pickup - so driving it was a pleasure. We also
enjoyed the scenic view through the plains of Kentucky. After a quick halt for fuel and food and change of drivers - we continued on our way. Midway through the jungles and wilderness of Kentucky, after having been on the road for over 8 hours - Alok decided to talk about ghosts and the supernatural and horror movies. Since I abhor horror stories of anykind - I totally discouraged the topic .. but my brother - persisted. After about 11 hours of driving we reached the sleepy town of Pigeon Forge. Well, since we reached there at about 3 am - the town had every right to sleep anyways! We checked into our hotel - and got some much needed sleep.The next morning - we were woken up by phone calls from the rest of our friends who had reached from St.Louis and we quickly headed out to meet them. After a quick breakfast at their cabin, we headed out to Gatlinburg for some white water rafting. This was one of the most awesome experiences of my life. We rafted on the Little Pigeon river - this is a relatively calm river, but does have some Class 4 rapids to boast of.
On reaching the raftin point, we were kitted out in a lifejacket, helmet and a paddle. We also got a quick crash (not literally) course on rafting safety and basic moves. We had a very
experienced rafting guide with us. Anthony had been rafting across the world for 11 years and has also been on the US national rafting team. He had a ton of information about rafting, rivers, wild life habitats and the like. He taught us how to spin through a rapid, paddling through, steering and also a technique called surfing. Surfing a rapid is when you turn the raft into the rapid such that the water is coming into the raft. This technique requires a lot of experience and practice and we could do this only because Anthony was with us. We also saw a girl from another raft topple over into the river and the guide of her raft was quick to throw the pull in float to her and pull her back in.As the waters got calmer, some of us jumped out of our raft and enjoyed a swim in the river too. The water was chilled and a good way to combat the 83 deg heat. It was an unforgettable experience.
Back on firm ground - we picked some food to eat, and headed back to Gatlinburg. After some wandering around in Gatlingburg - this place is a typical hill station with local attractions being touted as the "best" in the US, I picked up a souveneir fridge magnet while everyone else was wandering around - and we headed back to Pigeon Forge.
Picked up some groceries for dinner and headed back to the cabin.
The sun was setting by the time we reached the cabin, and here is a view of the sunset over the Smoky mountains. (Remember - you can click on the pictures to make them larger.)The dinner plan was for the veggie people to cook the vegetables - while the rest of us omnivores made some chicken. Now chicken - took longer to cook than the veggies, and with everyone being ravenous - I could hear more than a few questions of when the chicken would be done. Infact, we tried all sorts of stunts with the cooker that the chicken was being cooked in until the lid opened. Finally, the chicken was done, and everyone tucked into a great meal.
At midnight, we had Alok cut a cake for his birthday. Poor guy also got some smashed on his face, but since he didn't know the people too well - he escaped the birthday bumps.. :)) After the party - we headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep.
No comments :
Post a Comment