| October 23, 2005. Drove into Cherokee Indian Reservation - the doorway to The Great Smoky Mountains. The Blue Ridge flows into the Smoky Mountains also but we wanted to stay a night at the foothills of the mountains for a change plus see this area. We stayed the first night at the Cherokee Casino. Then found a campground the next day in Whittier, N.C. call the Fort Wilderness, the proprietor was a nice person. |
 The Great Smoky Mountains. The Blue Ridge Skyline Drive is the most beautiful and peaceful drives that we have encountered.
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 Cherokee
Indian Reservation. The reservation has to be one of the richest reservation
around. It has miles of stores along the river up to the mountains.
Great shopping. Denis says it is a huge tourist trap with a live Indian Chief that you can
have your picture taken with. You could spend a day shopping and still not cover all the stores, and
there were beautifully carved statues and tee pees all over. |
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 The Cherokee Indian Museum told of their history. It was well worth the $9.00 per person. The art work and the way they created a 3D effect on a lot of their pictures by submitting an actual life like statue with the painting's was innovative.
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 "Trail of Tears" was such a touching story/painting but the final outcome seems to be that they prospered which is what we see as we drive thorough the reservation. The Cherokee Indian tribe was almost an endangered nation, their population went down to 200 it is now up 14,000. They are not allowed to marry a second cousin. The genealogy is kept in close check on the mothers side. When a marriage happens the women keeps her own name and the children have her name. If someone marries a white person, that white person is accepted as part of the nation but is not allowed to own any property, ect. The blood line stops at 1/16th. after that you will no longer be considered a Cherokee.
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| October 24, 2005. Went up The Great Smokey's today but got turned around at 5,000ft because of ice and snow. Denis wanted to continue but I complained until he had no choice. Which was just as well because we found out they closed the road. |
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This is what snow looks like when it is falling on the mountains. You really cannot see the mountains. Denis wanted to continue going up. What for!!!!
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 Everyone is scurrying down the mountain. Thank God Denis smartened up, at the time we were 5,000ft. high. When we got back to the entrance of the park they had gated the entrance to stop anyone from going over the mountain. There were people stuck on this side but had a hotel room. on the other side. I met a lady who was in this predicament at a store later that day. They may have to drive around the mountain to get back to Gatlinburg, this is around 100 miles compared to around 60 miles. I hear Gatlinburg is just like another Nashville but on a upper scale beat.. |
| October 25, 2005. We are going to head to Tennessee today. Enough of the cold mountains. |
