Yayy Tennessee! (Gatlinburg, TN)

We finally crossed into the second of our eight states today, Tennessee! This is the farthest west I've ever visited along our route, so I'm pretty excited to be riding into new territory. We were all psyched up for the toughest ride of our trip yet, but to my happy surprise it wasn't nearly as bad as expected. The 84-mile day had only two sections of tough uphill, the second section only ten miles instead of the expected fifteen, and ending right at the NC-TN state line, where there was some celebratory dancing and carrying on. After leaving the Y at Asheville, we rode mostly downhill through Maggie Valley into Cherokee, NC, full of "rich cultural heritage" like casinos, SantaLand, tee pees, and the Tomahawk Mini-Mall (the Cherokee had tee-pees? tomahawks?). There were some interesting billboards hinting at challenges (besides crazy tourists) this community faces...like "Ask your elders about diabetes --Cherokee Chairmen" and, more simply, "Meth Kills." I haven't been to Cherokee since I was almost too little to remember, so I found the culture pretty interesting...it must be pretty complicated to have Cherokee identity.

After lunch we climbed into the Great Smoky Mountains Park, where we hit the state line and most of us had a great coasting ride back downhill. Unfortunately, Jochem had a really rough fall in the last ten miles and picked up some nasty road rash. Luckily, he was rescued by a newlywed couple in the car following him, and they drove him in to our host site, a Lutheran church in Gatlinburg, and even posed for pictures. Ever brave, Jochem's doing fine and should be back on the road once his bent wheel is fixed. Riding straight into downtown Gatlinburg after exiting the quiet and shady park was a surreal experience...the heat in the sun was oppressive and Gatlinburg is super-touristy, looking a lot like Disney World with people, shops, and restaurants packed in tight on the streets. It seems like a pretty cool place, and our host church is nice (no-one is here, but someone came to unlock the building and let us cook in their kitchen), but I'm kind of glad we'll be moving on to quieter Maryville soon.










Shoot, we're biking across the United States and then some













Loving the downhill












Cherokee has cool road signs, translated in (I assume) the Cherokee alphabet










Lunch at a park in Cherokee










Buggers! We did all 35 of those suckers, too










Almost at the top! Liz, I think? Last view of North Carolina!










My hill-climbing motivators: Kaitlyn, Ryan, Liz, Anita and Kim










State line at last!! Man, were we excited.

Bike odometer: 683 miles