Knoxville

Knoxville was our last stop in Tennessee before heading towards New-York. Our main goal was to go to the Smoky Mountains and maybe drive to Cherokee. We arrived there in the late afternoon and headed straight out after checking in our hotel. We had a walk around downtown and discovered how lovely it was. We looked into the shops, definitely my kind of shops, a bit above the budget though. We felt less out of place with our slim fit black jeans and our shirts than in the other places, and it felt nice to walk. There is for me a more "trendy" feel to this city, but it also makes it more expensive. We had dinner in a lovely Italian place on the main square, it was nice to have vegetables and no fries! On the way back to the hotel, we walked along the river and went up the Sunsphere. Then I realised that underneath my feet was nothing when we were in the sphere and I had to get out. I have silly phobias.

On the second day we went to rent a car. They had no GPS. Right. That delayed us a fair bit as we had to download maps and GPS on Tom’s phone. We tried it out by going to the basketball hall of fame and it was such a nightmare to find our way that we almost gave up going to the mountain. We were a bit defeated at the hotel when we decided to look at what the way would be and figured out that once you are out of Knoxville it’s a straight road down to the mountain. So we drove. And I loved it. The side of the road is full of tacky shops and mountain trees. It was one of my favourite part of the trip (I feel like everything was!). We drove through Pigeon Forge and passed Dollywood. We drove through the Smoky Mountain, it started to rain, a hot light rain that stopped as soon as we left the mountains. We drove past Dollywood again, pretended we took the wrong exit just to take a picture and left. On the way we stopped for food and returned the car. We survived driving out of town without a GPS and with road works and diversions everywhere. I’m proud of us.

Back in the city we had a giant ice cream. And enjoyed our last evening in Tennessee. I already miss it.