Nashville, Tennessee to Asheville, North Carolina

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way" The sun is shining, no rain, no tornadoes, and not a deer in sight.


Today was Nashville to Asheville. There's an old family story about Jenny and Jim driving in the South and Jenny trying to tell Jim which exit to take. The choices were Nashville and Asheville. She said Nashville, he thought she said Asheville and they went back and forth like Laurel and Hardy, until they were shouting at each other. Today it was good for a laugh.


We stopped at the Hermitage, the 1100 acre plantation of Andrew Jackson. The mansion, his early log cabin home, the formal garden, the remains of the slave quarters and his tomb are all there. We took a horse-drawn wagon ride around the grounds and toured the mansion and gardens. Old Hickory, apparently was a contradictory personality. James Parton, a Jackson biographer, calls him a democratic aristocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint. The Cherokee call him the devil because of his responsibility for the Trail of Tears. 
The rural acreage is lush with grass and trees and the formal garden is supposedly just the way his wife left it.
Bed after bed of peonies in Rachel's garden were covered in buds and just about to burst. They must make a glorious display.

We drove through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway. where we stopped twice to observe black bears in the woods. One was foraging in the underbrush, the other was  stretched out languorously on a tree limb high above, indifferently looking down at those looking up at him. The Smoky Mountains are covered in deciduous forest. The "mountains" roll and fold in on each other while the sun plays on them highlighting the peaks and deepening the pleats. 


We know we're still in the USA, but Jim says he might as well be in France, because they are speaking a different language here, and Southern drivers do not observe the speed limits. They're all stock car racers. 
And just what is frog jam? Evidently, it's made of figs, raspberries, oranges and ginger.


Running Odometer Total: 3100
States Today: Tennessee, North Carolina Total: 11