Tuesday 31Mar20 Smokey Mountains
Day 75
Got up at 8. After cleaning up from breakfast I worked on closing out March budget. I managed to purchase the kayak and related items and still stayed under budget.
I did a WMEFBM and bought a package of small bungie cords. The ones with the small metal hooks. I use those for everything. I also use the large binder clamps. They had a package of all sizes but not just the large size so I'll here to pick these up later. I then drove to an Advanced Auto Parts store and bought a package of fuses for the TV's power cord.
I got on the road around 12:30.
I drove to Asheville but didn't stop. I had been there in the Autumn a few years ago on a Fly and Drive trip specifically to see the fall foliage.
A Fly and Drive is where I fly to a location I'm interested in. Once there I rent a car and then spend a week or so checking out the sites. For the most part I sleep in the car but I will spend a night at a military installation to clear up every few days. The back seat of most cars fold down and the area created is just long enough for me to stretch out with my feet in the trunk area. It is a very cheap way to travel. Pete being diabetic and requiring an insulin injection twice a day prevents me from this type of travel at this time I can't just leave him and Wiggin in the basement and fly off like I have done in the past. On a couple of occasions I have put Pete in a kennel and Brad and Janet have kept Wiggin but the kennel is a bit costly.
Because it was still late Winter most trees were bare of leaves and Asheville wasn't that spectacular this time so I got on I-40 and started heading west. It was a beautiful drive. With the low clouds I could definitely understand why they call them the Smokey Mountains.
I took an exit about half way between Asheville and Knoxville. There was a paved one lane local road that headed back alongside the interstate. On the opposite side of the road was a creek which was about the same size as the Weber River in Ogden Utah.
There was a paved pull out just a ways down the road where I parked for the night. I refer to this type of camping in remote locations as boondocking versus stealth camping which is done primarily in town. I use to do a lot more boondocking when I had a four-wheel drive truck and pop-up camper.
After letting the dogs out for a while I walked down the road by myself. After a quarter mile the road crossed over the creek on a bridge/dam type thing. The road kept going but that was as far as I went since it was lightly raining.
Back at the RT I nuked a can of beef stew for my dinner and feed the dogs. After dinner I replaced the fuse in the TV's cord and used my multimeter to check the polarity of the plug before I connected it to the TV. Luckily that was the only problem and the TV is operational once again. To celebrated I watched "Rumor has It" with Jennifer Aniston. A very good movie. I never realized how much Jennifer reminds me of a friend back in Utah.
After the movie I took the dogs out one more time before calling it a day.