Encountering the Smokies

Leaving West from Asheville, the first thing you notice is that the roads become windier. Even I- 40 which I've driven half a dozen times already has it's tricky spots, so much so that it hardly seems like an interstate. Right before you leave it for 74 toward Waynesville, driving takes on a sort of slalom sensation as the highway weaves back and forth and downhill all at once. There are far off vistas of overlapping mountains in many shades of blue, from light slate to dusk in color. Whitish gray mists hang in the valleys thin strands of cotton. These are the kinds of mountains we used to draw as kids - large upside down "u" shapes with an orange sun half revealed between the arcs. Sunrise one day last week looked just like that. Just as you pass the exit sign for Smoky Mountain National Park, the land rises up steeply on either side of the roadway and you can catch silvery waterfalls seeemingly draped over the rock faces. It gets pretty rugged out here. They may not be the Cascades but they are still mountains, some reaching up to 6000 feet. It is beautiful and I hope to do some hiking during my time off over the next few days if it stops raining.

Oh, I met a few mountain people last week. Both the men and the women were chewing tobacco.