ON THE RIVER - DECATUR

 We made our way down to Chattanooga, wonder what's that's famous for, to board the Symphony. A comfortable modern ship with spacious cabins & balconies. The ship swallows it's passengers whole.

You see that it doesn't need a dock, it just pulls up to the bank and puts out a gangway.

First stop was Decatur where we took a tour to Mooresville, an historic village from the mid 19th century that has 45 inhabitants. It's on their historic register, which incidentally doesn't put many restrictions on what you can do to the houses.

Spot the finger?

We took part in a workshop to learn about flower pressing, dying and using plants to make permanent patterns. They had a smallholding called 1812 farm where they kept sheep for the wool that they used to produce various things for sale in their shop and grew all of the flowers for pressing and dying.

You can the see the flowers behind us and the flower drying room. Apparently mould is a big problem so they try to dry them quickly using dehumidifiers.

These are mine & Lin's efforts, can you guess whose is whose?

This is the chairlift from Skypark I forgot to include the other day.

SMOKY MOUNTAINS

The weather set in today with a vengeance, thunder, lightning, the full works you get to see the smoky as well. The moisture on the forest lays on the canopy and mixes with the plant juices to form a VOC, volatile organic compound that billows smoked mist from the tree tops.

That's the border. You have to show id to get a drink in Tennessee, nothing needed for North Carolina. It's crazy, the time zones are jumping between Eastern and Central every stop we make.

Visited a Cherokee Indian village who told us about their crafts. Despite all the promises and agreements, they were forced off their ancestral land in 1838 and made to trek elsewhere. Many thousands died, they called it the Trail of Tears.

Weather improved dramatically once we got off the mountain and down into Gatlinburg. Back into the 90's. It's like a frontier town for families. It has roller coaster on rails running down the side of the mountain where you sit on an individual sled that you control yourself. Plenty of walking trails, campgrounds - know anybody who would enjoy that? We went up onto the Skypark that you go up in an open ski chair lift. It has a very long wobbly suspension bridge with a glass floor several hundreds of feet up - know anybody who wouldn't like that?

Finished up with a dinner at a nice restaurant and then off to pack.

UP IN THE MOUNTAINS

We were looked after and didn't get into the more severe places you could get into. It's a wilderness, and a few people lose their lives every year. 

There be bears here, what do think the little one said? We had a nice tour with the pink jeeps, which is owned by Dolly. We went to Cades Cove, the visitor centre and then off to lunch again - more food. After lunch we took a walk through the forest to Cataract Falls, a bit underwhelming but enlivened by one of our party going missing. I told you it was dodgy! It took about 40 minutes to find him which made us miss our moonshine tasting. There's no phone or internet coverage up there and it's 5000 feet up so old folks get a bit knackered.

We went back to the hotel for a break & shower, then off to Dolly's resort hotel for dinner. It's a really nice resort place on the lines of Disneyworld. We sat on the porch with cocktails & rocking chairs - what could be nicer. That box contains a Dolly composition that is to be opened & performed on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

DOLLY'S STAMPEDE

Left the Hilton into an onslaught of food. We were due to leave Knoxville fairly early for a drive over to Pigeon Forge, stopping for lunch and visiting a few sights before arriving at the hotel and ending the evening at the Stampede. We visited an old cemetery and a train museum. 

We had already had a substantial breakfast at the Hilton, next lunch at 11:30 at Peaceful Side Social in Townsend. We had Smoked Turkey BLT & Power Bowl with Trout. This was a brewery, ice cream factory & bar. The beer, food & ice cream was great, but huge and only a few hours after breakfast. So off to the Marriott and then dinner at Dolly's Stampede. Dolly dinner comprised soup, a small whole chicken, mash, beans and a corn cob. All just a few hours after lunch.

Julie & Amanda, our adventure guides for the Smoky Mountain part of the trip. The loco was a special design for logging on steep track. All of the wheels including the front bogey and tender were driven via propellor shafts with universal joint pinions.

Nice show, entertaining & light hearted, free drinks for us but happy to get to bed as we are up at silly o'clock for a long day. What will the weather bring?

KNOXVILLE KINDNESS

Still dreadfully hot & humid, aircon indoors is coping well so we are comfortable at night. I put an esim on Lin's phone(mine is not modern enough), installed a US number and internet package. It's working well apart from a screwup on my part in not selecting international phone service -ah well, live and learn. The flight in on American Airlines went well apart from continually changing gates. Small plane, a Bombardier in 2x2 seat configuration. They take everyone's cabin cases on the tarmac, store them and give them back at the bottom of the stairs when you land. It certainly speeds up boarding & avoids the overhead locker scrum.

Went for dinner at Applebee's, a burger sports bar kind of place.

Nice burger, but the surprise was two strangers bought the meal for us - the whole shebang including drinks. Linda also got a pint for the price of a half. Knoxville had a World's Fair in the '80s, when it was referred to as "a scruffy little town" , some people still call it little scruffy.

This is the sun dome, built for the fair, covered in gold leaf.

Went down to the Blount mansion, the first Governor of the territory who was a bit of a crook apparently - the only senator to get himself impeached. Another act of kindness. We arrived at the same time as a big group of school kids. We opted to come back later and went and had lunch. On our return, because we felt we had to leave they gave us free entry. Would never happen in London!

Finished off with a nice stay at the Knoxville Airport Hiliton. Very comfortable & had a bit of a rest before tackling the Smoky Mountains.

PHILADELPHIA

It's a very nice town, I bit spoiled by it's inhabitants. A lot of shouty people and obnoxious school children. Many wonderful buildings, open spaces and parks. It's the home of the birth of the USA. I was amazed by the number of signers to the Declaration of Independence, 56. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson but he claimed it was butchered in order to get agreement. The side of town that borders the Delaware, the original parts of Philly is a beautiful area with little cobbled streets. We had a nice guided tour around Independence Hall by a park ranger. We had no tickets but one of the rangers got us in.

Independence Hall was originally the Pennsylvania State House where the declaration was agreed and George Washington appointed Commander of the Continental Army.

As I say, a nice town, that's Ben Franklin who was buried just across the road from his head. That's William Penn on top of the town hall tower. He & I have something on common, we were both on a jury in the same room at the Old Bailey. Never had a cheese steak.

HELL'S KITCHEN......

.....is the district that our ship is docked in Manhattan. It's not really clear why it's called that.

1. Two cops watching a riot there, one said this is hell, the other cop, Dutch Fred, said - hell's a mild climate, this is hell's kitchen.

2. A newspaper report of murders in a tenement referred to the area as Hell's Kitchen - the name stuck.

3. A gang called Hell's Kitchen operated in the area. Whether they were named for the district or vice versa is not clear.

4. There was a rowdy restaurant named Heil's Kitchen that maybe led to the name.

Hell's Kitchen was used well before the New York adoption coming from a district in South London. You pick.

The only Concorde to fly two liveries, BA & Singapore Air. Had a long career, continuing to fly after the Paris crash. Holds the record for the fastest scheduled East West transatlantic flight.

Never went into space used as a test bed & in the investigation of the shuttle disasters.

The Growler with a nuclear cruise missile that was a stopgap before the introduction of Polaris.

Linda looking lost on Penn station before our Acelar trip to Philadelphia. Nice high speed train, very comfortable with trolley service & plenty of baggage space.