Traveling is coffee for the soul.
There are many astonishing and wonderful things in the world, and I like to travel and see them. I am a middle-ageish man and I live in Northeastern Europe. My wife often travels with me, voluntarily. All pictures are taken by me, unless otherwise indicated.
Blueberry pancakes, jam, maple syrup, coffee and grapefruit juice. Cincinnati, Ohio, 2016.
The United States is in many ways a controversial nation. There are lots of incredibly awesome places and things, but also huge problems and dark shadows of history present in the society. I know that some people wonder, whether they should travel there at all. I warmly recommend a visit to the US for everyone who has the opportunity. There are countless reasons to go there, but here, I only concentrate on one, which alone is easily reason enough to visit America.
The breakfasts.
An omelette, rosemary potatoes, bisquit ("bun" for most Europeans, I think), jam, coffee and grapefruit juice. Memphis, Tennessee, 2017.
Often, the United States thinks that it is the best, greatest and first of the World. Considering breakfasts, this indeed is the case.
Even at worst, American breakfast is better than other breakfasts. Pancaces, maple syrup, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, French toast, coffee and orange juice. San Francisco, California 2015.
The American breakfast is usually constructed around pancakes, waffles or French toast. Eggs, sausages or bacon are often served with them - but only imagination sets the limit (I've seen a breakfast menu featuring T-bone steak served with pancakes). Serving sizes are such that those used to modest European breakfasts will easily manage until late lunchtime, or longer. As the United States is a very multicultural nation, there are countless local and cultural variations of the American breakfast, such as blue corn pancakes served by the Zuni in New Mexico - recommended!
Texans have, of course, over-Texasified the breakfast, too. A waffle shaped like the map of Texas. San Antonio, Texas 2017.
Nothing in this world is perfect, not even the American breakfast (even though it gets close). It is not the epitome of healthy eating, as there generally is a lot of sugar and fat. Thankfully, lighter options are usually available, as is fresh fruit. And, although the American coffee is sometimes very good, it often isn't. Luckily there usually is enough of it, breakfast often includes unlimited coffee.
If you're headed from, say, Atlanta or New Orleans towards Washington DC or New York (or vice versa) you can, instead of boring Interstate Highways, drive almost a thousand miles of beautiful and slow mountain roads. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is in the Southern end of the route, the Shenandoah National Park in the North. They are connected by a scenic mountain route known as the Blue Ridge Parkway.
When within the clouds, you don't really see the scenery, but it may still be beautiful.
We drove about half of those mountain miles in early June 2017. As you can see from the video above, the weather was not really favorable, except towards the end of the journey. We had also planned a tight-ish schedule. We occasionally headed down from the mountains to the Interstates in the valleys, where it's possible to travel a lot faster. It was also a matter of safety: the winding mountain roads are a little scary if the visibility is poor, especially considering the abundant wildlife. We saw deer, wild turkeys, opossums (we suppose), and one rattlesnake. When darkness falls, it is better to drive on an illuminated highway than in the dark mountain roads - an even better idea is to reach your destination before sunset.
Deer in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
As usual in the USA, things have been made easy for a car tourist. There are vantage points every few miles, and a lot of differnet sights to see, so many that even the most duty-conscious tourist can't possibly visit them all (and some of the sights are, how should I put this, questionable). We recommend Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, just south of Great Smoky Mountains, and the Mabry Mill, a cute open-air museum in southern Virginia, as well as Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and the author of the Declaration of Independence (I'm planning on writing more about Monticello later). There are hiking trails and other opportunities to experience the Great Outdoors, but we drove past them, because of the schedule and couch potatoness.
Like many Native American peoples, the Cherokee smoked tobacco in this kind of stone pipes, often in their ceremonies.
The Cherokee played a ball game they called the "Little Brother of War" with sticks like this. The exhibition in the Cherokee Museum is quite impressive, including a presentation of the "Trail of Tears" (or, literally, "The Road on which They Wept"), the forced transfer from the traditional Cherokee lands to Oklahoma, where most of the Cherokee still reside.
The green Mabry Mill is fairytale-like, at least in June.
We do not recommend Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the southern end of the route, not to travelers like us anyway. There are most bizarre Las Vegas-like plastic tourist traps, such as the half-scale half a Titanic, including the Iceberg. Traveling on mountain roads may be slowed down by not only weather but also traffic jams, especially during the holiday season and on weekends. The route is quite popular and tens of millions of people live nearby.
Titanic. Well, half a Titanic. And the Iceberg.
Huge motor homes, towing "rescue boats", are frequently seen on U.S roads. Many are much larger than this one seen at a Blue Ridge Parkway picnic area.
Like most US National Parks, Shenandoah charges an admission fee, but there are no road tolls or charges on the Blue Ridge Parkway and The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free of charge. Practically, the only way to experience the route is a car (or, of course, a motorcycle or such), your own or rented. At least in the summer season, it is possible to reach some places in the The Great Smoky Mountains National Park by public transport.
We drove on the Blue Mountains from June 4th to 6th 2017.
