Where is the road???

September 8, 2010 - 6:25 PM CT - CAVE CITY, KY -
Yesterday we drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to the Great Smoky Mountains. It was very beautiful but like the name says very Smoky...hazy. We hiked up the Clingman's Dome which is the highest point in NC at 6,632 feet. It was a 1/2 mile hike straight up hill. It was the longest 1/2 mile hike of my life. Then we made our way down to Gatlinburg, TN. Very touristy for my taste. We walked around a little bit and had some dinner. It was pretty busy for a week night after the summer season. We checked out where we need to go for the tramway and suck. BUT today started out crappy....Rain, Rain, Rain. So we had planned on a cable ride to the top of the Gatlinburg...but obviously that wasn't happening! So we decided to head out. We ventured up I-75 to Knoxville, TN and across the Kentucky border, drove up 11 miles, turned around and drove back into Tennessee to get the silly Tennessee sign. Then we went to Cumberland Fall State Park for the Niagara of the South. It was a nice waterfall but no Niagara. We ventured over to Big South Fork NRA to do some hiking above the beautiful gorge of the Cumberland River. We decided to head to Mammoth Cave. This is where it gets interesting. Our AAA map, Rand McNally Atlas, Google Maps and my phone's GPS told us to go on KY State Hwy 9008. There were no signs for KY 9008, nothing. We continued driving for a few miles and this stupid road was no where to be found! We saw KY 80 which eventually intersects this phantom highway in 14 miles and after we couldn't find KY 9008 we eventually figured out that it was the "Cumberland Parkway." It never said 9008. None of our maps said that the other name was Cumberland Parkway. Very stupid! On our way we listened to Betty Bath on the Trader on the Radio. Very funny old women dj. She loved to say the word V-HICK-ALL (vehicle) we cracked up at the various things people were trying to trade/sell (bunnies, "hard worker" looking for some work in the Tobacco fields and many many V-hick-alls). I think Kentucky folk is funny. We finally got to Mammoth Cave at 5:30. The last tour was at 4:30. Oh well, we get up early for the 8:30 tour. We are back in central time zone so it should be easy. Cave City is a bit of dump. I'm glad to not be spending much time here. Now Eric is watching some local Country Blue Grass music on the old color tv...Eric don't like country...I mean doesn't like country. Here are some "vital" statistics as of right now; Miles driven: 2,290, cops seen: 75, states/prov. seen: 48