Day Nine - A Summer of Bluegrass, Camping and Friends - Monday 5/6/2024

Before we departed Long Branch COE, I enjoyed my morning walk, even though I had to start it three times to get my full 4-miles in! The Carney Fork River provided a perfect picture between the raindrops! I loved the fog hanging over the water!

Caney Fork River is known for its beauty and peacefulness, with canoes and kayaks gliding down quiet water. We were on the downstream section below Center Hill Dam. It's a great spot for rainbow, brown and brook trout. 

There are ample opportunities for music along this route! Smithville is home to the Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree, which it has hosted annually since 1972. From rambling farms that take you back to a simpler time, to a musical heritage that has brought the area renown as one of the nation's top resonators of the bluegrass roots movement, Sparta Tennessee has become a haven for history buffs, music fans and nature lovers alike.

We drove through Crossville Tennessee. We have a couple of Yankee RV caravanners that live in Crossville. We just left one set of them at the Good Sam Rally in Hurricane Mills. We also went through Marysville.

We exited off US 70 and onto US 321 in Lenoir City. I wish I had done my research in advance. Close to Lenoir City is a famous National Landmark, the Lost Sea. Craighead Caverns is an extensive cave system. It is best known for containing the United States' largest and the world's second largest non-subglacial underground lake, The Lost Sea.

Fort Craig, which was located on Pistol Creek, was the first settlement in the area which is now the City of Maryville. The City of Maryville was established on July 11, 1795, by an act of the General Assembly of the Territory South of the Ohio River. In 1819, the Southern and Western Theological Seminary was opened. The name was changed to Maryville College in 1842.

We passed through Townsend and into Wears Valley. I love the rolling mountains you can see on these Two Lane Adventures! There were a few (Charlie would say many) twists and turns along the way into Pigeon Forge.

Arrived at Pigeon Forge  Gatlinburg KOA, our home for one night. We picked the KOA for a pull-thru site, close to the trolley and the Mill Restaurant. We were tired enough that we did not do a thing in Pigeon Forge. If our friend Kenny Evans was not out performing, we might have tried to meet up with him. He was in Missouri!

Stay tuned for the next leg of our #TwoLaneAdventure