October 18, 2013. Great Smokey Mountain National Park and Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Asheville to Cherokee, NC, through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park to Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge to Crossville, TN sums up today's travels. Well, not quiet. Where in the world do all the people come from? The drive through the Park was littered with traffic. It was as though the government shutdown dammed up the tourists. When the shutdown ended, the dam broke and people flooded the parks and tourist destinations. Even on Interstate 40, twenty miles from Gatlinburg, traffic was backed up in the turn lane. It was like the traffic around Arrowhead Stadium before a Chiefs' game.
We visited the Cherokee Museum in Cherokee, NC. It is nicely done and well worth the $10.00 per person admission charge. The total for the two of us was, of course, $20.00. I had a twenty-dollar bill and four five-dollar bills in my money clip. I chose to pay with the four fives. I didn't feel comfortable handing the Native American at the admission desk a bill with President Andrew Jackson's picture on it. It was Jackson who ordered the removal of the Cherokee from their homes here in Tennessee to Oklahoma in what became known as the Trail of Tears. A very high percentage of the Cherokee died on the trail. The Cherokee are still cross with Jackson about that. Who can blame them.
To make the perfidy worse, the Cherokee made Andrew Jackson a national hero by helping him in the Indian wars in Florida. In fact, at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, the deciding battle in the war, a Cherokee brave saved Jackson's life. He later expressed regret for that act of bravery.
After Chief Justice John Marshall spoke for the Supreme Court and told Jackson he could not remove the Cherokee to Oklahoma, Jackson is said to have said, "Chief Justice Marshall has made his decision. Now, let him enforce it." Of course, the courts have no enforcement power. That power rests with the President. The Cherokee, despite their victory in the courts, were removed from their homeland.
The Park offered hints of autumn. In places, usually at higher altitudes, the trees were in the process of changing colors. The owner of the campground where we are staying tonight says the temperature here will be in the upper 30s tonight. That means it will probably frost in the Park and the trees will change drastically in the next week. We will be gone - that figures.
The plan now is to head directly toward Table Rock State Park near Branson. We will spend most of next week there. Annie will do some Christmas shopping and I will do nothing. I should have brought a book, but I didn't. I think I should be able to buy one in Branson, don't you.
The ducks shown above live on the fishing lake here at the campground. They have their own duckhouse - it looks a lot like a doghouse - on a floating platform in the lake. Life should be so good. The ducks are very content. They make a noise in their throats which reminds me of a cat purring.
We should be somewhere in Missouri tomorrow night. It will be good to be closer to home after traveling through 18 states, some of them twice, in the last three weeks.
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