Sunday, July 21, 2013

Day 12: Winston-Salem to The Smokies

Day 12 included travel from Winston-Salem to our Sevierville, Tennessee cabin in The Smokies, but first, one of our new found Southern friends, we shall call her D-nice, suggested we make a quick pit stop on the way out of town.

Miss D-nice pointed us in the direction of Dewey’s Moravian Bakery in Winston-Salem. “They have some delicious pastries and cinnamon rolls,” she wrote on the FB. Cinnamon rolls? You don’t have to tell this Yankee twice! Thus, Dewey’s was an immediately-added side attraction. So we left the farm-side hotel en route to the bakery and arrived to find this tray of ridiculously sweet and cinnamony joy:
Insert Frank Barone’s “Holy Crap” here once more. Seeing that Elmer’s Glue-like frosting, asking for milk was an absolute necessity. I hate to admit it, but for the first time in my four decades of earthly existence, I encountered a cinnamon roll that I could not tame. I simply could not finish it. I quit. I was, and still am, ashamed. Like that bridge over the Chicago River I conquered the second time during Bike the Drive, I hope to dominant a Dewey’s cinnamon roll the next time we enter the Winston-Salem city limits. Like LL Cool J, I’m gonna knock it out!

While waiting for some of the cinnamon roll to settle before attempting to consume more, I consulted The Google to find that another Edward McKay bookstore was located less than half a mile from Dewey’s. After failing to finish the roll of the god of all things sweetened, we headed across the road to peruse the sports books section. I grabbed a few and the visit was over in a flash and we were again on our merry way. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, here we come!

After a few hours of road tripping and potty breaking, it was time for lunching. Thus, the search for a Bojangles began. Any other time, there was a Bojangles at virtually every exit. Not so today. Mile after Bojanglesless mile we drove. “Wendy’s?” No. Subway? No. Hardee’s? No. There would be no compromise and no substitutes. My Monday morning Hope Mills Bojangles breakfast would not be my last visit to the real Southern Comfort. I would have none of it. So lunch was put off a bit longer until, lo and behold, the red and yellow logo of supreme awesomeness appeared on the food locator highway sign. God bless America. And, thus, we broke biscuit.

With the midday feeding out of the way, we continued onward to our Smokies living place for the next three days. Like my brother-in-law, Marky, we took a different way than what Karen suggested in exchange for a more scenic route than what I-40 had to offer. This roundabout way actually became familiar when we rolled up onto Gatlinburg from the back way. We took the left fork once we hit downtown G-burg and headed into Pigeon Forge and, finally, to Sevierville to check in. A right turn at the G-burg fork would have taken us through the "Vegas of the Smokies" and the 15 t-shirt stores and other assorted touristy crap along the route. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to avoid the G-burg strip for the entire trip as one of the entrances to the GSMNP lies just on the other side. It hurts my soul to drive that strip, but it’s worth it once you pass.

Since we rolled into town in late afternoon, almost early evening, we decided to simply chill for the evening at the cabin. So I began catching up with some blogging… Apparently, I’m still in catch up mode. I promise I’ll finish before the 2014 Road Trip!

You know the drill. Click HERE for the photos.

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