Indian Mountain State Park, Jellico, Tennessee
I took more pictures of road, and definitely more video of road today, than you could possibly ever want to see!
We planned on doing a bit of site-seeing and checking out a “Jeep” road. Nothing much. Hence, a ‘gentle’ day.
What we found instead, was 22.6 miles and 3 hours of REALLY Jeep road(s)!
Blaine bought gas the other day and picked up a free North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area, Sundquist Unit Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) Riding Area map they had at the counter. The white roads are supposed to be rated for all OHV, including Jeeps, and are rated as ‘easy’. Ha!!
But that’s not how our day started.
We had a nice, scenic drive to Austin Powder Road. Did you catch that? Austin Powder? 😊 Never cared much for the character, but the name is iconic thanks to Mike Myers!
Anyway, there was a small river alongside the road, some nice homes, some shacks, (some of which were obviously abandoned) and lots of trash – as in garbage people threw out their windows (cars and houses) – all along the way. We shouldn’t have been surprised. The other day we were following a school bus. It stopped. A couple of older kids got off. One of the teens tossed his plastic drink bottle into the brush at the side of the road, just before slipping into the family car that was waiting for him. Are you kidding me????? What’s wrong with these people????
We’re on our way to find a place that Blaine read about with an Elk Viewing Tower.
We truly are on the road to nowhere.
Check out the gps!
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet . . .
Wanna learn about elk?
This picture was 1/3 size.
Of course, you can’t tell that because you’re not standing next to it, but trust me – – at 1/3 size, it was still really big!
We found it. There weren’t. Just six turkeys.
But it was still a very stimulating drive with a weak-kneed view! And there was always the hope . . . until we gave up and left.
Now for the Jeep road.
We started out like any Jeep road I’ve mentioned in the past – bumps, a few ruts or holes, some gravel turning into dirt. Typical.
So far.
I did not set out to take this picture, but Blaine hit a bump. : )
Look in the little side mirror, too! : )
We saw a cemetery sign and decided to check in on it.
Let’s try this road!
Not many here, but the ones who are, sure have a nice view.
There was a guy there on break, sitting in his road grader. Once we were finished looking around, he got out and yakked us up a bit about where we were from, what he was doing, etc. When we told him we were out driving, he said, “Y’all got 4 x 4?” “Yes.” “Good.” End of conversation. “Have a good day!”, we all shared, then went on our way.
Now it’s lookin’ a bit more like a Jeep Road!
Oh my! We really had no idea! But he obviously did!
And I got to drive for about 2 miles.
Glup. Guess it’s time to visit Salon de Blaine!
OOooo . . . weeeeeee!
Is this fun!!!
Until we got here.
We traded seats again and Blaine backed up a bit and I took pictures . . . .
The angle of this doesn’t really show, until you consider that Blaine is looking out the top of the Jeep!
Yeah. There’s some mud.
But just wait!
This view shows off the independent suspension.
Even Blaine didn’t want to try this!
I did look around the bend to see if this was just an isolated stretch.
It wasn’t.
It was after we turned around that we discovered that we’d missed a turn-off sign and were on the wrong road. We got back on track, but honestly, the rest of the “correct” road wasn’t a whole lot better, as you can see.
Look at that concentration!
Another accidental bump picture! : )
Time to take a break!
Jeep’s looking good!
Still a view from our break.
There’s where we’re headed.
Hey! Some other people going our way!
We pulled over to let them pass us.
I took this one standing on the seat looking over the roof to the road behind us.
Yes, Mom. We were stopped at the time.
We have to cross that to get outta here?
Hope it’s not too deep!
Actually, those ATVers were stopped here and confirmed that was the way out. I think they’da told us if it was too deep . . . . I hope!
We made it!
We saw another cemetery on the way out. We weren’t really interested in the cemetery, we just needed another break and also a good place to check out the condition of the Jeep.
Hey. At least the tires are clean! Sort of.
It’s as dirty inside as out.
Even some mud made it in.
As you recall, Blaine washed the coach yesterday, but was too tired to wash the Jeep. Good thing!! It surely was drug through the mud today! Quite literally! What a mess! Inside and out! We were able to stop at a ‘wash-it-yourself’ place and at least hose off the undercarriage. It took him more than a few quarters. 😊
Next stop – The Pizza Spot. Good pizza, but the waitress messed up our order and they piled on the black olives, so we had to pick ‘em off or wait for another. We opted to pick. We were hungry!
And back home, a nice relaxing walk about the Park.
After today, we now know why riding a horse burns calories (lesson we learned weeks ago from an information board. Any chance you remember that?). Our bodies got a real workout bouncing along and holding on!
What fun! It’s why we tow a Jeep! It was great to finally give it a real workout!
Our new neighbor is a trumpet player. Imagine our surprise when suddenly, in the still and quiet of the campground at about 8:45pm, we heard the tooting of a horn! At first we rolled our eyes and looked at each other and said, “Really?? It’s 9pm!”
However.
After a brief flurry of notes to warm up, he then paused and lapsed into “Taps”.
Well done! A meaningful end to the day.