Saturday 11 November 2000

Drove due west to Asheville, in the north-west sticky-out bit of North Carolina. Bought another blanket on the way at our friends WalMart, as it's supposed to be even colder than where we were. On arrival at the campsite at around teatime, we were warned to disconnect and drain our water hose overnight as it was due to freeze, so the blanket was a good decision. By the time we went to bed there was frost on the truck.

A little strange wandering up and down the aisles in WalMart: soft furnishings, kitchen appliances, stationery, guns and ammunition ... the customers there all seemed to be slightly weird survivalist types, with staring eyes, six days growth of beard and ex-army combat gear. Not the sort of people you'd like to getting chatting with in a bar.

One of the levelling jacks on the trailer snapped where you put the handle in - it's still usable, but I now need to use a socket or spanner to wind it up and down. The steel they're made of has the approximate consistency of cream cheese.

We decided not to pay the extortionate extra for cable TV, but found that the only terrestrial channel available due to the surrounding hills was the televangelists. This is a remarkable American phenomenon; an entire TV station dedicated to getting people to phone in and give money via credit card. There's a permanent counter on the screen of the number of phone lines currently in use and the number still free - they have about 150 in total, most of which seemed to be permanently tied up. A detailed description of the use to which the money is to be put is strangely absent, although the preachers all look very well clothed and fed. The content was a mixture of sermons, singing, exhortations to give, and a well-built blonde lady with very big hair saying how inspired she felt. I think it was Barnum who said that no-one ever lost money by overestimating the gullibility of ordinary people, and he was dead right.

Sunday 12 November 2000

Drove about 70 miles along the Blue Ridge Parkway to its western end, including the highest point at over 6,000'. It's even more spectacular at this end than in Virginia, and the hills really do look blue ...

At the end of the Parkway we visited the town of Cherokee, named after the Indians who used to live in that area and now owned by them as their reservation. Very good museum. Most of the tribe got 'resettled' (i.e. driven out) into Oklahoma in the 19th century, regardless of the fact that various tribes of Plains Indians already lived there, although a few hid and managed to avoid being moved, so there are now two separate Cherokee groups in the country. The Cherokee were one of the five 'Civilised Tribes', the others being the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole; the term derives from the fact that they gave the settlers less trouble than most others. A few of them were even taken to England, although they were treated more as a curiosity than as representatives of their nation ...

Spectacular sunset on the way back to the campsite ...

... and so to bed for another freezing night. South Carolina tomorrow.