The great escape - 2

We started on our journey to Gatlinburg at 5:00 in the evening. After driving for an hour on the Interstate we reached Maggie Valley NC. That was when we started noticing the amount of snowfall in the area. The mountains were all mist covered and all the treetops were white. It was abundantly clear that the Smokies had recieved a large amount of snowfall.

Something caught our attention and we pulled over to investigate. We noticed a gathering of people shouting and screaming and decided to take a look. What we saw was terribly exciting and both of us wanted to try it out. We saw a steep snow covered slope and people gathered at the top with rubber rafts, the kind used for adventure watersports. The were lying on those rafts and were sliding downhill at amazing speeds. I call it Snow Rafting. We hurriedly made our way to the ticket counter and enquired about availability. To our dismay we learnt that all the tickets for the day had been sold out. So we decided to stick around and watch people snow raft for a while.

The next leg of our journey was to take us through Cherokee Indian country. We immediately started noticing how cold it was outside. The temperature was a good 4 degrees below freezing. As we went uphill it progressively became colder and more hazardous to drive. There were mounds of snow on either side of the road. At best we could do 40 miles an hour. My head started aching from the strain of driving so carefully. We took a pit stop at a Cherokee handicrafts store. Out of curiosity we decided to investigate what was on sale. I usually collect shot glasses from places I visit. There were no shotglasses here and I decided that a little American Indian souvenier wood look good in a showcase. Thats when I decided to buy Pocahontas, the Cherokee Indian baby. Heres a picture of her.

The last 35 miles of the onward journey to Gatlinburg were scary to say the least. We were travelling at high altitudes on a narrow two lane road with snow and ice on both sides. The road was slushy and had a wet mixture of snow and mud. I was constantly on the lookout for Black Ice. Black Ice is frozen rain or mist that forms on an tar road. The ice doesnt have any trapped air bubbles and so is invisible to the eye. It is very hazardous to driving and can make a vehicle spin out of control. And I didnt want to spin out of control at those altitudes. We stopped once on the way to enjoy the panorama of mist covered snow laden mountains. We saw a lot of people making snowmen and having a ball of a time.

We reached Gatlinburg at 6:30 and decided that we start back immediately as there was heavy snowfall expected at night and we didnt want to risk getting stuck here. We parked and rushed to the closest McDonalds and gulped down Macs with coffee. All we could do is take a few street pics of this ever lively town.

We started sharp at 7:00 and after topping the tank started on our way back. I started noticing that ours was the only car moving out of town and there were a few cars which were making their way into town. I was soon to find out why. By the time we had done 15 out of the 35 miles to Cherokee it suddenly became very misty. Visibility dropped to an alarming 10 feet. The only thing that kept us from falling into a ravine was the yellow center line on the road. We proceeded cautiously at 20 miles an hour. It was then that we started to hear this pitter patter on the car roof and saw huge snowflakes falling on the windshield. I have never seen live snowfall so I pulled the glass down and stretched my hands out hopeful to catch some of it. But mysteriously the flakes disappeared after striking my palms. Driving conditions got worse by the mile. It was only after we had descended to lower altitudes that visibility improved and the snowfall ceased. We reached Maggie Valley at 8:30. We then drove continuously for 6 hours before we reached Durham. After returning the car at 2:30 AM in the morning, the only thing left to do was crash into bed and go into a dead sleep. Whew!!! what a weekend.
I shot some videos on my digicam. They can be viewed HERE.