Stairs, stairs, stairs

It is truly amazing how much garbage a tiny one bedroom apartment can hold. But eighteen trash bags later, the remaining stuff barely fit in my car. And so, I was off on my great American cross country road trip!

Unfortunately, I live (or lived, I should say) in a third floor apartment, and so each trip meant two flights of stairs. It was a very long day.

So any sane person would have stayed away from hiking their first day of travel.

Fortunately, sanity has never been one of my weaknesses, and so i headed for Chimney Rock. A private tourist attraction up until 2007, now it is run by the state park system of North Carolina. Fortunately, they have an elevator to the top, so it was only on the down trip that my legs started to feel like rubber. Still the view was worth it!


On a side note: the Holiday Inn Express in Hickory and Lazy Bear in Pigeon Forge are both great places to stay!