When you get a room you usually want no smoking, no pets, and I now suggest no curry. I think that the next Paris Hilton will be a Desi. It seems that there there is something known as the Patel Motel phenomena, where according to wikipedia 90 percent of the 9,000 members of The Asian American Hotel Owner's Association are Patels. They might as well change the association name to The Patel Motel Association. Well, all the motels that we stayed the night were attended by Indians, the Asian kind as opposed to the 'red' ones.
We climb, cross, and drive through the Great Smokey Mountains that sit on top the border between Tennessee and North Carolina. It was my hope to spend some hiking at least a mile or two of the Appalachian Trail but unfortunately we were behind schedule by several hours. True to its name the mountain ridge was covered with a smokey haze of fog lingering above the tips of the trees. The side of I-40 was full of red and orange flowers in bloom. Seeing the North Carolina in bloom reminded me of the California spring that gives way to the colors of the California poppy.
North Carolina is a land of many trees but no shade...
We reached our final destination Sunday 3:30 PM. We traveled 383 miles our fifth and final day.