A One-Day Road Trip up U.S. 441

Today, the next-to-the-last day of Spring Break, I went on a solo one-day road trip up U.S. 441 (probably my favorite route to drive, at least that I've discovered so far).

I always stop at the Tallulah Point Overlook in Tallulah Falls, Georgia; it represents the point at which the drive first starts to get really fun:

I texted this picture to Anna:

I stopped for gas beside this hotel in Franklin, NC. I notice it (the hotel, not the gas station) every time I drive by it; it makes me think of what many of my books call "vernacular roadside architecture" during "the Golden Age of Road Trips":

(Although all you can see in this picture is the cool Carolina Motel sign and some of the stuff on the motel lawn...trust me, it's a very road-trip-looking motel.)

By noon I was in Dillsboro, NC, and had lunch at the Haywood Smokehouse:

I texted this picture of myself at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center (at the southern entry to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park) to Anna around 3:00.

After this, I turned around and headed south, and was back home in Grayson by 7:15.