Roadside Americana

I loved road trips when I was a child, I still do. One of my favorite things on the road then was the neon signage for campy roadside attractions, and the old motor court motels, the ones back before the big chain motels. The kind of motels you could look out the room window and the chrome grill of your parents Oldsmobile was staring back at you. You still see a lot of it in use Nashville Tn.

Driving back from Gatlinburg, through Cherokee and Maggie Valley we passed a lot of roadside ghosts...

The Wigwam Motel Sign in Cherokee NC is all that remains here.

As of now, only 3 Wigwam Motels exist now.

Wigwam rooms are cement Teepees.

Pink Motel in Cherokee NC

I love the fairy.

I remember going into the Cherokee Trader as a child.

Roadside near Harrah's Casino in Cherokee.

Also in Cherokee NC

Maggie Valley NC

Getting our Smokey on.

Since I was a child, I have always loved Smokey the Bear.  As an adult, I guess its just the fact that the imagery brings back a lot of good childhood memories of visiting the National Parks and Forests.

Smokey Bear is America's wildfire prevention icon. Smokey has educated generations of Americans about their role in preventing human-caused wildfires.  Smokey was created in 1944, the Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign is the longest running public service advertising campaign in U.S. History.
 

The Upcountry History Museum in Greenville SC is currently hosting a traveling exhibit named Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl: "Home Sweet Home". The exhibit will here June thru Sept. 2013.

 

 

 

We knew we would visit the exhibit before it left town, and with this past Saturday being so rainy, we decided to go.

 

 We were looking for the vintage posters.  The poster exhibit was located upstairs, and there were quite a few on display.

 

The first posters on display were rectangular.  This type of ad was used on trains and buses.

 

 

Then the exhibit continued with the more familiar shaped posters.

Original posters from the 1940s on were on display.

 

 

There were about 25 vintage posters on display with history to go along of each of them.

 

 

 According to the Ad Council, Smokey the Bear, and his messages, are recognized by 95% of adults and 77% of children in the United States, that is pretty amazing.

 

To this day,  the majority of the places we go to hike, these threat warning signs like the one below, are still a familiar sight.

 

 

 

Downstairs, the exhibit was geared toward the kiddos, with interactive displays and small ranger stations.  Pretty cool indeed.

 

 

 

Smokey himself even made an appearance.

 

 

On a side note, Smokey has recently had a makeover.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/business/media/new-smokey-bear-gives-hugs-not-just-warnings.html?_r=0

 

I never knew...

There were so many variations of Highway 11.



as opposed to:




And all of these are found, you guessed it, along Scenic Highway 11 in the Upstate of SC.

Hate comes in many forms, but so do heros!

Yesterday we drove up to the N.C. Apple Festival, which is held every year at the beginning of September.

This festival is growing bigger each year. Its held on the streets of downtown Hendersonville. We were walking along, and up ahead we heard a man yelling angrily into a bull horn, but could not clearly hear his words. As we got closer, it became apparent that he was spewing hate and propaganda towards and about gays, dopers and anyone who didn't agree with his point of view (i.e. sinners).

He had a couple of other men with him, following behind, holding signs while he badgered the on-lookers.

We stopped on the street corner to watch all this unfold. Several people approached these men, some individually, some in groups, most were obviously in disagreement with the remarks they were making. Sadly, some were in agreement.

But shortly, the most awesome thing, happened.

A group of "goth" teenagers, dressed in all black, with chains, and funny hair walked up on all this. They stopped, listened, and had one of the men basically get in their face and tell one of them he was going to hell. The group said nothing and peacefully walked away. We watched as they went to some of the nearby vender booths and returned with cardboard boxes. These kids tore the boxes apart and with a magic marker wrote words of peace, love and acceptance, and stood in the crowd silently holding their signs and the hate raged on around them.

The young man in the top photo is shown holding his sign which states:

Love Everyone, Stop Hate!

Many people appauled these kids, or stopped and shaked their hands.

I was one of the ones that stopped and extended my hand!

(cliking on photos will enlarge them)