Day 3 - Cherokee

Yesterday (Day 3), we drove out to the Cherokee Indian Reservation to have a wee bit of fun at the casino. I know, there's loads of other things we could do, but this one put a little spring in Brad's step, so we went to try to win some millions. Ha!

To get there, you essentially drive up a mountain to get out of Maggie Valley, and down the other side to get into Cherokee, about 20 minutes away. It's all woods, occasional glimpses of the surrounding hills, craggy rock faces, no shoulders, and run-down mountain homes and abandoned shops from a bygone era. Nothing too exciting to the average joe, but the road itself was enough to keep us on our toes. There is a sign back in Maggie Valley that says "no commerical traffic" through this road we're on. Some intrepid (and perhaps foolish) short flatbed truck driver decided to make the trip to transport 3 short steel I-beams. As I said, it's all downhill into Cherokee, and the curvy road meant a liberal amount of brake application. It wasn't a dangerous road per se, as I felt pretty safe, but I still certainly wouldn't want to try it at night. I drove us, and my minivan handled it very well. There is no through commercial traffic on this road, because the brakes on a big, heavy truck would burn out before you got to the bottom, to say nothing of the tighter turns. The flatbed truck in front of us gave off a lovely smell of burning brakes down the mountain, and at one point they even started smoking. The guy made it though, but I imagine his brakes were toast.

Squiggly road to Cherokee

The Harrah's Cherokee casino was nice, but I felt the one in Foxwoods (CT) had quite a lot more to offer. I thought perhaps there would be a lot more Cherokee Indian-related stuff, but there wasn't a whole lot. Foxwoods at least told stories about the local Indian tribe, so the gamblers can learn something while they lose their money. LOL. Brad and I had a set plan to each spend a certain amount of gambling money. If we doubled it, then we kept the original amount separate, and bet only the winnings.....then rinse and repeat. The good news is that we both stuck to the plan, the bad news is that we never even got close to doubling it. Wah, wah, wahhhhhh.

Fancy slot machine

  



To be honest, neither one of us have a history of winning any type of raffle or lottery. We're just not that lucky, but we win at......Life, I guess? Trying to look on the bright side here. LOL. We explored the casino and I took a couple of photos, but with moths flying out of our pockets, we decided to leave. I drove further into downtown Cherokee, which was lined with tourist shops and such. I would have liked to gone into a couple of them, or even gone further to more natural, historic stuff, but Brad just wasn't feeling it. And that's okay. Sometimes your partner just poops out, and you just have to go with the flow. I did leave the area, with some regrets of the unexplored, but I do fully intend to come back to this region someday.

Note the digital screens on either side of the old-school Craps table

On the drive back down into Maggie Valley, I noticed some gray smoke coming from town. We got stopped on the outskirts, and we could see the fire trucks and police cars arriving and blocking the only main road. All of us sat there for an hour until police finally let us through. It seems some uninhabited vacation home went up in flames, so no one was hurt, but a nearby propane tank caught fire that a quick fireman put out immediately. Could of been much worse. Thank the good lord for emergency personnel. Even in the sleepy mountains, things are never boring.

Well, that can't be good

Once safely back in our cabin in the late afternoon, we settled down onto the couch, munched on popcorn, and binge-watched a tv show on Netflix for hours. We haven't done that in the history of never, and I remarked to Brad that it felt like we were dating. So exploring and gambling regrets aside, I think we can call this Day 3 a resounding success.