“I'm a traveling man, don't tie me down
There's just too much living going all around
A man, he's got to see what he can see.
I love the road and I love the air
And I don't worry, hell, I never care
I love my women; sometimes they love me.”

Day 1. On Tuesday 05 July 2011 I was off again for what I am calling my Grand Tour, seeing some sights new and old and some people who I haven’t seen in ages.

I drove up to Tryon, NC, and met Ol’ Chief Reuben Greenberg for lunch. What can I say? He’s lost a step or two since his prime, but so have we all. He likes Tryon and is well known there by the regulars. He’s moved on quite well from whatever he had in Charleston, SC.

After lunch I drove to Bryson City, NC, which is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I’ve been to the Smokys on several occasions, but always on the North side, by Gatlinburg, TN. That town interests me not at all, and the trails in that section are overused and under maintained. Here on the south side things are much quieter, but, in the end, the Smokys are not the Rockys. This morning, the 6^th, I hiked for about 2.5 hours along a trail that was really a fire road. A good first day, but it was not very interesting or challenging.

Tomorrow and Friday I’m planning more of the same and I hope that I’ll be in some sort of better shape if I end up hiking out west.

Tryon, NC

Sergeant Weiss [Retired] and Chief Reuben Greenberg [Retired]

RMNP