[Travelandtourism] Need your ideas for our next fundraiser event trip for...

Fri Aug 30 22:36:13 UTC 2013

Hey Guys,
Please don’t take this as a vote as I won’t be able to travel during
these proposed times; but I’d like to say I’ve been to the Great
Smokey Mountains and adjacent wilderness in North Carolina, and this
is an absolutely stunning region for those who love hiking, nature,
and he outdoors in general. The mountains along the Tennessee North
Carolina frontier are the highest in the Eastern half of North
America. While they’re still dwarfed by many Western Mountain ranges,
they are still quite prominent and offer much in the way of natural
beauty and variety. The area contains the largest areas of forest in
the East to never be cleared for industrial timber harvest or farming.
As a result you can find the largest tree specimens in the east along
trails. Several tulip trees and white pines reach close to 200 feet in
height. Spring may be the finest time to visit, as this is a time when
folks are drawn by a multitude of blooming wild flowers, including
various species of trillium, magnolia, rhododendrons, and azaleas. If
you’re unable to see the color of the flowers, you can still grasp the
magnificent diversity, as each plant species can be distinguished by
texture, size, shape, and sometimes smell. The high Southern
Appalachians, along with Northeast China boast the most biologically
diverse habitat outside of the tropics. When ice age glaciers crept
down to cover Canada and the Northeast U.S prior to about 12,000 years
ago, organisms were largely able to retreat south along the spine of
the Appalachians where they found suitable habitat and mixed with warm
subtropical climate species that inhabit low valleys today. The high
mountain tops contain temperate rainforest, with plants better known
to Canada and precipitation only exceeded bin the U.S. by the Pacific
Northwest.
The Great Smokey Mountains National Park contains close to 120 species
of birds that nest and sing on the land, and many additional species
during migration and winter. Some of the most common birds according
to a survey include black-throated blue warblers, blue-headed vireos,
ovenbirds, Acadian flycatchers, and Louisiana waterthrushes. I have an
Ap on my IPhone from the Audubon Society that contains bird sound
recordings, and allows for access to local sighting databases.
One major drag of the Park is it is the most visited and crowded of
our national Parks. This is no doubt due to the close proximity to
several cities and metropolitan areas, like Nashville, Ashville, and
the Atlanta Metro area. What's good is few visitors actually go far
from their cars. There is a toll-free highway running through the Park
from Tennessee to North Carolina, and only a few roadside tourist
attractions draw most visitors to stop. If you go hiking, you can
easily get away from everyone. Perhaps the most popular stop is Cade’s
Cove, which is a maintained old mountain settlement area. I did not
visit it during my trip to the Smokeys, but I believe it hosts
happenings of traditional folk music and arts. You can also find
isolated, but maintained log houses and gardens that once belonged to
settlers along current hiking trails.
When I visited the area, I first spent a couple nights in Gatlinburg.
Quite honestly I found it pretty tacky. A lot of chain restaurants,
Elvis themed hole-in-the-wall establishments, Minnie golf, face
painting, and other touristy and carnivalesque things. I did not stop
in Pigeon Forge, but I got the impression it was mostly the same type
of deal. On the NC side of the Park is the Eastern Cherokee Nation
reservation. I imagine there are items of cultural and natural
interest here, but nothing struck the fancy of my traveling partner or
me driving by. I visited a beautiful botanical garden near Ashville
with a great collection of native and cultivated azaleas and other
plants. I also hiked into Linville Gorge, which was sunning and deeper
than Canyon De Chelle in Arizona. The gorge hosted large hemlocks
growing from the rocks, and the quite spectacular Linville Falls,
which you can see from gorge overlooks and from the Linville River
near the foot. The mountains here are home to more salamanders and
freshwater mussel species than anywhere else in the world. Many
species of the freshwater mussels unfortunately went extinct during
the 20th century due to river damming and contamination; but you can
still find different types of shells washed up along stream banks.
Ashville is known for the Biltmore estate, but I did not visit, and
hear it is quite pricy.
The smoke of the Smokeys comes, at least originally from a combination
of the misty air and oils exuded from native plants. Today this is
combined with exhaust, largely from car traffic within and outside the
Park. It would be nice if the park had buses that could take visitors
to sites and trailheads, but I didn’t see any. One wheelchair
accessible destination in the park was Klingman’s Dome (the Highest
Mountain in Tennessee) which has a short but steep paved path from a
parking area to the summit. There is also at least one nice paved
nature trail. I really dug my visit to the area and would love to go
back for more hiking some time. I hope this caught some of your
interest. I could go on much longer.
Blaa Blaa Blaa,
Trevor A

On 8/30/13, cheryl echevarria <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Tracie if you are voting that means you are going. Remember that everyone.
> If you are voting you are also making a commitment to go and help encourage
> others to go as well.
> We will talk more on the September 30th talk.
>
> Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 of NY StateLeading the Way in
> Independent Travel!
> Cheryl Echevarria,
> Ownerhttp://www.echevarriatravel.com631-456-5394reservations@echevarriatravel.comhttp://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com
>
> Affiliated as an independent contractor with Montrose TravelCST -
> #1018299-10 FLST T156780Your old car keys can be the keys to literacy for a
> blind child.  Donate your unwanted vehicle to us by clicking
> https://nfb.org/vehicledonations or call 855-659-9314.Echevarria Travel has
> partnered with Braille Smith. http://www.braillesmith.com for all her
> braille needs.Gail Smith is the Secretary of the NFB of Alabama
>
>> Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 17:47:15 -0700
>> From: tracieinman at yahoo.com
>> To: travelandtourism at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: Re: [Travelandtourism] Need your ideas for our next
>> fundraiser	event trip for...
>>
>> I love the idea of the Smokey Mountains and Pigeon Forge, but Nashville
>> sounds wonderful, too.  - Tracie
>>
>>
>> "Making Your Travel Dreams Come True No Matter What the Obstacles"
>>
>> Tracie Inman, Independent Contractor
>> http://www.Inmantravel.com
>> 904-372-0644
>> reservations at inmantravel.com
>>
>> Affiliated as an independent contractor with Montrose Travel
>> CST - #1018299-10
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>  From: Jana Jackson <jana at janajackson.com>
>> To: 'NFB Travel and Tourism Division List' <travelandtourism at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 8:10 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Travelandtourism] Need your ideas for our next fundraiser
>> event trip for...
>>
>>
>> I know someone mentioned visiting Nashville.  Another fun Tennessee place
>> is
>> the Smoky Mountains.  There's a lot to do in both Pigeon Forge and
>> Gatlinburg.  Take care!
>>
>> Jana
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Travelandtourism [mailto:travelandtourism-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of DBrown8827 at aol.com
>> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 4:04 PM
>> To: travelandtourism at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: Re: [Travelandtourism] Need your ideas for our next fundraiser
>> event trip for...
>>
>> Places that I would like to  visit.
>> 1. Memphis Tennessee
>> 2. St. Louis, Missouri
>>
>> Denice Brown
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 8/29/2013 12:16:32 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com writes:
>>
>> Good morning  all:
>> I hope everyone is have a great last hurrah for the unofficial end of
>> Summer 2013. Can you believe it. September starts on Sunday. Where did it
>> all
>> go. To fast if you ask me.
>> And then in October is the New York State  Convention and then we are off
>>
>> to Vegas and the National Parks for our very  1st trip.
>> We are making a nice profit on this trip. So we need to start now  to plan
>>
>> our trip for 2014.
>> October is a long way off, but many of us are on  limited  budgets, and
>> would like to do something which we can pay off  over time.
>> Now we need to hear from your where you want to go.
>> Last year  the Officers of the Division, asked each other where do we want
>>
>> to go, Milton  suggested the National Parks and that is what we did.
>> But we want to hear  from all of the division and people on this list,
>> some
>> may get this message  more than once, because we have a membership ship
>> list, and we have the talk  list, some are on both.
>> I am going to post things we can do with a  different bus company with
>> more
>> options then the tour company we are using,  not saying we have to do any
>>
>> of these, but there are what we can do.
>> Also,  if you live in the NY/NJ/CT/PA Area, the bus can leave from here
>> and
>> people  can fly into NY to start the trip and see other stopping points
>> along the way,  or we all can fly into a specific location and meet there
>> or
>> we
>> can have  pricing for both flying in and taking the bus from the NY Area.
>> We need a  minimum of any trip we do of 30 people and up. Under 30 will be
>>
>> kind of hard.  Even with the trip we are doing now we have 27 people.
>> Okay, you are asking  why October, "Meet the Blind Month"
>> We are having our first meeting of the  division via teleconference call
>> on
>> Monday, September 30, 2013 at 8PM Eastern.  We will have a monthly meeting
>>
>> at least once a month. We are asking if you  cannot attend to please let
>> us
>> know soon. It has to be no later than 8PM,  because I live in NY and I
>> cannot stay up later than that. The e-mail is  info at nfbtravel.org
>> Also if Monday doesn't work we can vote as a division to  when we can have
>>
>> it. But until then it will be on Monday.
>> No destination is  off the table, but we have to think realistically time
>>
>> frame. How long do we  want to be away? How much is it going to cost?
>> That
>> is
>> the big question.
>> We  have heard from 1 person Puerto Rico, that would be great, Nelson my
>> husband  is from there, but remember we would have to fly, and most
>> things
>> are
>> not all  included in our trip. I would rather deal with a tour operator
>> that includes  transportation, lodging, food, etc.
>> We should focus on visiting our great  country. Some just been to Orlando
>>
>> for the first time, but couldn't afford to  do the sights or had the time
>> to
>>
>> do it, Same with Dallas, and also with  Washington, DC. How many people go
>>
>> every year to the Washington Seminar but  don't go and visit our Nation's
>>
>> Capital and see all the sights.
>> I will post  a separate e-mail within the day and your vote at
>> info at nfbtravel.org what you  would like to do. If you vote on it, then
>> you
>> want to go on
>> the trip. We will  discuss the actual dates once we figure out where we
>> are
>> going.
>> Please  respond, let us know, and the majority of the interest we will go,
>>
>> the 2nd one  we can do in 2015 etc.
>> At least we have an idea of what people like to  do.
>> Thank you very much for your time.
>> Cheryl Echevarria, PresidentNFB  Travel and TourismNational Federation of
>>
>> the  Blindwww.nfbtravel.orginfo at nfbtravel.org631-236-5138
>>
>>
>>
>>
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