I left Charlotte early friday afternoon for Knoxville pleased with the idea of taking the S through the mountains on I-40W. I usually take 26 through Shelby to I-40W (to avoid the L. Norman I-77 construction). Everything was great until mile marker 22? (Maggie Valley) where traffic moved down to 1 lane for 6 miles of construction.

This turned a 4 hour trip into 6 hours. 2 HOURS pumping the clutch at 2mph to go 6 miles. At least someone was actually performing work in that zone, which was a shocker considering N. Carolina loves to set up construction zones along I-40 for no apparent reason...

Anyway, this post is not just to complain, but it is to tell my fellow S2Ki'ers that I have found an alternate route through this zone that may add a few miles (but very few of them are straight!)

The alternate route is to take I-26 west to US70 west near Asheville (you may have take 470 in Asheville to get there from the east we took it back from K-town and couldn't see any signs from the opposite direction). Hwy70 pops out in Newport Tennessee just off of I-40. It was quite fun and seems to be a good area for people looking for rafting or camping...

Good luck & let me know if you try this route.