Cherokee

Cherokee was the next stop on our road trip. It's a tiny village of about 160 residents. As we approached the village, we passed a sign that said "Parking lot this way.

"That's interesting," we thought, "what's the parking lot for?" We drove on and discovered the answer a bit too late.

What a peaceful town Cherokee is.! Narrow concrete streets are lined with neatly kept houses. The community sits on a lovely shallow bay and has a history of wrecking, sponging and fishing.

We drove along the waterfront lined with an assortment of boats and as we proceeded, the road became more narrow.

We started to wonder what exactly the traffic pattern was. There wasn't much traffic, but cars and trucks were parked in some of the driveways.

Then we came to an intersection where a pick up truck obligingly backed about 75 feet to let us through and after that the only way to turn was left. Just one detail: the road, barely wide enough for our Toyota seemed to have the middle third dug up! It appeared that the village was undergoing a transformation to buried utilities.

Gingerly we maneuvered our seemingly behemoth car onto the two edge thirds of the road without dropping into the ditch in the center. Oh, no! As we reached the end of this lane, we were faced with a right turn. The front yards on both sides of the street were encircled by chain link fences! Would we be able to make it?

Gamely, Peter swung the Toyota into the turn. What else could he do? Thump. The front bumper grazed a fencepost. He kept going and we squeezed into the road. Whew! The fence appeared to be unscathed. We continued driving and saw that this road ended at a parking lot. The very same one we had passed on the way in. AHA!

Right about then, I happened to turn the page of the guide we had been following. There I saw a little note. "Visitors' cars are not permitted in the village of Cherokee and are asked to park in the lot at the edge of town."

Oh! So why didn't the sign say something about that??? We parked the Toyota and somewhat sheepishly walked back into town to explore a little further. Luckily the villagers were friendly, and no one complained about our nerve-wracking drive through Cherokee.

If you'd like to know more about this charming village including how it got its name. Click on the title above.