U.S. Route 66 shouldn’t have all the fun

 Did you know that U.S. Route 70 shares a birthday with America’s historic U.S. Route 66…as in “get your kicks on Route 66?”

 Both highways were established as official “federal highways” on Veterans Day (Nov. 11) in 1926. 

U.S. 70 needs a catchy slogan, too, won’t you agree? But, what rhymes with “seventy?” Not much.

 

The RhymeZone.com website includes several words that score in the 84% to 92% “rhyming range” with “seventy.” Possibilities include: “heavenly, identity, pleasantry, serenity, popularity, effervescently, loverly, divinely and authenticity.” 

While U.S. 66 gained celebrity status as America’s “Mother Road,” U.S. 70 was dubbed as the “Treasure Trail.” U.S. 70’s “brand” never gained much traction…but there is hope. 

We are coming up on the 95-year anniversary of the highway this November, so let’s unlock the “treasure chest” of ideas. 

The North Carolina portion of U.S. 70 drapes across the breadth of the state, from west to east, like a 488-mile jeweled necklace.

 

Coming from Tennessee, U.S. 70 enters North Carolina in Madison County, near the communities of Antioch and Paint Rock. It’s only 9 miles for motorists to reach Hot Springs, a popular tourism destination situated at the confluence of the French Broad River and Spring Creek. 

Its naturally hot springs offer visitors therapeutic relief for whatever ails them. 

Native Americans were the first to discover the 100+ degree mineral waters, and colonial settlers were visiting the springs by 1778 to experience the waters’ healing properties. 

In 1886, a “higher temperature spring” was found, prompting a change of the town’s original name from Warm Springs to Hot Springs. 

Today, the main attraction is the Hot Springs Resort and Spa, structured so the average working family could afford to stay

 

Accommodations range from six hotel-style suites (four with heart-shaped hot tubs), several deluxe cabins, 16 rustic cabins and more than 100 campsites to accommodate both RVs and tents. 

“The resort spreads across 100 acres and boasts 17 outdoor hot tubs pumping in that prized mineral water,” wrote Bryan Mims of BusinessNC magazine. Book your private “mineral bath,” and “let the sulfate of magnesia ease your sore muscles, the chloride of potassium soothe your nerves and the sulphate of potassium help your heart.” 

For a town with fewer than 550 residents, “Hot Springs bubbles” with places to eat, drink, sleep, relax and enjoy romance, Mims said. “Getting in hot water is such a cool way to forget your troubles, and in this town, nirvana springs eternal.”

Hot Springs is known for outdoor recreation. The Appalachian Trail, completed in 1937, runs through the downtown, and climbs the mountains on either side of the French Broad River. Rafting, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, backpacking and sightseeing opportunities abound. 

Katie Saintsing of Our State magazine says one Hot Springs eatery is on her top-six list of “mountain meals worthy of a road trip.” 

“Hikers walk out of the woods and up the street to Genia Hayes Peterson’s restaurant, Smoky Mountain Diner, to the delight of everyone who works there. “My girls so look forward to it because they love to hear the stories,” Peterson told Saintsing. 

Peterson has “introduced some healthy changes to the menu, but the recipes, at their heart, are still old-fashioned home cooking,” Saintsing said. “Many recipes have been handed down through generations, especially from her great-grandmother,” including “Poorman’s Supper” dish.

It’s a heaping plate of pinto beans, cornbread, coleslaw and potato cakes, crowned with a spicy-sweet pepper relish that’ll “set your fields afire.”