Driving rt. 40 through Smokies.

Other than a rare rock slide. There is nothing to worry about.

Nice scenery, good road, and some very picturesque rest stops along the way.

Safe Travels

Some ups, downs, tunnels, curves, truck traffic and nice scenery.

Its a major East-West Interstate truck traffic road - can't be that bad...

You don't have to worry about the real bad areas as they may have the runaway truck ramp you can try out for the first time...

Roy Ken

I doubt you will doing much passing. The speed limit for trucks is 55 and they pretty much travel at that speed. Just fall inline with them. There are a couple of 45mph curves. Pay attention.

It's a very pretty Interstate. Great scenery

Thanks everyone. We are returning from a 5 month bucket list trip to AZ and back to Delaware. We took I-20 to I-10 out, and returning the more northern route, so this is the last unknown! It was not uneventful and trouble free....but so far so good!!

OK, now that I know which direction you are traveling I will post some notes. I have traveled I-40 from Knoxville to Asheville and beyond for years. Even be for there was an interstate.

Here are some notes of mime from Knoxville to Columbia, SC.
Some notes of mine that might help:

I-40 East from Knoxville, TN

I-40, TN, MM 444, Begin 55mph Truck restriction lane.
I-40, TN, MM 445, Caution, 50mph Left curve.
I-40, TN, MM 450, Caution, sharp 45mph left curve.
I-40, NC, MM 20, End Truck restriction lane. 60mph downhill race to Asheville, NC

My experience of I-40 Knoxville to Ashville is that truck traffic is quite heavy and tends to be slow but feels fast because of the curves. The biggest problem in a truck or RV is watching out for faster running cars making lane changes, chopping in and out of the slower traffic. The biggest problem crossing in a car is getting around the slow trucks.

My preferred place for crossing the Appalachians this far south is Cumberland Gap, junction to Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia state lines. The gap is US-25E as a N-S route, US-58 as an E-W route, so it doesn't work if you prefer to stay on Interstate highways, but it is a real pretty drive, especially going west/north.

An even easier route across is I-64 from Beckley WV into Virginia, where you can go up I-81 to get further north, or use the Blue Ridge Parkway, or go on across I-64 to I-95 (which is sort of backtracking because it connects at Richmond, and if I don't have to I don't want to go through DC). I-64 tunnels through the worst parts of the mountains. This still gets you across the mountains south of Delaware.

If you have never seen the Biltmore estate in Asheville plan to take an extra day or two and go enjoy a nice tour of the house and grounds. There are a few nice campgrounds in the area.