Onto the Smokies--4/17

After breakfast we walk around Ann and Dale’s land. Ann bought the house and land about 30 years ago and the owner built his wife a ‘development house’ across the road. Eventually he sold her a few more adjacent pieces and then sold off the rest of the land for a development. However, you can’t see the other houses because the land is surrounded by tall pines and low shrubs. The gazebo was an end-of-season semi-giveaway at a local lumber yard and when they were transporting it to the house they got a ticket, which ended up costing them more than Ann had paid for the gazebo. The house was built in 1870 and has a number of add-ons. Ann and Dale have lots of family pictures and family stories and the house is full of warm memories. Dale built a small, second-story study for Ann when she retired and it is a gem. Much love and beauty and warmth inhabit the rooms.

At noon we say goodbye reluctantly and set off for our next adventure. We try to decide on whether to go the scenic route to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or to opt for the fast route. We do scenic, stop at a Kroger, make up a shopping list, organize the RV, shop and then set out again. I head for the interstate, but one exit up the road Mrs. Garmin tells us to get off. I’m not sure, so while Norb tries to figure out if that’s what we really want to do or not, I get off. By the time we have figured it out, I have decided that we are going to do scenic.

We roll from Georgia into Tennessee and change drivers when we stop for gas. It’s still running around $4.05 a gallon. Mrs. Garmin leads us onto Hwy 129 along the southern border of the park, looking for Cade’s Cove Loop Road. What a highway. It is curvy and narrow and scary. There are motorcyclists buzzing by in both directions. Mrs. Garmin tells us to turn onto a road that says ‘DO NOT ENTER’. Rats! We have to go another 5 miles, into North Carolina, before we find a place to turn around and go back over the same curvy and narrow and scary road back to the Foothills Parkway. It is almost 7 PM by the time we roll into Cade’s Cove. We find a spot, which needs only a little bit of adjustment to get us even. I go to pay; since we are Golden Age pass holders it is only $8.50 a night. Norb neatens up the RV (things had flown all over when we were winding on Hwy 129), and gathers firewood. The rule here is that you can pick up any wood on the ground. We start a fire and have a drink before dealing with dinner. We need to relax after the day’s adventures.