Day 23 – The Colorful & Great Smoky Mountains

I have NO idea what happened, but we didn’t break camp and leave Asheville until almost 11:00 a.m today.   I think I’ll blame it on that late night dinner we had at the Sierra Nevada Brewery…..all that food must have slowed us down.  Of course when I say “we”, I only mean Ken, me and Shelby…….Dick was up at his usual early hour, taking Windy for a walk.

I wanted to give you a visual idea of what I talked about yesterday regarding that  “big ole tree”.   It was too dark last night to show you what I meant, so I took a picture of the tree today.  As you can see…..there isn’t a heck of a lot of space between that tree and our truck.  I’m still not sure how Ken managed to back our trailer up and avoid hitting it.

Once I got outside this morning to take the tree picture, I could see how truly pretty the RV park was.   There was a river running right behind our trailer with ducks playing in the water, and the grounds were quite lovely…in spite of the tight RV spaces.

A Nice Surprise

We finally got on the road, and had to make a fuel stop before getting onto the highway.  Before we left the trailer park, we had decided to head to Chattanooga, Tennessee today.  We do have a specific reason for going there,but I don’t want to tell you what it is just yet.   Suffice to say, Ken really wants to see it….so let your imaginations run wild!  After we see “it”….I’ll post a blog and share the experience with you.

While the guys were fueling up The Ox, I went into the store to get some more coffee. When I came out, the  guys told me that instead of going to Chattanooga today, they had decided to take me to an area that I had expressed I would really like to see……Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge….both cities in the Great Smoky Mountain area.

Pigeon Forge is where the Dollywood theme park is located, and I’ve always heard how quaint and pretty Gatlinburg is, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see them both.

I had no idea until today why the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States.  The scenery is truly breathtaking, and the history and culture of  the area run deep.

There are many hiking trails and waterfalls to see, and tons of people get out to enjoy them judging by the hundreds of unoccupied cars parked on both sides of the road.  Apparently elk sightings are common; as we saw a sign at a rest stop that said “stay away from the Elk….they can kill you”.

It took awhile to climb up the mountain up to the town of Gatlinburg, and once we made it, we were kind of sorry we did.   The streets were so packed we could only inch our way along as we tried to drive through town.

There were cheesy looking souvenir shops everywhere, and the place was just teaming with people who were crammed together visiting stores with signs such as “Get your Moonshine samples here” and  “Try your luck at panning for gold here!”.  Everything just seemed tacky and lacking in any authentic respect for the Appalachian culture.

Once we got out of Gatlinburg, we drove a few more miles to Pigeon Forge.  Here things were much more spaced out and much less crowded.  We were getting hungry and since Ken had never been to a Texas Roadhouse Restaurant before, we went there for lunch.  There was a huge parking lot in the back and we found a nice shady spot to park for the puppies.

Since Ken had never been there before….he had to study the menu for quite some time…..as you can see…this is very serious business !

The lunch was very good and we had a nice relaxing time.  Mid way through the meal the waiters and waitresses started doing a country dance in the aisle….sure made me miss my line dance class !

While we were eating, we were also checking on RV Parks near Chattanooga.  We ran into the same problem we had the night before….all of the KOA’s were booked solid.   We tried other RV parks in the area and they too were full.

So…Instead of driving to Chattanooga tonight, we ended up in a little town called Athens, approximately 45 miles east of Chattanooga.  The place we’re staying at was technically full too, but the owner is letting us use a space right next  to her house that has full hook ups.   It’s actually very nice here and the price was right…….cheap !

We have learned our lesson though and we have already booked an RV campground for tomorrow night in Nashville.

I will long remember the beauty of the Smoky Mountains and even though Gatlinburg was a disappointment, I’m happy that I got to see it for myself.   Tomorrow we will be heading into Chattanooga to see that place Ken is anxious to visit.

Goodnight from Athens.