Monday September 12, 2016 Gatlinburg, TN

After a long week at the service center, a long drive to get to Gatlinburg, and a day of rest, we made like tourists again.  After a few more chores around the coach, while having our coffee, we got out and got back into our tourist mode.

Our first stop was the Great Smoky Mountains visitor center at Sugarland.  We watched a movie about the park and its genesis.  I also wandered around the museum there showing the indigenous flora and fauna.  We drove from the visitors center to Clingman's Dome on the Newfound Gap Road.  This is the only road that crosses the park.  Clingman's Dome is seven miles off the main road.  It is the highest point in the park.

There are many turnouts and we went through three tunnels on route.  Well, one tunnel is actually an underpass where the road crosses itself in a helix.  Sort of like a miniature Tehactapi Loop for cars instead of trains. From the visitors center to Clingham's Dome the elevation changes from 850' to 6643'.







According to park literature the drive up is like driving from Georgia to Main, in terms of the variety of forest ecosystems encountered.  Of course the drive was shorter only about 25 miles.  Even tough I am years past being able to hike, it was a thrill to stand on part of the Appalachian Trail.  At Newfound Gap we also stood on the Tennessee/North Carolina boundary line.

After exiting the park we decided to go to Pigeon Forge for an early diner.  We chose Mama's Farmhouse.

The food there was served family style.  To them that meant we got all the entrees, today was ham steak, fried chicken and country fried steak.  No choice of one, we were served them all.  The choices came in the side dishes.  Your choice of five for the table.  There was also a choice of desserts.  The food we were served was very good.  We did feel guilty because it was a lot more than we could eat at one meal.  They had no provision for take home.  Gerri did wrap the ham steak in the paper that lined the biscuit basket.  We did justice to the other two entrees and only dented the side dishes.  We both had peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert.

The drive from Gatinburg to Pigeon Forge is only about 10 miles.  We drove through another corner of the park getting to Pigeon Forge.  Driving both to and from the restaurant there were old cars parked along both sides of the street going through Pigeon Forge.  I mean hundreds.  The cars varied from barn fresh to fully restored or rebuilt into hot rods.  This past weekend there was a large car show in town and it looked like the ones still in town were up for sale by many.

We were back at the RV park by 5:30.  The office was closed, so I have to wait until tomorrow to extend our stay.  Gerri continued her washing and I went out and found 2 more caches.  I looked for a cache near a covered bridge, but didn't find it.

I did clean up the Jeep.  The rain on our drive from Celina had made the windows almost too dirty to see through.

I had hooked up the park cable and didn't get anything yesterday.  I double checked the connection and searched the channels.  We got good pictures on 8 of the cable channels but not all the ones listed on the sheet from the RV park.  We watched some news and read until bedtime.

Reflecting on the day, we saw some beautiful vista and some small glimpse of the streams and forests that make up the Smokey Mountain National park and make it the most visited park in the system.  For me it brought back memories of my childhood in southern West Virginia.  Although some 300 miles from home, these are the same mountains and forests I roamed and hunted in as a child and young adult.  I will be humming the old Gospel song "Precious Memories" for days.