Arriving at the Smokies (Mon.)

Sunday we actually did manage to do NOTHING.  It was hard, and not something we handle easily, but we never left the campground, stayed inside all day except for one short walk in the evening.  Read books, napped, played on the computer, watched a little TV when the signal would hold.  Of course, it helped that it rained off and on all day long, but we needed the rest.

This morning the sun came out, so I walked down to the lake.  The geese had moved in overnight, in fact I think they took over this campsite.

Everything looked fresh and green this morning.  There were a few more empty campsites now, but this was a very nice place to stay.

We had an errand in town, so it was 12:30 before we got on the road.  Then we missed the road out of the campground and ended up making an 8-mile loop, back to town, to get back on the highway.  This wasn't the only road we missed today.  After we got through/around Knoxville, we took the 321 South, which went north.  This turned out to be about a 40-mile loop back to the north.  We came back to the same road (129), and had to take 321 North, which went south.  Go figure. Joe kept following 321S, but when we noticed Lucille said we were heading NW, I got the map out.  So it was 5:00 before we got to our campground, in Townsend, just 2 miles from the entrance into the Smoky Mountain National Park. 

Before we got so turned around, we crossed and drove alongside the very pretty Tennessee River.

We had a little trouble finding our campground, again we took the wrong road (Old TN 73), but that only took a phone call to the campground, and just getting back onto the highway.  Guess it wasn't our day for driving.  We got set up and walked over to the river that flows right behind the campground (pictures tomorrow), then went out to get something to eat.  Obviously, no one cooks in this RV!  I assumed we were heading back to camp after we finished eating, but Joe, naturally, thought we should see where the road goes that goes on past our campground, which took us into the Smoky Mountain National Park.  And lo and behold, just a few miles in, was a loop road that had his name all over it.  But it was an Excellent Adventure -- the Cades Cove loop road.  And fortunately, I keep a second camera in the car!

We came upon a pasture full of beautiful horses.  We don't know if they are wild, or belong to some stable around here that provides horseback rides, but they were a sight to see.

There are several stops of scenic attractions on this loop -- old churches, cabins, etc.  We haven't been to the Visitor Center yet, so we only stopped at one of these, an old church, until we get a brochure that tells us what we are seeing.  The cemetery here at this church had flowers on every grave, even though many of the gravestones were from the late 1800s.  And one grave site looked like a fresh one (we couldn't see any dates, but there were lots of flowers).

 It was interesting to see the foundations of buildings like this one.  We don't know if these are the original locations or if they were moved here, but they were not put on level foundations, they just leveled the foundation with blocks.

 We saw a plaque commemorating the work of the CCCs here in this national park.  I always like to acknowledge their work in the parks we go through.  I'm pretty sure my dad never worked here, but it makes me remember him anyhow.

More scenic views as the sun was going down.

And then we started seeing WILDLIFE!.  We saw a wild turkey, a big one.  Then we started seeing deer.  I don't know why we think we have to take a picture of every deer we see, and we actually did stop trying to take pictures of them, but it is our first instinct.  The second picture is of a deer that crossed the road right in front of us.  I yelled "don't hit him, don't hit him."  The deer wasn't in any hurry to get out of the road either.




And I don't want to forget my other dear.

But then it got even better.  We came upon a BEAR JAM.  Yes, a mamma bear with two little cubs had been sighted in the woods, so we got out to watch.  The mamma bear was just meandering along, but the little cubs were frolicking all over the place, up and down trees, across logs.  They were fun to watch.  They were moving away from us so we didn't get very good photos but we sure enjoyed watching them.

We finally got back to the RV just at dark and called it a day.  We only drove 134 miles today but it took us 4 1/2 hours.  Price of gas around here is $3.189.  We are looking forward to the next few days here in the Smokies!  Thank you, Cathy, for your suggestions.