Another Rainy Downday

---

Smokemont Campground, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina

We woke up to torrents of rain again. And it made no sign of stopping. We had planned on ending our visit here and starting the trek back home yesterday.

Although we've done it before, hitching up and breaking camp when it is raining bears and elk, is not a fun experience. And, since this was our last planned stop with no reservations anywhere until we get home, there was no consequence to staying one more day. Thanks to being 'senior citizens', the campground only costs $10 per night, so adding another one would certainly not break the bank. Finally, there was some serious driving ahead of us to get the trailer up, over, and down these Appalachian mountains, and I wasn't looking forward to doing that with all of this water competing for my attention.

So we went over to campground registration and signed up for another day. Then, with it still raining, we went back to the trailer and got in some more sleep. It hardly let up all day, so we played a couple of card games (I won both of them!). It was still raining when we went to bed and continued most of the night. There is no doubt in my mind now that it rains 85 inches a year here!

This morning the rain has stopped, but it could probably start up at any time. So we are going to take advantage of the window and get things stowed and the trailer hitched up. We have two possible routes out of here, one takes us an extra hour or so back to I40 and then over the mountains. The other takes the park road up and over, which would be trickier with the trailer, but would save some time. And we would get to travel through Pigeon Forge and see Dollyland out the window! I'll be talking to park rangers to ask about what they think.

And so our Southern Charms bucket list, plus the rebellion list, is now complete, and we start the 1700 mile journey back home. We will be reliving the trip as we drive - we have so much to talk about now. We will also be doing some thinking about what worked and what didn't - sort of a post-mortem. So the blogs will continue until we get back to Questa. (17.1.77)

---