Clingmans Dome, Gatlinburg TN and Greenbrier Campground on the River

---

We really enjoyed the Great Smoky Mountains National Park...Maggie Valley looks like a cool mountain town and it was a beautiful ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Lots of trails for hiking and amazing views. Good cardio workout up to Clingmans Dome. Did a little hike on the Appalachian Trail...on the way to Gatlinburg TN came across our first wildlife - 2 wild turkeys ?? Told them to run and get out of the road...not Thanksgiving yet ?

Gatlinburg, TN - wow! Great cool town...main drag had all kinds of people, shops, restaurants, etc. Moonshine tasting ? Lots of fun things to do...we need to plan a trip sometime to check it all out. Greenbrier Campground on the River - we arrived ~5:30pm. Karen decided to pick a private campground as our first to ease us into the experience...bathrooms complete with granite countertops and stone showers. Laundry facilities, electric, water and wifi - password = ilovecamping ⛺️ We were surrounded by the Little Pigeon River so there was a constant pleasant rumble of the water over the rocks.

We setup the tent, aka Snug Haven, in no time! We were hungry, so Karen got us reorganized while I started cooking...we spoke to all the happy campers stopping by wanting to take photos of our rooftop tent. They had never seen anything like it before. I had this brilliant idea of having campfire beans in a pot with grilled tortillas. Prior to our trip, I made a big batch of homemade black beans with our homemade haberno sauce. We sat down at our picnic table under the beautiful stars with Eddy, our mini lantern, that our friends Cathy/Ed let us borrow for our trip...we like to name things ? and enjoyed our hot beans, perfectly grilled tortillas and cocktails. What a wonderful experience! Explored the campground after dinner - read about what to do and what not to do, including if we see a bear ? brushed our teeth and crawled into Snug Haven with Eddy and Wendy, our space heater ? a present from our friend Wendy. We're sure the other campers were like, 'how many people are in that tent?' We zipped up all the windows since the overnight temp would be ~37 degrees and quickly discovered the 'new' tent smell with no airflow and 2 bellies full of hot beans made for a very long unrestful first night...we're new at this camping thing, but we'll get better with time!

This morning, enjoyed a wonderful hot shower and then packed up the tent in no time after enjoying some scrambled eggs and coffee. On our way to Nashville today and then Land Between the Lakes KY for the evening.

---