Great Smoky Mountains Day 4

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Today, I dragged the family to Cade’s Cove which is an area in the park that used to be a town. It is a 11-mile one-way loop with several historic homes, churches, etc.. It wasn’t that great and I'm sorry we went. It was crowded and required stopping and walking to many of the locations. We stopped at Cable Mill Historic Area and got some souvenirs and saw some historic buildings that had been moved to the site (two barns, a home and a mill). Drove out of Cade's Cove on Rich Mountain Road (dirt) and around back to Elkmont. This took way longer than expected. Then we picked up the trailer and left via Pigeon Forge which was Gatlinburg on steroids and the location of Dollywood and headed toward Shenandoah a day ahead of schedule.

There was no fee to enter Mammoth Cave or Great Smoky Mountain, but at GSM there were many opportunities to donate money. I bet they don’t let people over 13 do Junior Ranger because of the expense.

Things have been different from our usual trips because we are being more flexible and leaving mid-day and ahead of schedule. Plus, the traffic was bad getting to MC and around GSM that Rick felt like we spent too much time in the car. Kids have been getting along great. Maggie is much more demonstrative than at home with all of us.



Drove to Middle Creek Campground in Buchanan, VA. There were three dogs at large in the campground (a long-eared copper colored, and a yellow and a black lab). They barked at us when we arrived, then came back when we were playing cards and took a few minutes to warm up, then were very friendly. Unfortunately, they barked all night and kept us awake.

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Comments

[Mary Ann Price]

enjoyed seeing pictures.
Sorry about the bumps in your trip, but family vacations are a great time to be together.