Vacation

Scott and I recently got back from our little vacation to Tennessee. We stayed in Pigeon Forge and hiked in the National Park every day we were there. We checked into our hotel on Sunday and went to check out the Park and hiked to Laurel Falls. We then went back to the hotel to wash up, found some dinner at a yummy Italian place and took a dip in the pool and spa back at the hotel to relax our weary bones.

The next day the plan was to get a good breakfast, hike to another falls in Cades Cove and get back in time for the Dixie Stampede. On our way out of the IHOP a guy stops us and asks how we're enjoying our time and if we were taking in any of the attractions. We told him we were planning to go to the Dixie Stampede but didn't have our tickets yet. (Some people we talked to at the pool the night before had told us these types of guys were around...) So he asks if we would be interested in free DS tickets. We thought; save 80 bucks? Sure! So we got all signed up to attend a timeshare talk, went to Walmart to buy some stuff for our pack lunch to take on our hike and made our way to the resort to hear the sales pitch. It was all sounding really good and they showed us a place there and then they got us gathered to individual tables to talk to a salesperson directly and to get the bottom line on how much it would all cost and we said - can't afford it right now. Of course they came back with the best of the best deals that were available only right then. But we managed to keep our heads and decline, get our $20 depost back and our DS ticket voucher and be on our way. We found a picnic area in the park to eat our lunch and enjoyed some peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches. :) We had to pick a different hike and only do part of it, but the trail crossed the river a couple times and had beautiful scenery along the way.

We then made our way back to town to pick up our DS tickets, get showers and enjoy the Dixie Stampede. It was pretty neat. Some nice horses and riding tricks, some funny bits and overall an interesting/enjoyable dinner experience - especially for free! (Well two hours of our time) Then went for a round of mini-golf. Scott won by ONE point. :) We both did pretty badly but he did get a hole in one. Then went back to get to bed early. Since we had to forego the hike we wanted to do Monday, we decided to try to get it in EARLY Tuesday before we had to check out of the hotel at 11am.

So... we got up at 4:30!, found a Dennys that was open 24 hours to get a good breakfast. (I guess I don't have to worry about getting a hotel with a continental breakfast next time since we want a bit more sustenance every day before we start on our hikes.) We then drove the 45 minutes or so to Cades Cove, which doesn't open til sunrise - whatever time that might be. On this particular day it was about 7am. So we had to wait a bit to get into that area of the park. Also there was a line of cars in front of us of people wanting to drive leisurely around Cades Cove to take in the historical aspects of the 11 mile, one way drive. Luckily, there are plenty of pull offs and most people were kind enough to pull to the side and let us by. We did take in the beauty of the area while driving back to the trail, but we had to move pretty quickly. (We got to see the sun rise over the mountains which was beautiful!) We finally made it to the trail at 7:30 and decided we had two hours to do the hike if we wanted to get back in time to get showers before we had to be out of our hotel room. The trailhead read that the roundtrip 5 mile hike should take about 3-4 hours to complete. We said HA and walked swiftly on. It was pretty tough to keep up our speed and I know we slowed down at times but we did manage to make it in just about 2 hours as we planned. It was a pretty nice walk - not quite as picturesque as some of our other walks but there were some great spots. We especially enjoyed the fun log bridges that crossed the river several times along the way. Basically a long log over the river with one side cut off to make it flat on top and a railing along one edge. The falls were nice too but you couldn't get right up to them like you could at Laurel Falls and you couldn't feel the cool mist either because you were off to the side. Plus there were some large bugs zooming by our ears as I stood taking some pictures so we weren't enticed to stay very long. So yeah, pretty much got there and turned right around. :) Oh well. Good exercise and some nice scenery. We then had to get back to town but it ended up taking us a good 20 minutes or so to get the last 5 miles out of Cades Cove. We were able to make it around a few cars early on, but the last couple miles we got behind a line of 5 cars and none of them were pulling over or really looking at anything in particular, just driving 10 mph... So that slowed us down a little. We ended up getting back to the hotel about 10 minutes til 11 so Scott took the key up and asked for 5 extra minutes in our room. The message didn't get to the cleaning guy cause he tried to walk in when we weren't quite decent, but we finally managed to get on our way. Before we left town we did a little shopping at the outlet mall there. (more walking!) We were both pretty tired but somehow managed to survive the 7 hour drive back home.

Good times though. We enjoyed the refreshment of a new environment, enjoying the mountains and some nature other than what we can find here in Indiana. However, it was good to have today off work also, to actually relax. :) We highly reccomend the Smoky Mountain National Park to anyone. It was really beautiful and they have great trails. We were a little worried we might run into bear but thankfully we never did!