Well, you’ve seen some of what we do and where we go when we come to the Smokies, but I’m not sure that you’ve seen where we stay.

We stay in this house on Wear Road in Wear Valley that we rent  through a place called Moose Creek Crossing. We enjoy the house, but more than that, we enjoy its location.  Not more than a half mile from it is Wear Valley Road.  Two miles in length, it takes you over Cove Mountain and into the park at Metcalf Bottoms picnic area.  That way we avoid all the tourist traps and the traffic.

If we want to just relax at the house, this is the view from the front porch. Pretty neat, huh?

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our home away from home…but not for long.  We’ll be back in March.

Saturday morning we went BACK to Cades Cove. (Yes, we do go other places.) We decided to

hike up the Rich Mountain trail at the beginning of the loop road.

until we reached the John Oliver cabin. It was about a mile and a half walk.

John Oliver, his wife and two oldest children arrived in Cades Cove in 1821.  They were the first permanent white settlers in the cove. From their place, we walked down to the loop road

and back to where we had parked. Just in case you ever get the notion to do this same hike, it was an easy three mile loop.

Monday, about the time we arrived in Wear’s Valley, it began to snow in the mountains.  The park service closed the road from Sugarlands to Newfound Gap and did not open it until Wednesday.  Friday, after several days of sunshine, we decided to drive up to Newfound Gap to see if there was any snow left…and there was.  So, being from a place where we rarely see snow, we stopped the car several times just to walk around in the stuff.  (I know… tourists)  Anyway, here’s a record of our”‘snow day”.

The best part was that it wasn’t very cold.  As a matter of fact, it was forty degrees!

Cades Cove is one of the most visited places in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park with about two million people a year driving the loop road. When you enter Cades Cove you immediately feel as though you have stepped back in time…that is until there’s a traffic jam caused by people stopping to take pictures of the abundant wildlife.

Even though I’ve done it, I get aggravated when other people do it. (and so does Joel, because he does the driving)  So, we decided that we would go back to the cove on Thursday and avoid the traffic jams by walking the loop…all eleven miles of it.  We figured that if push came to shove, we could catch a ride with a nice retired couple.  We didn’t take many pictures…I guess we were more concerned with finishing our journey than capturing it.

It was a perfect day!  The sky was blue, the temperature was just right and the

the colors were brilliant. We had a picnic and took a couple of rest stops. I have to admit that it’s better to experience the cove on foot than in a vehicle.  However, after four hours and forty-five minutes we came upon the most beautiful sight of all…

our little green Outback.

Wednesday morning Joel and I decided to drive out to Cades Cove .We drove around to the parking lot for the Elijah Oliver place which lies

a half mile beyond this gate.  So across the field and through the woods we went

until we reached Elijah’s house.  We decided to keep going, so we walked

another half mile through the woods to the Abram’s Falls trail head.

We walked up that trail about a mile and a half to Joel’s favorite spot.

After having a snack,

we headed back, doing the whole thing in reverse.

We walked  through the woods to the Oliver place,

then  to the field where our car was waiting on the other side. I just love Cades Cove.

 

This morning was our first full day in the Smokies. The weather see-sawed between the high thirties and low forties. There had been a snow storm up the mountain toward Newfound Gap…seventeen inches…so that road was closed. From Sugarlands to Treemont there was a little rain and a little snow, and that’s the area where we hung out.

We drove around

enjoying the scenery. The leaves have passed their peak but there is still a lot of color.

We stopped and walked around

in some of our favorite spots.

We walked down Middle Prong trail as far as the cascades.

We had snow the whole way.

Then we decided to walk up Chestnut Gap trail

for about a mile. About a quarter of a mile up, I got hot and started peeling off clothes.

By the time we were half way there I was down to my base layer…and that’s where Joel drew the line. My clothes ended up either in Joel’s pockets or hanging from my belt. When we returned to our car, we headed back to our cabin to cook supper and wait for Adam and Laura to come in. It was a good day.

 

 

 

This morning a little after eight, Joel and I left for Tennessee. The drive between Pineville and the Mississippi River is rather dull and slow, but through conversation the time seemed to go fairly fast. We discussed the needed balance between values and priorities and the difference between positive and constructive feedback. We talked about direction, competence, opportunity and motivation, otherwise known as DCOM. By the time we reached the mighty Mississippi we had touched on ABC, which stands for antecedents, behavior and consequences. When our little green Outback touched down on the east side of the river, we were pretty much through with posing as intellectuals.

By the time we got into Alabama we were getting hungry. According to the signs, there was a Sonic nearby. We didn’t want to waste time driving around looking for it, so we took advantage of a tower used for scenic overlooks.

We decided that if we couldn’t see it from the tower we would head for the next town.

We never did see that Sonic.

About the time we got to Gadsden, our conversation went something like this: “That’s number one. What are you talking about? The Ruby Falls sign, that’s number one, but I’m not going to count them. You have to count them, it’s a tradition. Alright, let me find something to write on because I’m not keeping count in my head. We never come up with the same number anyway.”

So, I got out a pen and the check book. Not long after that, we reached Fort Payne where we got a room at a Hampton Inn, and evening and morning were the first day.

The Great Smokey Mountains have called to us, and tomorrow morning we will be headed their way. For the past four or five years, we’ve made it a point to show up in those hills at least once a year…sometimes twice. We go when it’s not hot and not crowded. I just love how breathing in that crisp mountain air can affect you…and not just you. It can trickle down to the ones you love until they find themselves in your fantasy.

Sometimes it’s just Joel and me, but most of the time we make it sort of family thing. This time Adam and Laura will meet us there. The last time they came,

They took a hike up to Ramsey Cascades…

just the two of them…

and Adam proposed.

Thank goodness, she said,

“Yes!” This little incident, as you know, led to a bigger one

which involved an antebellum home, a horse-drawn carriage and a lot more people. Isn’t it funny what a little mountain air can do?