Day Thirty Five

There were two things we wanted to do today in Great Smoky Mountains. Considering the mobs, we decided to get out early and beat the crowd. This worked fairly well. It was an hour drive to Cade's Cove which was a small farming community that was abandoned (unwillingly) to make way for the National Park. When we got there there was a long line of cars and I thought that we were screwed again. Turns out it was waiting for the gate to open and once things started to flow it was fine. We stopped at the visitor center where was an operating grist mill. I find these types of things interesting. We shot some photos of the little village there then went on around the driving loop. Again lots of structures scattered about, this time they were in the original locations. We spent a couple hours doing that then set out for the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail near Gatlinburg.

The motor nature trail was just starting to get busy. There were very few places to park, but we did get to stop and look at more structures that were abandoned because the owners were forced to leave. Ginny was intent to find some small cascades to photograph so we made stops in hopes of finding a good one. Today's photo is of a good one. By using a one second exposure, the water smooths out and gets nice looking. Good job Ginny.

As it turns out, we got back to the hotel in the middle of the afternoon which was OK. It gave us a chance to catch up on scrapbooks and pictures as well as rest up for the evening's activities which was dinner and a Wild West show at Dolly Parton's Stampede. The location was only four blocks from the hotel and we elected to walk, which was a great idea. The show was fun, the food was interesting (no utensils, just your fingers) and we had a lot of fun. We went right to sleep when we got back because the next day was going to be a long one starting early.