Take a ride on the Jurassic Park river boat, visit the Titantic or try to stand in the upside down mansion. However, nothing compares to the drive-thru chapel. What state are we in? Tennessee? Nevada? Confusion?
Today (November 2) the girls and I headed out on a road trip to the Great Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN. What a treat--we were to meet up with our friend Annelyse, her husband Edward and his sister Marta for a few days. A. & E. flew in from Alaska and M. from Florida. We only had about a 4 hour drive.
It was raining when we left home and continued for most of the drive. It did let up after Knoxville. (I'm thinking Knoxville is bigger than Nashville. Not much further we turned off the freeway to our destination. All along the main road through Sevierville was roadwork--widening the roads. Then we hit Pigeon Forge with its neon signs, cheesy stores and tourist traps. Nearly every block had a "As Seen On TV" store. (How many do you really need?) The candy stores were numerous and then we saw a ginormous 3D shark as the doorway to a swim shop. Not to mention several miniature golf courses--from farm life to sea life--and everything in between. There were go cart raceways and any type of eating establishment you'd ever want to see. I wasn't sure if I was in Dolly Parton's Pigeon Forge or at the ol' time Long Beach Pike. All of sudden, Carey hollered out: "Mom, the Happy Days Diner". So of course, not to disappoint, we turned around and headed back for a Dagwood BLT.
Since we had a little time before meeting up with our friends, we headed back to the outlet mall while we were out and about.
I knew there were a lot of attractions here, but I never dreamed to this extent. However, as soon as we entered the National Park, what a change of scenery (well, for a bit). The fall colors were beautiful. We're not too far into the park and we spot the resort where we were staying in the mountains. We meet up with Annelyse, get our room keys and head to our room. We were in a studio with a little kitchenette and bathroom. I noticed a warning magnet on the fridge that says not to put trash out between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. because of the bears. Hmmmm! Thought we'd go on a walk around the property, but quickly changed my mind. We had a nice visit with the friends and then off to bed.
Thursday I got up at 8:30, read a little, ate a p'nut butter sandwich, took a walk around the resort and then we headed off to the Smokies. To get to the park, we had to drive through Gatlinburg which was filled with little shops of everything imaginable. We stopped off at the visitor's center to look around and I picked up a few souvenirs. Then we were on our way to Cade's Cove--24 miles into the park. Cades Cove is a valley surrounded by mountains filled with colorful leaves of yellow, orange and red. It was beautiful. We took the 11 mile loop through the cove that had stops along the way of churches and cabins that once were inhabited.
John Olivers cabin is the first on the loop--1 of 70 historic buildings in the park. Usually the parents, infants and daughters slept downstairs and the boys slept in the loft. However, this may have varied from family to family.
The Primitive Baptist Church was established in 1827. The church closed during the Civil War. Official church correspondence after the war: "We the Primitive Baptist Church in Blount County in Cades Cove, do show the public why we have not kept up our church meeting. It was on account of the Rebellion and we was Union people and the Rebels was too strong here in Cades Cove. Our preacher was obliged to leave sometimes, and thank God we once more can meet."
I've been very interested in the two-door churches since being in Tennessee. The two doors leading in to the front of the Methodist churches, separated the men from the women as they sat on opposite sides during the church service. This particular church didn't follow that custom but the plans were copied from a church that did divide its congregation. The one in the Cove was built in 1902 by J.D. McCampbell, a blacksmith and carpenter. He built the church in 115 days for $115. He later became the minister.
The Missionary Baptist Church was started by a group from the Primitive Baptist Church who were expelled because they favored missionary work. The church began in 1839.
Several of the trails, some of them now roads, were Cherokee trails, walked by many of the Cherokee that lived in the area.
The Elijah Oliver place was a larger cabin than some of the others found on the loop. It had a "stranger room" added to the front porch to accommodate overnight visitors. They needed a "springhouse" to keep milk and butter cool. The smokehouse stored and preserved hams, shoulders and side meat for the year. Pork was easier to preserve than beef. The corn crib was needed to store enough corn for grinding into meal.
The Tipton House was built in the early 1870's by "Col. Hamp" Tipton who served in the Mexican War. The property included blacksmith and carpentry shops, a long shed to house sheltered bee gums, a smokehouse and a wood shed. Across the road stands a double pen corn crib and a cantilever barn. In the 1800s such barns were built to hold tons of hay in the loft and to shelter cattle and other livestock down below where they could mill about without bumping into posts.
Along the loop it began raining a hailing so a few places we didn't get out to get a closer look, but we saw most of the buildings.
We drove out of the park around 5:30 and headed to Pigeon Forge to stop by the grocery store before heading back to our room. We shared a meal with the others after they returned from horseback riding and driving around the Cades Cove loop. We watched some TV and headed off to bed.
Friday we awoke to rain again--and it rained most of the day. That didn't keep us from strolling through downtown Gatlinburg to check out the plethora of shops--Mr. Tablecloth to Fannie Farkle's for a mondo corn dog (no, we didn't have one) to down home moonshine in Ole Hickory Holler. We kept warm in the shops we visited and then warmed up to a cup of hot cocoa and a REAL cake donut. (extinct in the Nashville area--well, I haven't found any yet) We then moved on to the crafters village but after a few stores, we gave it up to a warm cozy room. (I did meet a gal from Vacaville, CA though, that worked at a Native American store doing some leatherwork.)
The others had gone to a play or concert. The girls and I rested for a bit then headed out to the outlet mall in tinsel town and dinner at Mels Diner. A good day.
Saturday I woke up around 8 a.m.--Edward and Annelyse are leaving this morning to head out to Ashville, NC. We'll most likely stay until tomorrow. Not sure what the roads will be like so won't go anywhere til later since it snowed last night. Just a light dusting but still it was snow, and beautiful. It didn't last long though. I did get to hear some beautiful music before they left. Edward plays several instruments and brought his guitar, violin and penny whistle. He and Marta played/sang a few worship songs.
We headed to the "strip" to take pictures of all the crazy sites. Stopped at stores we hadn't been to. A cute little old fashioned area with a grist mill, general store, pottery shop and souvenir shops. We also went to the Apple Barn restaurant, bakery and gift shop (like at Opry Mills). Traffic has been bumper to bumper all day. UGH! We then headed to Gatlinburg to eat at Bubba Gumps. YUM! We shared a basket of shrimp--4 kinds--and some mahi-mahi.
It was so cold out. The town was quite crowded, people all over the place and traffic bumper to bumper again. We headed back to our room to watch Camp Rock II.
Check out was at 10 on Sunday. Marta made pumpkin pancakes for us, we finished cleaning up and headed out. We stopped by the visitor's center across the street to get more postcards and a memory game. It took us an hour and a half to get from Gatlinburg to the freeway--about 15 miles away. Everyone was leaving town. It was a beautiful, sunny day.
What a terrific week.
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