Misc. and The Great Smoky Mountains

BWB sent us this picture last night. Great philosophy, wouldn't you say?

Had to add a P.S. to my Charlotte infield #2 story. I was minding my own business sitting in my chair watching the people and cars go by, reading a book and drinking wine. A lady came up and asked if she could take my picture and post it on the Internet. I certainly obliged. Don't worry! I had my clothes on.

Yesterday we left Bristol and drove SOUTH. I do have to add that our neighbor in Bristol confided in JB that his wife threw him out and his business partner screwed him so he was a RV full timer and starting all over at age 60! Who cares?

Anyway, we drove about 100 miles to Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, Tennessee. These three towns all run together and are at the base of the Smoky Mountains National Park. This area is like Branson, MO- tons of campgrounds, motels, restaurants, wedding chapels and tourist traps. Dolly Parton is from here so she has built her Dollywood here and many other attractions bear her name.

We are at the Creekside RV Park in Pigeon Forge, a very nice, central location and it was half price with the CampclubUSA card. JB had a visit with the neighbors and found out that they are headed to Charlotte for the race this weekend AND they are from Petersburg, MI, which is where we are going Friday for the holiday weekend. Isn't it a small world? They gave him a hot tip on where to drive in the mountains, more toward the west end to Cade's Cove. So we did.

Now, let me give you some interesting facts. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most popular national park in the country, drawing more than twice as many visitors as any the system's other parks- even the Grand Canyon runs a distant second. We can hardly believe that!
What's really amazing is there is no charge to drive into the park. These mountains are among the oldest in the world (supposedly formed 200 to 300 million years ago.) How the heck did they figure that out? The Smokies are named for the bluish haze that often shrouds them caused by humidity and water vapor emitted by the dense, old growth forests that cover 95% of the park. The foliage is extremely dense and often you cannot see any sky when driving down the roads. Even the GPS lady lost her satellite connection dozens of times.


They are smoky looking.

The park is known for all of the wildlife. We saw lots of wild turkeys.

There are a couple deer in here.

We were lucky enough to see this black bear. There are about 1,500 bears that live in the park.

The bear is on the right side of the tree (the little black spot). See that yahoo who is in the field trying to get a close up picture.....and maybe trying to get eaten by the bear!

This area of Tennessee has many hillsides and trees that are covered with ivy and wild grape vines.

There were tons of magnolia trees that were not in bloom but whatever these are had clumps of white flowers.
There are supposed to be alot of elk but we didn't see any. You might be interested in knowing that there are at least 30 species of salamanders in the park. Supposedly the park has earned the nickname of " Salamander Capital of the World". That is a little hard to believe! We didn't see any of them either.
Well, I wonder what today will bring. JB is sleeping in while I'm blogging! Toodles.