Welcome to Karen, the latest follower of our Blog.
This weekend was a sad one. We stayed close to "home" most of the weekend. My thoughts often were of Margie and Bruce and their children and grandchildren who are in the midst of their grieving over this unthinkable event. But, today I needed to get out and about so we decided to pack a picnic lunch and head over to Cades Cove, about an hour and a half drive from the campground.
I had printed out directions on Mapquest but decided, instead, to listen to Lucy our GPS. (my first goof in directions of the day) We should have followed Mapquest. Lucy took us through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Not where we wanted to be!
Since we were there, we made one stop in Pigeon Forge at the Christmas store. We detoured through there and stopped several years ago on our drive to Louisiana. This area has really built up since we drove through about 12 years ago.
We've been looking for an electric candle like many houses have in their windows and we had back in NJ. We have a ceramic pumpkin sitting outside our Fiver for Halloween. The original light in it broke. We have been to several stores looking for a window candle but no luck. Not even WalMart of all places! We found a small window type candle at this Christmas store but I refuse to pay almost $10 for a smaller candle than what I had paid a few dollars for previously. We will wait until WalMart sets up their Christmas displays.
Out next stop was to walk to the oldest cabin at Cades Cove built in the early 1820's. This was the John Oliver home. His family were the first white settlers in the area. The house sits more than 1/2 mile off the loop road, a pleasant walk.
Two views of the valley.
Gregg-Cable House - 1879 |
John P Cable Grist Mill |
Carter Shields Cabin - 1910 |
Tipton House - 1870's |
We then took the "different" road. Once we got on it we found it was a cinder road 12 miles long and ONE WAY! No turning around. This road took us up over the mountains with steep drops offs, winding and curving and very narrow. Len said it was fun. I hung on to the door handle.
This is looking down at the Methodist Church on our way up my SHORT CUT :)
We had planned on making Tacos for dinner but after coming down from the mountain road we were hungry for dinner and had a 65 mile drive back to the campground so Ruby Tuesday it was!
3 comments:
That was a lovely day. Oh those mountain roads! I find I'm more nervous than ever. You should have heard me as we travelled south on the Pacific Coast Road. * GIGGLES*
At last I'm stating to get over the shock of losing Margie and Bruce.
Their deaths affected me deeply and I think my Blogging style is going to change radically over the next few weeks. It caught me by surprise to find they meant so much to me. The best memorial I can give them is to adopt some of Margie's practices that I so admired.
Hey sometimes the shortcuts are worth it...even IF they aren't short :)
I love seeing old homes and church's and a long cut thru the mountain's what a nice day.
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