ME: 8/2/07 Smoky Mountains National Park

Instead of going directly to Greensboro, NC to see Mike and Alicia and their children Valerie, Stephen, and Matthew, we are taking the scenic route through the Smoky Mountains National Park. There's only one road that goes through the park and it goes through Gatlinburg. Alicia had warned us that Gatlinburg was a tourist town, but we really had no idea. Both Marty and I had been there with our families as kids and we remembered artists and cabins and a very rustic setting. No way Jose! Not anymore! Ripley's Believe it or Not has a museum here and that's very appropriate because most of what you see in Gatlinburg now is quite unbelievable. It has nothing to do with artisans or camping our nature our Smoky Mountains and has everything to do with getting tourists to spend their money.

Traffic was horrendous. We probably drove 5 or 6 miles at 20 mph. And this was on a Thursday in the middle of the day. Ugh.



Soon, however, we finally got to the Smoky Mountain National Park and traffic wasn't bad at all. There were hardly any cars in any of the scenic overviews. It was incredibly pleasant. We drove with the windows down and soaked in the fresh smell and clean air. It was soooo worth it to suffer through the drive through Gatlinburg. No wonder this place is one of the most visited National Parks in the US. Marty was having a field day shifting gears as necessary, enjoying both the drive and the scenery. We stopped when we could and took lots of photos that hardly do the place justice.