Best Travel Day Ever

This morning I was up with the sunrise to break camp and get on the road.  Thought I'd include a picture of some of the campsites that were available for hard sided campers.  As you can see, they are not very big at all.  All camp sites were basically gravel, with a steep drop off into a ravine.  Not the kind of place you go for a true camping experience.

You go for the falls.

See the butterfly?  It's near the top of the falls.  Butterflies and rainbows, a little girl's dream, just need a unicorn for the trifecta.

As I mentioned already the food at the lodge was much less than great, but I figured I should also mention that the room wasn't cleaned very well, the bathtub was missing its stopper, the sink stopper wouldn't stay open, and one of the windows was missing its screen.  Not very "resort" like.  The lodge itself was probably nice once upon a time, but now it's run down and not very well run.

That being said, the restaurant we met Sharon at for lunch was FANTASTIC!

First Watch 

Right?  So good I ate every morsel of that Floridian French Toast...and plan to steal Mom's leftover pancakes.  She couldn't decide which flavor to order so we talked her into ordering three different ones.

Catching up with Sharon was so much fun and hopefully I'll be seeing her again on Friday for a Smokies hike.  She gave us some great ideas for things to do on our way out of Knoxville.  We stopped in a couple of shops, including a shoe shopping spree in Dillard's.

Mom stole the shoes I wanted to buy, so I had to console myself by buying three pairs.

To be fair I threw out all my sandals at the end of last season except my Keens that I trudge through streams in.  Don't judge me!  I'll use the fact that we don't have Dillard's up north as my excuse.

We plan on stopping in Knoxville again on our way home to see the Dogwoods in Sequoyah Hills.  We were in too much of a hurry to get to our new home away from home to do it today.

The Ober Gatlinburg tram overhead

The 4 bedroom house we rented in the Chalet Village section of Gatlinburg is as fabulous as advertised and has a great view we've been looking at ever since we got here.

turkey burgers for dinner on the deck

Tomorrow morning I'm heading right out to Hen Wallow Falls trail in the Greenbrier section of the park.  Mom's cousin Annmarie is joining us tomorrow, it'll be great to hang out with her after all that exercise.

Right now Mom has me watching "Dancing with the Stars"...Drew Carey dressed like a pimp and dancing the tango to "Superfreak".  Good night from Gatlinburg!