Tennessee Tour to Cades Cove

Cades Cove is a lush valley nestled in the mountains and is one of the most popular destinations in the Smokies. There are 2 million visitors a year that tour the 11 mile, one way loop within the park. The drive can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours since there are numerous places to stop along the way, and traffic can be quite heavy. We were glad we didn't do this drive on a weekend in peak season!

Our first stop was the John Oliver Place, and it was a short walk back to the cabin built by John Oliver in 1826. The house remained in the family until it the park was established 100 years later. By the way, as you know by now, that is Jerry and Sandy posing for me. Don is somewhere behind me on the trail.

The loop includes wondrous views of the fields and mountains as well as many local historic buildings. Only the grist mill is in it's original location, all the other historic buildings were moved here. There are 3 churches: the Missionary Baptist Church, the Primitive Baptist Church and the Methodist church. All 3 churches ceased services during the civil war because the people were divided amongst themselves. There were Rebels within the Cove!
The Cable Mill area is the largest stop along the drive and includes the Gregg-Cable house seen below in addition to a cantilever barn, a grist mill, blacksmith shop, smokehouse and a visitor center. It took Don over half a hour to find a spot in the parking lot here! Jerry, Sandy and I all had gotten out of the truck and wandered around while he "idled" away his time in the truck.
This grist mill is still working and grinding corn into corn meal each day! John Cable built this mill about 1870. It had a dual purpose: not only was it used as a grist mill, it was also used as a sawmill, and the same water wheel provided power for both mills.
Another stop along the way was the Dan Lawson place. The trees behind the old smokehouse provided great color for my picture.
Boy, were we hungry by the end of the drive. It was way past our lunch time, and we decided to head back to a BBQ place we passed on the way in. It was the second day in a row that we partook of Kentucky barbecue, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do. In this area, they eat pancakes for breakfast and have barbecue for lunch and dinner. At least it looks that way when you drive through the towns of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Jerry and Don are ordering their lunch at the Smoking Pig stand.
Tables were set up between all the pumpkin displays. We really didn't care where we sat as long as we had good food! If you were a local, you could kill two birds with one stone by having lunch and buying pumpkins and gourds for your fall table.
Jerry is checking out the big smoker they use here. He has a much smaller one at home that he uses. I bet he wishes there was someway he could hitch this up to the back of the 5th wheel and haul it back home to Arizona.
What did they have in that BBQ??? Any moonshine? What has made us so dog-gone funny? I'm smiling, but Don is gagging and the guy behind us looks none too happy. Do we resemble the other "happy" couple behind us? I sure hope not!

Okey-Dokey-Smoky

We arrived in Sevierville (pronounced Severe-ville), Tennessee on Sunday. It's one of the popular towns in the Smoky Mountain area. Above normal weather and sunny skies greeted us.

On Monday, we headed into the nearby town of Gatlinburg and decided to take the aerial tramway up the mountainside before lunch.

The view below is the town of Gatlinburg. It was a clear day, and the hills were covered with various shades greens, yellows, oranges and reds.
After lunch at Bennett's BBQ, we headed into Smoky Mountain National Park to do a hike up to Laurel Falls. This must be a popular hike since we had to hike up the hill to even get to the parking lot by the trail head!
Jerry, Sandy and Don are ready to walk off the calories from lunch but they did stop for me to take their picture. It was a short hike, only 1.3 miles up to the falls, but the path is narrow and there are signs for parents warning them to keep their children away from the edge. We were behind a family with a small boy and heard "Get away from the ledge" , "keep walking", "don't stop in the middle of the trail", and "If he falls, he'll only do that one time" so many times we decided to kick up our pace and get ahead of them.
The views looking out from the path were beautiful. This is the perfect time of the year to hike in Smoky Mountain National Park.
On the way home, we stopped by the Sevierville Court House, a handsome structure that can be seen from the main highway through town.
These towns are all decorated for fall, everywhere you see corn stalks, pumpkins and lots of mums in fall colors. We saw this huge pumpkin along the way and just had to have our picture taken by it! Looks like one of those crows is about to peck at my head.
We found this "mobile home" behind a hotel. Is this a hillbilly RV? If you reconditioned it, it may run again, but I sure would change the color of the house. I wonder what our HOA would say if we parked this in front of our home in Avondale?!

Kampin' in Kentucky

The past week has included lots and lots of drive time. We've gone from cold, rainy weather in Massachusetts to nice, warm weather in West Virginia, ending up yesterday in Kentucky. As you can see from the photo below, we had lots of hilly roads to contend with, especially through western Maryland and West Virginia. "Old Wheezer" (Sandy and Jerry's truck) loves going downhill, but I can't say the same for going uphill! One benefit: going slow allows you to see the scenery, and there were lots of fall colors during that part of the drive.

We finally made it to Carter Caves State Resort Park in Kentucky. The five mile road into the park off the highway was narrow , winding and had lots of curves.
This was another great state park, especially for families. Beside cave tours, there was a swimming pool during the summer, tennis courts, canoeing, hiking trails, horse stables, fishing, miniature golf and a regulation 9 hole golf course. What more could you want in one location? There was also a lodge and restaurant for "non-campers". No wonder all 112 sites were full for the weekend.

It took us almost 3 months of traveling to finally get to perfect camping weather. No rain, no wind, no mosquitoes, no heat or humidity. We had warm, sunny days and nights cool enough to require a comforter to stay warm.

Don was under the weather on Saturday, so Sandy, Jerry and I took some time to explore some of the shorter hiking trails. By the time we were through, we had gone up and down over 500 steps on the trails. They were still smiling in this picture that I took above the lake.
I even managed to find some flowers that were still blooming during the fall.
Beautiful Maple leaves draped the site across from us. We were under a large oak tree, and acorns kept dropping down on the 5th wheel. The "pings" from the acorns sounded a lot like hail.
One hike that we took was to Smoky Bridge. If you look closely, there are steps going down from the right side of the picture. The little white dot is Sandy's tee shirt. We had followed an extended family down to this spot, and the young children had a great time playing on the rocks here.
We have done a lot of camping in Arizona, but at Carter Cove state park, they take it to a whole new level. We took a walk in the evening and all around us were trailers decorated for fall and Halloween. Table cloths on the picnic tables had fall colors and were held down by pumpkins or real mum plants! It was amazing to see how so many took the time to decorate their sites. In retrospect, our trailers were a bit blah.

Leaves and Lighthouses

It's fall in Maine, and we were on the hunt for fall foliage. Here they call it "leaf peeping". Sounds odd to me, but who am I to argue with New Englanders? So, instead of having a Peeping Tom, we had a Peeping Don along with us.

The sad thing is that Don is color blind, so all the Maple trees that are turning a beautiful crimson red look like dead trees with brown leaves to him. I am trying to soak all the colors in, taking all sorts of pictures so I can remember this for years to come.

We drove up to Millinocket, which is about an hour north of Bangor. One of the stops had this pair of Adirondack chairs facing the river. Wouldn't it be great if we could just transport this scene to Phoenix, where it is still over 100 degrees right now?

Don kept wondering why, if we were looking for fall color, why was I asking him to find spots that had water (rivers, lakes, ponds, etc). I found exactly what I was looking for! Beautiful trees that are turning colors and the reflections of them in the water. Perfect! Don't ask me where this was at, since we drove back roads that twisted and turned. All I can tell you is that it is near Millinocket.
A Maple tree spreads it's branches over the fast moving stream.
These trees lined the country road, showing off their fall colors. No cactus in sight!
On Sunday we did our turn around, heading south to Portland, Maine (not Oregon). There were lighthouses in the area that Jerry wanted to track down. It was a bit nippy as we drove around the Portland Bay and Cape Elizabeth area.
Our second stop was Portland Head Lighthouse where Sandy and Jerry stopped to pose for me. The well kept 72 foot stone lighthouse was finished in 1791, and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Maine. One frequent visitor was poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (that's the long and short of it). Also in this same area are the remains of Fort Williams.
Below is my favorite picture of Portland Lighthouse, providing a great view of the structure and the coastline below it.
Mission accomplished! Two more things checked off our bucket list: fall leaves and lighthouses.

Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park

As you can tell from the picture below, it was a cool and foggy day as we headed east towards Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Were we "Maine-iacs" for heading out in such lousy weather, or just "Maine-ly" in our right minds? Still haven't figured that one out. At any rate, we were like the postman, and rain or shine, we were going to get to our destination!

The clouds kept creeping in while Sandy tried to capture Jerry's picture. Not only was it cold, but it was also windy and quite damp. Still, we were tourists and decided to trudge on in spite of the weather.
To our amazement, there were two huge cruise ships in Bar Harbor. Off and one you could see them, depending on how the fog was rolling in. It got to a point that it looked like one ship was actually floating on a cloud, rather than being in the water! This is what it looked like from on top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.
After being blown around on Cadillac Mountain, it was time for a hot coffee break. For much of the year, Cadillac Mountain is the first place in the country to receive the light of dawn. And no, we didn't get up at 5 AM so we could drive here and see the sunrise.
Don clowned around at Stewman's, where we ate lunch in Bar Harbor. Don and Sandy had shrimp while Jerry and I each had a lobster roll. Delicious! Couldn't figure out why the lady next to us ordered chicken fingers. Even I know that chickens don't have fingers.....
The schooner sitting in the harbor could barely been seen because of the dense fog.
After lunch, we drove over to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. Sandy took time to sit and pose for me while she sat on one of the huge boulders.
Here's a picture of the lighthouse. It took a bit of climbing over rocks and boulders to get to a spot where I could get a good picture. It also took teamwork: Sandy would climb on to the rock first, and I would hand her the Nikon camera before climbing on to it.
"Don't step back, Jerry! You will be in the Atlantic if you do!"
The weather and the ocean provided the perfect combination for some great pictures!
We made our way back to Bar Harbor to do some more shopping and to have supper before driving back to Bangor.
And what did we have for supper? Why, lobster of course! What could be better than a lobster roll for lunch and then a whole one for supper? At least that was true for 3 of us. Sandy doesn't care for lobster, so she wound up with clam chowder.

Boston or Bah-ston?

As we boarded the subway at Quincy Adams Station, we thought we were headed for Boston. Then, when we climbed aboard the Old Towne Trolley, we were told we were in “Bah-ston”, where we could drive “ah cah” to go get some “labstah”. Don't Bah-stonians have a "r" in their alphabet? Or do they just go Q, S, T, U, V, etc.? They know how to use the "r" when it starts out the word, thank goodness. Otherwise, how in the world would they pronounce Paul Revere?

Anyway, we got off at the second stop and headed for the Old North Church, a famous landmark I have wanted to see for a very long time. In the "gah-den" behind the church is a statue of Paul Revere. He was one busy man, winding up marrying twice and each wife giving him 7 or 8 children. I imagine there are oodles of descendants still around somewhere.

Here we are , just behind the church on Day one of our two day excursion to Boston. We drove over an hour to the subway station, the subway ride was another half an hour and lastly it was a brisk 15 minute walk to get to the trolley stop.

This tour guide posed for me as we passed him by. Don’t you love his outfit?

You can see Jerry taking a picture inside the church, which was built in 1723 and is the city’s oldest church. The 191 foot steeple can be seen from many parts of the city, even with all the tall buildings. The doors on the high box pews inside the church have brass name tags on them. One name tag for a back pew box said "For strangers and wardens". Paul Revere served as a bell ringer here. The pews, brass chandeliers and church's stock are all original.

After the church, we decided to hunt down Paul Revere’s house. Boy, was that an undertaking! The streets are all crooked in the old section of town, and change names at every street corner. It was cloudy, so we had no idea of what direction we were going. Up and down the old cobblestones we went. Don went into a neighborhood library to get directions, even though we had a map. Between the librarian and another young man, we eventually did find it. This wonderful old wood house in snuggled is between much bigger, brick buildings.

For lunch, we wanted to go where everyone knew our name: Cheers. No one had a clue who we were though, and Norm wasn’t at his place at the bar. That’s okay, we didn’t mind being anonymous as long as we could fill our stomachs with some good food. Below is the door made quite famous by the television comedy, and still in daily use.

Don, Sandy, Jerry and I enjoyed sitting down for a while at Cheers to rest our tired feet. The bar used for the sitcom is upstairs. We didn't realize that until after we had finished our meal.

Next stop for us: Fenway Park. I’ve never been into baseball or any other major sport (unless you count ice dancing at the Olympics) but still enjoyed seeing the old stadium. Below is a statue of Ted Williams and a small boy. I wonder...is his body still in deep freeze somewhere in Arizona?If they defrost him, will he give them the "cold shoulder"?

We had a wonderful view of “Bah-ston hah-bah” from the boat at the end of the day, even though the clouds were quite low and obscured the tops of some of the buildings.

On our second day back, we got to go aboard the USS Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides”. Our tour even took us below deck, which was quite interesting. George Washington commissioned her in the year 1797 and she never lost a battle. They bring her out into the Boston Harbor every 4^th of July. Afterwards she is brought back into dock differently, so she weathers evenly.

Below is a statue of Samuel Adams in front of Faneuil Hall, which was built in 1742. One of the most visited places in Boston is Quincy Market, adjacent to Faneuil Hall, and we stopped here on Day 2 for two reasons: to get out of the rain, and to get something to eat for lunch. We managed to kill 2 birds with one stone!
Our next stopping point was the Old State House, a beautiful building that is dwarfed by all the other tall buildings. To me, this is a very significant building, for the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony in 1776.
Last stop of day 2 was Boston Commons. You can see the "new" State House in the background (it was built in 1798). Interesting tidbit: the land on which it stands was once John Hancock's cow pasture! All in all, we had a great time and wish we could have spent many more days exploring this wonderful city with all of it's history.