More from the Smokies...

It was periodically rainy and cloudy during our stay in the smokies with very brief periods of sunny skies...so we were very lucky to have a clear day for which we rushed up to the "Top of Old Smoky" - Clingman's Dome - where we walked a bit of the Appalachian Trail and talked with a guy who was doing a "short" 160 mile portion of the 2100+ mile trail which runs from Georgia to Maine (read Bill Bryson's "Walk in the Woods" for the most entertaining tales of this trail). It was so clear that day, we could see further than the display pictures at the top of the tower...the rain had cleared out all the haze. We also visited Gatlinburg (like a wild mainstreet Disneyland - you could spend days!) and Pigeon Forge (home of Dollywood and a seemingly endless selection of miniature golf courses; a parade was happening for Dolly Parton who was returning home that day - so we high-tailed it out of there to not get stuck behind the parade crowd).

Here's me and Rexie next to the over-flowing creek going through our campground, and Gary at a local woodcarver shop - we really enjoy checking out wood-carvings and would love a big black bear carving, but where on earth would we put it???