New Carpet and Rally in TN

We got back to Illinois in time to carry out our plan of surprising our granddaughter for her 10th birthday.  We drove to her mother's house with her dad.  He sat on the porch waiting for her school bus to arrive while we drove around the corner and parked.  We saw the bus stop at her house but waited until we received a text from Jason.

Hannah was worried that her dad didn't have his car.  He told her that it had broken down about a mile from town and he had walked to her house but that a ride was coming.  Just about then, we drove around the corner.  She saw our truck and was happily surprised.  She was so excited to see us so soon.  she thought we wouldn't be able to be home for her birthday.  

Our son James and his son were at the house when we got back.  We celebrated her birthday with an ice cream cake and grandma's cooking.  Saturday we went to Wally World and bought her a new bike.  She has a big girl bike now and loves it.  It was a wonderful weekend with our grand kids and we look forward to spending more time with them after the rally.

The new carpet installation was scheduled for the next Tuesday morning.  We worked to get all the carpet removed from the house and moving all the furniture out of the rooms to be carpeted.  What a job.  Thank goodness that doesn't have to be done very often.

The carpet layers were right on time.  The new carpet is better than we thought it would be and the boys are getting the house back in order.  Denny and I talked about when we had to leave for the rally and realized that our calendar went when Denny's phone had to be replaced.  We called the RV park and were told our reservations began the 8th.  What???  We have to be there in two days?  Ok, well I guess there will be no relaxing on Thursday.  We will be on the road heading for Sevierville, TN.

We drove the first day to Jacksboro, TN.  We were only a hop, skip and a jump away from the rally location but too tired to go further.  We spent the night in a Wal Mart parking lot, had a leisurely breakfast and arrived at the park about lunch time. 

Oh, just a note for anyone traveling through Indiana and needing diesel fuel.  Try to avoid the need to purchase in Indiana.  The advertised prices are for the truckers and without the special tax numbers you will be paying a much higher price.  We stopped at a Love's for a $3.859 price on the sign but found $4.209 was the price we needed to pay. Denny purchased what we needed to get out of the state and on to KY. where the prices are much nicer.

River Plantation RV Park is nice.  We have a gravel site.  Not totally level or spacious but nice.  The premium sites are paved and much larger but this is perfect for our busy time here at the rally.  We are seeing old friends and meeting new ones.  We are participating in a mentoring program.  We have met one of the couples we will share with but the other couple has not arrived yet.

On Sunday, we took a drive to the Smokey Mountain National Park.  Nice drive through the busy, tourist towns of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  We stopped at the welcome center and decided to drive to Cades Cove.  The drive was lovely.  The trees and wildflowers are budding and blooming.  Everything is green and the weather was beautiful. 

We forgot to think about lunch before leaving home so we stopped at the campground store and had corn dogs and a polish with chips and a huge twist cone for lunch.  It sure hit the spot and we were ready for our drive around the Cades Cove loop drive. 

There are several places to stop along the way.  This was a populated mountain community before it was made into a park and many of the churches and historic elements are still there.  My knee has been bothering me so we didn't stop much but did stop at the Cades Cove visitor center and enjoyed the buildings left there as a sample of the small communities found there.

Aunt Becky's home, boarding house and store was there as well as a mill and blacksmith shop and barn.

Denny had to get me in the picture.  Aunt Becky was a local celebrity.  She owned 600 acres of land and used this house for her home and a boarding house at times.  It was also a store that provided needed supplies for the local surrounding community.

I enjoyed the mill and loved the way the moss was growing on the turning water wheel.

We continued our drive and found a few more samples of homes along the way.  Here are the Lawson Place, the Tipton Place and the Carter Shields Cabin.

We had been told that the bears were just coming out of hibernation and we may be able to see a few.  We did.  Coming around a bend in the road there were several cars stopped along the road.  We were sure they had spotted something and we were hoping it was bear.  We were not disappointed.  There were four bear in a field.  I had brought our binoculars and we were able to watch them for a short while and I took one picture.  It is hard to stop along this one lane narrow road without pullouts, especially with our dually but we are glad we took a few minutes to block the road.  We apologize to all those that were behind us.  Thankfully, there weren't many that close.

See there are four black dots in the middle of the picture.  I love my zoom lens and cropping helped too.

Cades Cove is essentially a mountain community with a valley in between. 

It is worth the drive and there were several families enjoying the day, picnicking on blankets just off the road.  We even saw a couple cuddled together sleeping on a rock next to the river.  We hope to get to another section of the park before we leave.

Well, it is late and I am tired.  The rally adventure begins tomorrow.  We are looking forward to it.