Summer Travels, Leg 1: Nashville and GSMNP

Our summer trip began with an early morning and a long day, but we made it to Nashville in time for dinner with our friends, the Packers. (Kyle and the Wrangler were roommates at TU). In spite of less than ideal weather, we had a good visit with the Wrangler and Amy and their young sons, Everett and Holden, who is a very content young man. (He was in a good mood the whole time we were there.) As you can see, the Packers' tree fort was a big hit w/ our kids.

On the Packer's recommendation, we stopped at Burgess Falls State Park. After passing a smaller waterfall, we made it to the larger falls, which were very impressive and had a lot of water from recent rains. It was a very pleasant hike along the river, and we were glad we stopped.

The Wrangler, despite what you may have heard from unreliable sources, is quite good w/ children.

After stopping in Knoxville for groceries and a picnic lunch, we made it to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We camped at the Elkmont campground, which was rustic (i.e., no showers or electric outlets in most of the bathrooms) but great. We had a beautiful site bordering the creek that runs through the campground. We braved the cold water a bit of wading, and the kids loved throwing rocks in the creek and building dams too. The weather was perfect; it was nice and cool at night.

On Tuesday we meandered through the park, with our only notable stop at Clingman's Dome (the highest point in the park). That evening we camped on the NC side of the park, and the Maryland Hawkins family drove up from Sylva to picnic with us. That night, the weather was even cooler than the previous night--it was in the low 50s and there was a thick fog when we awoke. The highlight of the morning was on our drive down the mountain, when a black bear jumped out in front of us and ran into the bushes on the other side of the road. (We were in the middle of a wildlife spotting competition.)