So, we got this half-baked idea to
take the granddaughters on a vacation. Perhaps this was out of some guilt-fed
concern that we don’t see or do things with them enough, or there was some kind
of grandparental vacuum that needed to be filled.
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| The girls get journals to record the trip |
But in any case, we invited
granddaughters Hannah, 12, and Sadie, 11, to join us on a trip to the Smoky
Mountains with a couple of days at Dollywood to drive the point home how great
their grandparents really are!
We picked them up and headed for
the Smoky Mountains with the idea that we would go to the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, followed by a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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| Enjoying the pool |
The first day
mostly involved driving from Louisiana to a place relatively close to the park.
Turns out that was Ft. Payne, AL, where we got a motel with a swimming pool
that the girls absolutely enjoyed!
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| The creek at Cade's Cove |
It was a long day and we all crashed early.
The next morning we rose early to
drive the distance to the park. The GPS routed us through Knoxville, but Opa
(Capt. Larry) found an earlier exit that cut our driving time to the park in
half. We drove to the park’s Cade’s Cove section before we realized that we
really wanted to be at the northern visitor center of the park.
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At the visitor's center |
We found a
picnic area and had lunch. There was a nearby creek in which children were
wading and the girls wanted to join. About a half hour later, we reversed
course and made our way to the center. There, we bought the girls Passport
Books and got their stamps at the cancellation station.
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| Getting the stamps! |
They also collected
memorabilia to scrapbook in the travel journals we bought them. They were
excited. We poured through the center’s exhibits and watched the video about
the park in the theatre. We had just missed the 1400 Junior Ranger’s program
and felt the guided nature walk at 1500 would not fit our schedule, so a visit
to both visitor’s centers and a drive through the park would have to suffice
for this park.
We left the center and started our
journey through the park. The Newfound Gap road runs from the Sugarlands
Visitor’s Center in the north to the Oconaluftee Visitor’s Center to the south,
essentially dividing the park in half.
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| The girls' first park! |
The girls were thrilled riding through
the mountains, but we knew that they would really be wowed when we got on the
Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. We arrived at Oconaluftee Visitor's Center, viewed the
exhibits, took some pictures, collected more memorabilia, and headed out of the
park. We had originally planned on staying in Waynesville, NC, but when we saw
all of the private motels with vacancy signs in Cherokee, NC, the girls voted
to stay there. Cherokee is on the reservation of the Eastern Band of the
Cherokee Nation.
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| The Oconaluftee Visitor's Center |
It would also provide quick and easy access to the parkway
tomorrow. We found a motel in the heart of the Oconaluftee Indian Village and
on the Oconaluftee River. It was perfect. After checking in, the girls hit the
motel’s pool, but it wasn’t long before they were asking to go into the river.
The water at its deepest only came to their waste, but it was cold and the
current was swift. After supper, Opa worked on the blog and Mimi (Jane) took
the girls to the WWII Cherokee monument and the Indian village to cruise the souvenir
shops.
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| Wading in the Oconaluftee River |
Returning, we had supper and again turned in early
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| The parkway |
Up early the next morning, we had
breakfast at a nearby restaurant, and then drove to the entrance of the Blue
Ridge Parkway. We weren’t on the parkway 20 minutes before we started hearing
oooooh’s and aaaaaah’s, and these mountains are sooooooo beautiful!
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| At an overlook |
The girls
were especially captivated by the clouds that hung over the valleys giving the
impression that we were driving above the clouds. And so began a series of
overlook stops and encounters with the twisty turns and switchbacks that the
roadway administered. So caught up with capturing the sights on their phone
camera that they started deleting selfies of themselves lest they run out of
storage space!
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| The beauty of the Smokies |
After traveling about 85 miles we came upon parkway’s southern
visitor’s center. We stopped to stretch our legs and collect this service
unit’s stamp and more memorabilia. Two miles up the road was the Folk Art
Center sponsored by the Southern Art Guild?
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| Folk Art quilt |
The center’s galleries were amazing
and featured folk art in a number of different materials—cloth, wood,
leather, natural, ceramic, metal, glass, and others. We all enjoyed viewing the
artwork very much. The center had a picnic area and it was lunch time, so we
had a quick picnic lunch and then resumed our parkway travel.
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| Highest point on the Blue Ridge |
We had entered
the parkway with a ¾ tank of gas, and after a particularly long stretch it
became apparent that we would have to exit at the next available access. Well,
that exit turned out to be Route 80. We weren’t sure if this was a state or
county road, but it hairpinned and switch backed straight down the mountain for
10 miles from where we started. Of course, the girls thought that this was
great fun and more exciting than any ride at Dollywood. Mimi started to get
sick and Opa broke out into a clammy sweat as he careened the van down the
mountainside. Ten miles of twisted hell and six more of much more civilized
roadway brought us to Marion, NC.
We stopped at a roadside rest so
Mimi could step foot on solid ground and
get her bearings again, and also to figure out how we were going to
finish our day. We hadn’t traveled the parkway as far as we had originally
planned, but obviously there were no votes to return. We decided to drive to
Asheville, shop for a few things we needed, and spend the night there.
