Monday – Arrived, unpacked and all that good jazz.

Tuesday – Our feet hit the ground running this morning (shocker, I know). Up and on the road to Cades Cove by 8am (honestly that was a little late for us). We made relatively good time and about a mile before we got to the entrance there were lots of cars pulled over and people with cameras. Hot damn there was a mama and her two babies hanging out down in the valley. According to others, she is there every year (so now we know). Those babies were young. So cute to watching them play and climb the tree, then go back and check in with mama only to do it all over again. Pics aren’t the best, but does confirm that we saw them.

Cades Cove was a bust. The most life we saw (other than a couple of horses at the stables) was some crows and butterflies. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. It’s still beautiful there. The worst part? Getting behind some snails going 5-6 mph. Seriously. It took us 75-80 minutes to go around the 11 mile loop and there was NOTHING to see!! No stopping! There are signs posted all along the drive advising slower drivers to pull over so others can pass them. I guess these Joe Blows know how to coast a car but not how to read a sign. It was painful. But we survived.

According to my weather app it appeared it would be a great sunset night. Mostly clear with a few clouds. So we left the cabin around 7pm to go chase the sun. The further we got into the park the worse the sky looked. Way more clouds than blue sky. And those clouds looked like rain clouds, not pretty white fluffy clouds. But we plowed on. Clingman’s Dome is supposed to be a good place for sunrise or sunset. We hadn’t been up there in years. We passed by the sunset overlook right before Newfound Gap and sure enough there were lots of cars there with photogs already set up and hanging out – it looked like social hours. And they had a nice view. There was possibility at that spot.

Clingman’s Dome is about 7 miles past Newfound Gap (and the highest in the park at over 6600 feet). Along that road we actually went through some rain drops. And passed numerous cars (with their headlights on) passing us heading back down the mountain. The temperature had already dropped considerably (it was nearly 80 when we left the cabin) and the higher we went the faster it dipped. We passed several pull offs that looked promising as well but kept going to the top (didn’t walk the path to the highest point, just took some shots from the parking lot). It wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for in terms of sunset pics but the views were amazing. The front was coming in and the fog settling over top of us. Was pretty cool. So we took a few pics and headed back down. By the way, the temp at the top was 53 degrees – about 25 degrees cooler than at the cabin. Brrrrrr.

On the way down, after we got out of the clouds, there was actually a sunset! We passed a subadult (bear) on the side of the road – no pics though, but still awesome to see. This shot was at one of the pull offs on the road leading back to the parkway.

These were taken at the two pull offs across from Newfound Gap. So all in all, what started off looking like it was going to be a bust of a night for photos turned out to be awesome!!

Wednesday – Ran some errands this morning and hung out in the afternoon. John and Cindy pulled in the driveway about 4:00 and the reunion began! We popped a cold adult beverage and caught up a little enjoying the perfect weather on the deck. DE and Sarah arrived about an hour or so later and our little group was complete. LOTS of laughter was heard by all I’m sure – sound carries up here in these mountains ya know. It was a fantastic beginning to the long weekend.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday – The guys played golf (or tried to) each day. Saturday it rained so hard they only got in 9 holes, but had a good time nonetheless.

Us girls had an amazing time in a pottery class at Fowler’s Clay Works in Gatlinburg. Sarah and I made mugs, but Cindy’s mound of clay wanted to be a bowl. LOL Hunter was a great teacher with unlimited patience. We picked the colors for our pieces (they will fire and glaze them, then ship to us) and picked up a few more additions to our growing Mikey collection. After our class, we hit a few of the local shops on the Arts and Crafts Loop and lightened our wallets a bit, had some lunch and came back to the cabin.

John and Cindy were on dinner duty and we thoroughly enjoyed some mighty tasty fajitas. After clean up we sat around the table playing Sequence until bedtime – accompanied by laughter and alcohol. Fun game though!

Friday us girls hung back at the cabin and enjoyed some crafting while the guys were golfing and Sarah put her famous spaghetti sauce on to simmer all day. It was a wonderful low key day for us and we got to play with paper. What could be better? After our yummy special spaghetti dinner we played Hand and Foot (card game). Cindy and Sarah both have played before but the rest of us were virgins. Apparently there are as many ways to play as there are people – everyone has their own special rules. So we combined rules between how they both played for the evening. It was lots of fun and was also accompanied by lots of laughter and alcohol.

Saturday, while the guys tried to play in the rain, we took a trip to the Scrapbook Superstore in Sevierville. We didn’t find too much we couldn’t live without but did pick up a few bargains. It was a rainy day and perfect for crafting, but not necessarily for golfing. LOL The guys were back early happy they were able to get 9 holes in. Tonight some steaks, potatoes and salad were on the menu. (We do know how to eat good, don’t we?) The after dinner game tonight was Speak Out – the game where you wear dental mouth guard pieces and try to say phrases for your partner to guess. Hysterical. It was, again, an evening game accompanied with tons of laughter (with tears) and alcohol. What a beautiful way to close such a fun weekend making memories.

Sunday – By 9:30am our cabin was quiet and empty. It was so much fun to be able to share this space with such good friends. This was the first time we’ve done this. I’ve made a couple of trips with girlfriends (to put up or take down Christmas decorations) but it was our first couples trip. It won’t be our last. Bob’s been fighting a cold all week so we took the day off and rested. Perfect day for it since it rain (and thundered) on and off all day.

Monday/Tuesday – neither one of us was feeling great so we did a few chores and hung around the cabin.

Wednesday – the day dawned gray and cloudy, but after looking at info on the Foothills Bypass over the weekend, we knew it was something we wanted to drive – just to see if it would be worth going again on a prettier day. There are several “parts” of the Bypass, the last phase having just been completed in November 2018 – call the “Missing Link.” 

Since we were planning to the Townsend entrance, and it is only about seven miles from Cades Cove, we drove that again. Didn’t see much until on the way out and found ourselves in a “bear jam.” There was a little guy beside the side of the road having breakfast, brunch or whatever. There were a couple of rangers hanging around making sure everyone gave him his space and didn’t get too close. Mom never showed up. The ranger we were nearest to said she must not be in the picture – maybe for some reason she abandoned him, that she would not have been that far away from him that long if she was around. So sad, I hope he’s big enough he can make it on his own.

Even though we were pretty close to this little guy he was submerged in all kinds of brush so the camera really had a hard time focusing on him. I got a few shots to document it but nothing to write home about.

Thursday – headed home. It was a great visit! Can’t wait to come back!