The Great Smokey Mountains

Saturday, 09/25/10

Geez... We slept in until 0900! What's up with that? It's a good thing we didn't have to cover a lot of miles. The parkway took us through lots of spiral turns and mountain tunnels. 

We made it to the end to the parkway by noon. Just around the corner from the junction of the parkway and the road that bisects the Smokies, we found the Oconaluftee Visitors Center. There, we discovered that our chosen campground, Cataloochee, was full. That is the best place from which to see the elk herd. Maybe we'll try that another time. We settled for the campground at Deep Creek.

We drove through Cherokee. It's very ticky-tacky and a bit run down. Not a fitting tribute to the proud Cherokee nation.

From there, we drove to Bryson City where we strolled around town and made reservations for a ride on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The train will take us on a 44 mile run. We decided to enjoy dinner on board. The excursion takes about 4.5 hours. Considering the drive time and the fact that we're supposed to be at the station one hour before departure, it appears that the ride will chew up most of our day.

Deep Creek CG, in the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest, has a nice babbling brook running through it. The stream is used by young and old alike for tubing. We saw children tubing for about 1/4 mile, then they' get out of the stream and run back up stream and do it again... Over and over again! What great fun!!

We took our walk around the campground. Once we picked out our site, we registered and went about setting up the camper. it so happened that the cabinet affixed to the ceiling fell down while we were traveling. It sure seems like this Palomino camper is a hunk of junk. Signs of poor workmanship abound. Too bad I didn't notice most it before I bought the unit.

Fortunately, we had materials to effect repairs. By tomorrow evening, the glue should be permanently set and the cabinet will be useful again.