The first thing that we did was try to dry out from a total soaking overnight. The entire campsite was soaked and just about everything was wet and dirty. However, we just accepted it and got ready for our trip to Gatlinburg. We ate a quick breakfast and got on the road to Gatlinburg which goes directly through the Smokie Mtn National Forest. The trip is only 18 miles long but the fastest you can go is about 30 miles an hour and the 18 mile trip takes you on a winding trip that last 40 minutes or so. We did get to Gatlinburg about 10am and found that most of the town was empty. The first order of the day was finding the GeoCache hidden in a small park on the edge of town. More successful than the Ohip GeoCache we found this one very quickly and left a few trackable items for other geocachers. Then off we went to the town. Our first stop was Ober Gatlinburg which is a skyway that takes you to the top of the mountain overlooking Gatlinburg. As you can see in one of the photos, my wife is not really smiling at the effect it is having on her. It was a fun ride and at the top there is a small amusement park for the family to partake in. Julian and I did the alpine slide car ride which was alot of fun. Next we came back down and had lunch at the Smokie Mtn. Brewery and had a very satisfying lunch. We then picked up Gunnar and headed out to explore the town.
We did a Olde Tyme Photo where were all dressed up in western clothes and got our photo taken with Gunnar. It was great but took like an hour to get done. I will post it if I get a chance.
After the photo we did some walking, sightseeing and shopping. The weather threatened to rain all day and finally it made good on it's promise and came down with gusto. We were without umbrellas or ponchos so we did our best to find cover when we could. Gunnar made his way into as many stores as he could to stay dry. Eventually we were forced to buy ponchos and as it would happen, it stopped raining. Just our luck, but oh well. After that we walked a bit more, I met a dancing bear, and we went to the Cars of the Stars museum. It was cool! The Munsters car was there, the Batmobile, the Beverly Hillbillies truck and whole bunch more. That was pretty much the end of the day so we headed back and saw the reason why they call the Smokies the Smokies. You can see the effect of humidity in the last photo. It really looks like a fire is burning. When we got back we found a much more soaked camp and did the best we could to get it ready for pack up in the morning. Tomorrow we head for Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain. Check back again. oh, and while walking Gunnar through Gatlinburg, people would part ways to let us through, stop to ask to pet him or say all kinds of things... such as: Oh look, a bear!, Wow what a big dog. Oh what a beautiful puppy. Oh big dog! Look out kids, big dog coming through!, Does he bite?, and any number of other things. I should have charged a buck each time someone wanted to pet him.... I could have paid for a tank of gas. And officially, it is very expensive to travel anymore... I might have to get a second job to pay for this vacation gas...
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