The Great Smoky Mountains!

We left for Tennessee 10 hours ago from Harrisonburg, and it took us about 7 hours to get here. So far so good except for the rain that is pouring down on our tent right now and the occasional booms of thunder… No big deal. But seriously, the drive down here was beautiful! Somewhat like VA, but much more mountainous and a lot more foliage. I still haven’t attempted driving the lunchbox since it is stick shift, but I’m thinking tomorrow will be the day, especially since it will be a 10 hour drive. We drove through Knoxville which was truly a unique experience. If you are ever looking for a good vacation for the entire family with a little bit of camping and a little bit of anything else you could possibly imagine, this is the place. The town was filled with stores, carnivals and rides, restaurants, entertainment for adults and children—I mean really you could find anything you want here. We even stopped at the world’s largest store of knives… I have a feeling e will be seeing a lot more places like that along the way. Once we made it through the town though, it was back to nature. It is beautiful up here. Our campsite is the only one located on the water with a great view of the river and it is really nice! It would be a little nicer if we could hear the stream through the pouring rain though. Anyways, great start to the trip and I can’t wait to see what else there is to come!

--Bri

Hey everybody! It’s pouring in the Smoky Mountains right now.. luckily we got into our campground early enough to set up camp and get somewhat settled in before it started. We actually thought it was going to storm right when we got here and had to hold off dinner for about 30 mins, but then decided it missed us so we were able to grill up some burgers and beans.. yumm. The drive down was really pretty like Bri mentioned, lots of very scenic landscapes that are very representative of the typical “Virginia” countryside with white picket fences, rolling hills, and mountain ridges in the distance. The Knoxville area seemed really cool, extremely touristy with a lot more traffic than we would have expected, but definitely full of activities. There was even some sort of castle.. I think a kids play place, but I sure wanted to check it out. Tomorrow morning we will be getting up early to pack up camp and head for New Orleans. These first few days are going to really go quick with pretty long drives and just one night in between, but we decided we want to get out to new places and spend some extra time in places out west. Hope to get some pictures up soon!

-Dan