Gatlinburg trip April 2006

Sarah has been wanting to go to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg for some time. For my birthday she rented a cabin for a weekend in late April. I would have loved to have ridden the motorcycle but the weather forecast was cold with possible rain so we took my new Jeep Liberty CRD. The Jeep washed and waxed and ready for our trip. The rigged-up side exhaust with no muffler is visible. Early spring is my favorite time of year...you have spring, summer, and fall to look forward to. We stopped at a rest stop near Frankfort, KY, so we could stretch our legs and Sarah could smoke a cancer stick. She fell asleep soon after leaving the rest stop. I was getting hungry so I pulled over in London, KY at the Wendy's. Sarah woke up as I parked. She was tickled that I'd pulled in here...this is a popular destination for her family when they go visit relatives. Ellie Mae and Jethro. We drove over to the Dog Patch Trading Post so Sarah could look at the stuff. The next stop after here will be the cabin in Pigeon Forge, TN. Traveler's tip: The Dogpatch has great restrooms. Leaving the Dogpatch we continued on I-75 south. By now we're getting into the mountains and the scenery is beautiful. At Knoxville we take the I-640 interchange east...passing a large white cross near an adult bookstore...the duality. We continue onto I-40 east for about 15 miles until we reached TN-66. I pulled over to fill the Jeep so I could check the highway mileage, and to stretch our legs. It feels like we're almost there now. With a full tank and fresh pop we continued down TN-66 to Sevierville, then onto Pigeon Forge. Just like I remember from our bike trip last year traffic is slow once you get into Pigeon Forge. Despite the slow traffic, it's nice to be here. Sarah called and got the keycode for our cabin. We turned west onto US-321...turned right onto Walden Creek Road...right onto Goose Gap Road at the convenience store...past the nice fire station...left on Bluff Mountatin Road. This road is curvy and is starting to gain elevation. Bluff Mountain is all around us and somewhere up there is our cabin. Left on Black Bear Way, 0.6 miles to Hummingbird Hill Way, then to the right and start climbing. (map of cabin) Here is the cabin. The road up to the cabin is STEEP and windy. I'm glad I didn't ride the bike. You have to back out onto the road and do some off-camber scissoring to get turned around...and hope someone doesn't come down the hill and take you out. Southern view. South deck. West deck. Interior pictures. We unpacked then ran into town to Walmart and picked up some groceries and supplies. We came back and fixed some supper and lounged around. By now it was dark. I got the laptop set up on the south deck and checked email and sent messages to family letting them know we'd arrived safely. I had to use my ISP.com dialup. I hate dialup. There was a cool summer breeze blowing as we sat on the deck and watched the twinkling night lights of Pigeon Forge. It was great. I'm glad Sarah was persistant about getting me down here. She couldn't decide between the inside whirlpool or outside hottub so she did both. I (slowly) surfed the internet for awhile on the deck, then we turned in. I can't describe how beautiful and peaceful it was. Quiet. The solitude of the cabin hanging onto the side of the mountain. The lights of Pigeon Forge, other cabins, and other houses on the surrounding hills quietly glowing. No worrying about fire tones going off. Just peacefulness. Bland interstate in a car. Day 2.