Days 12 & 13

We're up at about 9 am and headed to the park at 10:30 am. It doesn't really hold a candle to Glacier Park, but the Smokey Mountain National Park is quite pretty in its own right. We spent all of day 12 and most of day 13 in the park. We only saw one deer in the park, but did get to see about 6 turkeys and 4 black bears. The first bear we saw ran right out in front of us and almost got hit. We were headed out of the park on the first day when he ran out in front of us. I didn't get a good picture as he was across the highway and up into the brush before I could even focus the camera. The other three bears we saw on the second day in the park. It was a mama bear and her two cubs up the side of a slope that runs along the highway. We would have never seen them, but thank goodness some wise tourist from Alabama decided it would be okay to stop his car in the middle of the road, turn on his flashers and stand on the side taking pictures. There were a lot of people who were quite of appreciative of this guy. Monte said he almost gave him a foot up the butt he was so appreciative.....ha ha.

We also stopped at a turn out across from a small field and couldn't believe all of the butterflies we saw flying from flower to flower getting out the sweet nectar. We got a couple good pictures and Brady even got one to land on a flower he had picked.

The park is in Tennessee and North Carolina. On the first day, we crossed over into NC so Monte and I could get our fishing licenses. Either state license works in the park and we thought we would kill two birds with one stone as we would need to get NC licenses eventually anyway. So we did a little fishing and Monte caught about 4 fish. He described them as looking like a sucker fish with a red tail. We never did find out what they were, but they were fun to catch.

After the park, we headed into Pigeon Forge to ride some go-carts and have some dinner. We ate at Corkey's Ribs & BBQ. Brady was hoping to get some hush puppies, but alas, it wasn't meant to be this night. We were surprised that they didn't serve them at this restaurant. But, we'll be in North Carolina tomorrow and we won't have any trouble finding them in that state. While speaking of food, Monte and I have been enjoying sweet tea since we were in Kentucky. Man, the stuff I make is good, but it doesn't come close at all to the real thing. Oh, and guess what. We stopped in at a grocery store yesterday to get a few things and we found sweet tea made with Splenda. Brady was so excited, he tried to open the jug and drink some before we even got back to the camper. The stuff is called Milo's Famous Sweet Tea and its pretty good. Brady says we would like to have a gallon of this stuff in the fridge at all times from now on.

Well, I guess we're all caught up again. We will be packing up and heading out for North Carolina tomorrow. Our destination is Mooresville and a couple of the NASCAR team headquarters. You can view the cars, the garages and of course, buy souvenirs in the gift shops. Brady wants to see Tony Stewart's car (#20) and then we will also be going to see Dale Earnheart Jr.'s Sprint cup team. So with that, I bid you all a good night and God Bless!