Tom & Jill's Circle The USA Trip 
First Half - Page Three
October 14th Through November

Tuesday-Wednesday September 14th & 15th

Wednesday was driving day, which we planned on abut 3 1/2 hours or so. Well in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, it sets is own speed limits and length of drive times. We didn't get to our campsite until almost four... HOLY CRAP, can you spell PEOPLE? And LOTS of them. We had no idea what Sevierville & Piegon Forge Tennessee were, much less what was there. That area is basically Disney World, all of them, combined into one area. I know of Dolly Parton, but I had no idea that Dollywood was where we were going through, and much less that half the world was going to be there visiting! You name it, any kind of tourist adventure/ride/attraction known to man lives between Sevierville & Piegon Forge Tennessee!!! And then your thinking whew we made it through, and here comes Gatlinburg, and now were into the National Park ZOO... 30 miles from Gatlinberg to Smokemont Campground took almost 2 hours. Now all you that have towed a trailer will understand that a 30 mile and hour steep (both up and down), curvy (were talking 10-15mph), NARROW (don't even look, if you hit something you'll know) road is no fun, but try it with 500 thousand idiot people all going for that one open parking spot, with half of there vehicles sticking out into the narrow lane your trying to drive an 8 foot plus wide trailer through (8 foot 6 inches with the slide topper and awning brackets). So by the time we hit Smokemont I was done, finished as the saying goes. We set up rather quickly, had a late lunch snack, and while doing so I look at Jill and say "we didn't get any North Carolina Caches yet?" (you know that was coming right?).... So we got in the truck and drove away from the hoards (we thought anyway) and scored three caches before trying to head back to camp. Well if you think the zoo can't get any worse, try throwing in three separate herds of elk alongside the road... For Christ Sakes people, have you never seen an Elk before? OK I will admit, these were a special breed, as I have never seen a wild elk wearing a collar with an ear tag before.... Must have been a special cross between the herds in Portland Oregon and New York/Washington DC. Anyway, we were picking our way through the openings and finally past the roadblocks when I noticed a few cows in a field about 1/4 mile down the road. Well there was one HUGE, I mean HUGE bull in the last herd and last we saw it, it was walking towards that area and doing the elk "Scream" that they do. I just kind of figured if we pulled off and waited 5-10 minutes it just might happen, without the huge herd of people around. Well it did, and not 5 minutes later here he come walking right at us from across a meadow. Yee Haw, I might just get that picture after all right? Well it didn't take long and the hoards of people caught up with said bull elk and next thing I know his forward progression was abruptly stopped. He did a few more screams before deciding non of those cows were interested so he calmly just did a few did a few circles scraping and hoofing the ground before deciding that was it, and down he went for a snooze. He never got close enough for my killer picture, so I had to go full zoom with my phone to at least get something. For those who want to know, yup, a SOLID 8x8 with a questionable 9th nub, he was huge with a body to match. I guess those collar/ear tag "wild" varieties just grow bigger in the Smokey Mountains. (sorry for the bad pic)

This morning we decided to give up on going back to the summit and Gatlinburg, just too many friggin people, so drove about 15 miles south east to do a hike to Indian Creek Falls, Juney Whank Falls and Tom Branch Falls, still in the National Park but a quieter area. Nice place with a few nice pics, but by noon the place was busy and we decided to head back to camp and take the afternoon off. Smokemont Campground is kind of crowded, but we just lucked out and where we are is quiet with only a few campsites on our side of the road and the Oconaluftee River right across the road from our trailer. Nice, quiet, peaceful and beautiful... Tomorrow? Driving away from the hoards and a few more waterfalls for us, then back to the trailer and get ready to leave this place on Saturday morning...