Day 54 to End of Trip: Cades Cove, High Point, Friends, Relatives & Home

It is February 25, 2011 and we are beginning to plan our next trip without completing the blog for this first trip. The blog was almost done when poor/no Internet access and "life" got in the way. Hopefully Internet access will not be an excuse for our next trip due to a Christmas gift from Donny, Nikki and Ella to Don - a Virgin Mobile MiFi, a portable hotspot. As for "life," we can't always control that!

Friday, November 12th: Cades Cove, Smoky Mountain National Park:

This is the last actual tourist part of our camping trip, as we were still in Pigeon Forge, TN. We had been to Dollywood the day before and returned to our trailer rather late that evening, 9:30 or 10:00 PM.

The reason I mentioned our previous late night return is that we needed to get up really early to get to  Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains in order to maximize wildlife sightings. Amazing that animals get up at sunrise to forage for breakfast. We got up at 6:00 AM. In hindsight, this turned out to be one hour too late. It was a solid hour's drive to Cades Cove, as the Smoky Mountain National Park is HUGE, and we did not arrive until close to 8:00.

The Cades Cove Loop is an eleven mile, one-way road that tours you through an early 1800's era settlement in a mountain hollow (pronounced "holler"). Many rustic homes, barns and outbuildings are preserved or reconstructed, along with churches, graveyards and a working gristmill, to show tourists how these mountain folks settled and lived in Cades Cove about two hundred years ago.

There are a two main reasons to get to the Cove early, early in the morning - animals and traffic. We were truly hoping to see a bear. We missed our only opportunity by minutes, as tourists were walking back to their cars after a sighting. We should have gotten out of bed at 5:00 AM! Fortunately the deer, turkeys and a lone coyote rewarded our 6:00 wake-up. Also had we been an hour later, the car traffic around the loop would have been even worse. Remember, we are in off-season here and by noon the Cades Cove road was slow and congested. We could only imagine summertime in the Smokies. Ugh.

The history and human element of our Cades Cove tour was fascinating. John and Lurany Oliver were the first settlers to buy land in 1816 and build their homestead. The rustic log cabin on the first site you come to on the loop road is the honeymoon home they built for their son when he married. This basic, bare-bones log and mud home gives one an idea of the hard life these people endured in the foothills of these great mountains. We later found the Olivers' graves in a church cemetery here in the Cove.

 

Continuing driving on the loop road, we kept a keen eye out for wildlife and stopped every mile or two to tour another cabin, farm, church, gristmill, barn, graveyard or vista. We had previously purchased a pamphlet that gave us the history of each place we stopped at, including short anecdotes about the families that settled in Cades Cove. By today's standards, it is shocking how our US government in the 1930's forced the last surviving families to leave their beloved Cove and relocate when it was decided to turn the entire area into a National Park. These people were hardy souls and continually worked to improve their quality of life by developing or instituting new improvements to make life easier on their homesteads. We spent a long time looking at how they brought running water nearer to their homes via wooden pipes made from hollowed out tree limbs that traveled from a spring house. The gristmill operator kindly spent a long time showing us how the mill worked and the slow process of grinding wheat into flour using the big, original mill stones. We spent a good four hours touring this eleven mile loop and came away in awe of these Tennessee mountain folks, their desire for community, their hard work and industrious way of life. Do not miss Cades Cove if you are ever in the area!

End of Trip Highlights:

November 13: Planning and organizational day in Twin Mountain Campground, Pigeon Forge.

November 14 - 16: Oak Hollow Family Campground, High Point, NC - Furniture shopping at Drexel Heritage, Furnitureland South and Thomasville. Finally ordered a new sofa and loveseat from      Drexel Heritage.

November 17 - 22: Anderson, SC. Stayed at Ginger and Lou's home (Lin's sister and brother-in-law) while prepping Four-Bit to be bedded down for the winter. On Monday, November 22nd, the trailer was sadly moved into a locked storage unit. She will be missed while resting until spring. Celebrated Don's birthday; visited niece, Carolyn, in Athens, GA; and saw three nephew's children (Tom's kids) baptized in North Georgia; heard great blue grass music at two different venues; ate more great Southern food; and enjoyed just being together with family again in Lou and Ginger's beautiful new home.

November 23 - 26: Thanksgiving with Mag and Dave (Don's brother and sister-in-law) in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Great T-Day feast, good fellowship, guitar jam-fest, pecan "egg hunt," and BBQ.

November 27 - 28:
Moved along to good friends' home in Mason Neck, VA, Bob and Sharon. Relaxing and enjoyable time, as always.

November 29 - 30: Stayed with Doug and Barbara (another of Don's brothers and sister-in-law) in Oakton, VA. Visited youngest brother, Jim, and wife, Bette, in Gainesville for dinner. Dinner at Doug and Barbara's the second night and surprise visit with nephew, Matthew! Wow, have we had a great time seeing family!!!!

December 1: Stayed overnight with Linda's longtime high school friend, Millie, and her husband, Lee, in Califon, NJ.

December 2: Yummy pancake breakfast and off for a short stop in Waterbury, CT, to see Jason (unofficial Son 2) and wife Jen's new baby daughter, Mae.

Finally arrived safely home in Maine at 7:00 PM to welcoming flowers and homemade cookies from friends and neighbors!!! "Hey it's good to be back home again. Yes, it is." Great times, great memories, good people and so, so much more. When do we leave again?