Day 3 (Delayed)

The plan for today was to drive the rest of the Blue Ridge Parkway from Fancy Gap, VA to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Like yesterday, we decided to adjust the plan slightly, using the interstate highway system for part of our travels.

We followed I-77 and I-40 from Fancy Gap, VA to Asheville, NC. From there, we drove the final 100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a beautiful drive, though I don't think the car appreciated it too much. Lots of climbing followed by descents … very rough on the engine and the brakes. Fortunately, the car seemed to make it through without any problems. We weren't in any particular hurry once we got on the Parkway, so we stopped along the way for a picnic lunch, and stopped at many of the scenic overlooks.

Once we reached the end of the Parkway, we had to drive across Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the Eastern entrance to the Western entrance, which is where our campground is located.

We got the trailer and our other gear set up and then we decided to head into the town of Gatlinburg, TN, which is located just outside the park's Western border. It's only about a 10 – 12 minute drive from our campground. When we reached the edge of the park, we were shocked by what we saw … you go from a drive through a heavy dense forest with a full canopy into what can only be described as something that could rival Las Vegas (without the skyscrapers).

We picked up a couple of things that we needed and returned to our campground. We cooked dinner and then played a game of Stratego. It's really HUMID here … we're really missing the electricity for the trailer and the air conditioner!!!

We're planning to get up really early tomorrow morning to drive to an area of the park called Cades Cove. It's about 20 miles from our campground and we were told that it will take us about 35-40 minutes to get there. On Saturday mornings, they close the road to vehicular traffic from 6:00 am to 10:00 am. It's an 11 mile loop and it's supposed to be really nice. We're going to bring our bikes down there and ride the loop. After that, we're hoping to do a couple of hikes and just enjoy the day. Unfortunately, after we got the trailer set up, I realized that I didn't bring the adapter that I need to mount the bike rack directly to the car's trailer hitch. We had to rearrange everything in the car (the cooler & food bins) so that we can put the bikes in the car to take them with us. What a pain!!! The good news, was that we were able to make it all fit, so at least we'll be able to do the ride.

More on that in tomorrow's post.