We left Maryville at our normal 10:30 – 11:00 early departure time after sayin’ our goodbyes. Made a stop at a Grocery for some vittles and got some great deals. I keep harpin’ “Our freezer Doesn’t have any more room” Then we see 2 filet mignon’s fer $3.30, Porterhouse fer 4-$5, New York strips 4-$5 and a fella just can’t turn down deals like that. So I buy some ice & throw everything in a cooler cause we’re gonna be in Bryson City in a few hours, then I’ll just throw em’ in the freezer there.
Well we got as far as Townsend, TN and we decided that we would drive through the park along Little River Rd. makin’ a stop at the ‘Sinks’ along the way. We fueled up in Townsend fer $2.39/gal and got us a Subway sandwich to split. We hadn’t stopped at the Sinks in a number o’ years so we stopped and ate our lunch. Then we got to walkin’ around and snappin’ some pictures.
A shot of the sinks
The rocks around here are jumbled & jagged, with some mighty swift water and it’s hard to get a good angle for a shot.
This is a little closer
After a while we headed done the road again towards home but only made it to Laurel Falls. “Have we ever seen this?”, “Not that I remember” I responded half-heartedly. So guess what?
It was a 1.3 mile walk along steep mountain switchback trails to see this.
Laurel Falls
We sure were thirsty when we got back. I don’t now why we can’t ever remember to take water with us. One o’ these days.
We started out again fer home and made it all the way to Newfound Gap at the crest of the Smokies in time for supper. What a beautiful spot for dining.
The view out the back door
After our supper with breath-takin’ scenery we started down the mountain towards home, again. About half-way down the subject of visitin’ the Elk at Cataloochee Valley came up. “Are we gonna go over to Cataloochee while were here?” “Well of course we will dear.” “If you recall, last year we caught the end of the ‘Rut’, maybe we should go now.” Well guess where we headed after fillin’ up on water. Ya see the campground lies in the valley about 17 miles off the highway. The last 10 miles are mountain switchback, one lane with turnouts, gravel road. As we headed out in the dark, it sure looked different, and a lot scarier than in the daytime. On our way in we discussed a couple we had met and became friends with two years ago in this campground, jokin’ that wouldn’t it be somethin’ if they were there. As we perused the campground loop we spied their camp. We drove around the remainder o’ the loop back to the registration board & parked. We then walked the camp with the camp host and finally settled on a site across the way from Danny & Joy, our friends. After we got setup Joy come walkin’ by in the dark with Diane, a friend and said Hey. Still not knowin’ it was us till I asked if she was from Alabama, she looked at us and shrieked. Their were hugs all around and I told her I wanted to surprise Danny. I walked around the back of their camp where he was settin’ by the fire and said” Hey pilgrim do you remember me?’ He was surprised to say the least. Funny thing is as we were takin’ about them being here, they were doin’ the same. We hung out with them the rest o’ the night, then returned to our camp. We’ll see them again tomorrow.
Thursday before we got to eat our breakfast, Diane came over to invite us over for biscuits & chocolate gravy. Linda already had our breakfast made so we ate then went over to sample ‘Chocolate Gravy’. Very good Joy, you can make that anytime were together. They were leavin’ today and we couldn’t seem to keep ‘em, even though we told ‘em, “If you stay we’ll stay, but if your leavin’ we’ll leave to.” Oh well next time we’ll have better coordination in both our plans. Sorry guys, I know I have pictures from our last encounter but I can’t find ‘em.
After sayin’ goodbye with hugs all around, we left for the valley to check on the elk herd. We were a little late as the last group was just headin’ into the trees for the afternoon. We did get a picture of this one bull, he must have been worn out, from chasin’ women, as he didn’t move.
The leaves on this side of the park are comin’ on with their colors.
With no elk to watch we left Cataloochee for…. HOME? Just got back to Maggie Valley in time to have some scrumptious wings at a place called Smackers, for a late lunch. Next to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo this place runs a close second. We lucked out as on Wednesday & Thursday they have 25 cent wings so we had some hot & garlic parmesan. We’ll be back next week for more.
Well finally made it to our home in Bryson City where we’ll set for the next week or so, I Think. So that’s all for now from us. We’ll see what the next adventure brings.
Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;
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