Sevierville, Tn. Smokey Mountains NP

We arrived in Sevierville Tn. on Wednesday May 9th. We have been in this area many times and enjoy the Great Smokey Mountains National Park very much. On Thursday we drove into the park and found a nice two mile hike along one of the streams. On the way in we saw our first black bear of the day. The traffic was backed up and the people were in the woods taking pictures. I just don't understand what these people are thinking. Many of them were as close as fifty feet. They would't even have time to pee there pants if the bear decided to charge.

Later in the day we drove down to Cades Cove (A nature drive). We stopped along the drive to see some of the deserted homes and churches from the residents that had to leave when their land was purchased by the government. Some of them lived there into the thirties. We had done this drive once before with the Ton of Fun group. We saw some deer and our second bear of the day. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful place.

The next day we returned to the park and did a small nature trail on one of the abandoned farms. This farm "The Noah "Bud" Ogle Place was home to one of the first settlers in the Gattlinburg Tn. area. Bud and his wife Cindy started out on this 400 acres in 1879. The farm was very interesting. The picture of the water trough is the small grissmill located back in the woods along a small stream. Very interesting how they lived back then. This house actully had running water inside. Clever people. This home is relatively close to Gattlinburg on the way into the Roaring Fork Nature Trail. We had another great day.

 Our first walk. The butterflies were swarming in the woods. These blue ones and a bunch of Tiger Swallowtails.







Two happy hikers!

Methodist Church on Cades Cove nature drive.

 Number two black bear on the Cades Cove drive.

 Happy hiker!

Grissmill on the Ogle farm.

 Mountain stream on the Roaring Fork Drive.

 Same stream.

Another farmhouse.

 Harley family in Pigeon Forge. This dog actually goes to work with this guy. He works on heavy equipment. They told us the dog actually climbs up into the cab of a bulldozer or backhowe when he is working.  (Enlarge the pictures to get the full picture of the dog)

Not a good Saturday. This tire is toast.

What my axle looks like without tires!








On Saturday May 12th we headed for Louisville, Ky. Things went well until the last 20 miles. We were heading west on I64 when the rear left side inside tire blew. Not a good thing. We were able to get off the road and into a small gas station/food mart. I called CoachNet and four hours later our pocketbook was much lighter and we had a new tire.

We made it to the campground around 8:00pm and it has been raining here ever since. Not a good two days. Tomorrow we will go out to see what Louisville has to offer.

Live Life to its fullest.

Bill and Eileen