Smokies

We just got home from a wonderful week in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee! Just wanted to share some pix, etc.

We left home last Sunday...well, we actually left from church in Indy. We took I-65 south to Louisville and what a mistake! Remnants of Hurricane Ike hit while we were still in Indy and the rain poured! When it finally quit, the winds were HORRIBLE! Fred could barely keep the SUV on the road! Once we got to southern IN, the traffic was stopped. Turns out, hundreds of trees were down all over, including the interstate! What a mess!! Tree cutting crews were ahead of us cutting the fallen trees enough to get them off the interstate so traffic could move. All of this was just in the southbound lanes, of course. lol The northbound lanes were full of crews from various electric companies from other states coming to help restore electricity.

After going between 4 MPH & 10 MPH, we decided to take the next exit and stop at a Cracker Barrel. We were so tired of sitting in the traffic that went further than our eyes could see in front of us and behind us. The Cracker Barrel was deserted! The entire exit had no electricity! McDonald's locked up their doors...everything was shut down. No working gas pumps! We went to a motel and went to the bathroom inside in the dark! Just in the motel parking lot alone, I think there were 10 trees down.

It took hours to get to Louisville and it should have taken 2 hours or less.

We eventually made it to the Smokies and loved our cabin!!

Here's some pix we took this week:

This isn't the only one of these signs we saw at gas stations in TN.

Our bedroom. Right outside on the deck was a hot tub. We had a huge Jacuzzi inside.
Yes, that's Miss Ryleigh on the bed! lol

Had this game room right outside our bedroom. The pool table made for a GREAT changing table for Ryleigh! lol

Loved these flowers on an old fence.

Our cabin. It was way up there! lol

Our cabin
Our cabin

Miss Ryleigh was trying so hard to crawl!

Our dining area

View from our living room!

I came out from a shop and found these two characters on the porch!

We saw a black bear in the woods!

Guessing it was about a year old.

Cades Cove, TN. My favorite spot on earth.




This mama was standing right beside the road in Cades Cove.


Here's the fawn. She was really small...this was taken with a zoom lens.

The mama


Church in Cades Cove


Cades Cove

Cades Cove

Cades Cove

Ryleigh with a black bear lol
Mill flume

The mill flume was a device used by Cades Cove's pioneers to divert water from a stream to power a mill. The water turned a large waterwheel by falling on the large paddles

Standing in front of the Cable Mill

John P. Cable Mill--In Cades Cove there were few sources of power which the frontiersman knew how to harness. One of those power sources was the water wheel such as drove the early grist mills. Cable Mill is one of those. The Smoky Mountains Natural History Association keeps Cable Mill running in Cades Cove to teach the Smoky Mountain visitor a little about life in the 1800's. The mill is operated April-October.A handful of enterprising residents in Cades Cove built water driven mills to grind grain. Their hope was that other Cades Cove families would prefer paying them to grind the grain rather than to struggle with the small inefficient tub mills at home. The tub mills were only capable of processing a bushel of corn each day. The entrepreneurs were correct and ran fine business in Cades Cove as a result.Cornmeal was the only grain that could be ground in the tub mills and so the waterwheel driven mills that could grind wheat into flour was a welcome addition to the cove. Now biscuits could be eaten some of the time instead of cornbread.Payment for grinding grain did not always mean money exchanged hands in Cades Cove. Sometimes money was paid but other times the miller was paid a portion of the resulting flour or meal. Besides John Cable, his son and also Frederick Shields operated mills. Cable and Shields took double advantage of their waterwheel by using it to power saw mills as well. Cable was the only person in Cades Cove to use the overshot water wheel. Like most business men in the Cove, Cable was also a farmer. He could be summoned from the fields by a large bell he had on the property for that purpose.In the history of Cades Cove, the saw mills were important because they changed the way people built houses. Before the saw mills, homes were built of logs. After the saw mills, the homes were built almost exclusively of lumber and frame construction. Also, most owners of the log homes in Cades Cove bought lumber for siding to cover the fact that they were living in old fashioned cabins. This practice of siding cabins was very common in America. Some people with homes from the 1800's are rediscovering their homes past. As they remove siding in order to make repairs the discovery is made that their house is really a cabin with board siding over it. Some choose to restore their house by removing the boards and letting the original cabin show through.. (taken from cadescove.net)

Gregg-Cable House

Gregg-Cable House had two locations in Cades Cove--Cades Cove's Becky Cable died in her Cades Cove home in 1940 at age ninety-four. At the time she and her house were located on Forge Creek Road but after her death the Great Smoky Mountain National Park service decided the Cable Mill area was a better location--for the house that is. Becky Cable was a remarkable lady who lived a long productive life in the cove. For one thing, she raised her brothers children after he and his wife became ill. But that is not all. She also ran a boarding house as well as her brother's farm. She raised gardens, cattle and food for herself , her family and her borders. In the early Cades Cove culture, Aunt Becky had help of course from adult family members, neighbors and her brothers children. (Taken from cadescove.net)

Early morning view from our cabin

Smoky Mountains

Smoky Mountains, viewing Mt. LeConte

Overlooking Gatlinburg

Peacock in Norris, TN

Glamour Girl

Took these last two on the drive home.

I've been a "student" of the Smokies and especially Cades Cove for many years. I have quite a library of historical books by descendants of the original pioneers. The history of the place draws me like no other place does. If you don't know much about Cades Cove, please go here: http://www.cadescove.net/cades_cove_pioneers.html

and

http://www.cadescove.net/auto_tour.html