Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Arkansas

Here we are on the AT.  This is a where Lee hiked, so we were excited to be on the path he was on a few years ago!

Don on the AT

Can you see the snake-?-a very little one.  We also saw a big one on the trail--looked like a copperhead, but I don't think they have those in GSMNP

This is on the hike up to Alum Bluffs Cave.  It was a great hike!

As you can see it is a HUGE bluff--see me in the red shirt?

We took the Cade's Cove Loop Drive.  It was only 11 miles long, but it took us nearly 5 hours! 

A cantilever barn

This is a cabin in Cades' Cove (where a community of people lived before this became a national park).  Very interesting to see the construction.  

 

Black Bear!  We saw 3 in Cade's Cove. 

Don with his morning coffee sitting by the campfire and mountain stream--his "happy place"

One of many beautiful sights

We met a couple at the Blanchard Springs Campground in Arkansas who had this little trailer.  He had built it and pulls it with his VW Bug.  Now if I can just get Don to build one for us!  It is built on a 4 x 8 trailer he bought at Harbor Freight--we have one of those!!!!!

Blanchard Springs Caverns--Beautiful!  This nature sculpture is 65 feet tall!

As you can see the formations were amazing.  This is the most beautiful cave we have ever seen! 

You see the staircase and handrail on the left so you can tell how huge these stalagtites are.

The ceiling was filled with hundreds or thousands of little "soda straw" formations

 As of today, we have driven about 7,600 miles.  In the past 7 1/2 weeks we have been so many places.  What a blessing to be able to take a trip like this!   I told Don that, for me, this is the best way to take a trip--camp in beautiful national parks, state parks, on beaches and islands; stay a night in a hotel every once in a while; visit friends--Pat and Carol Scherden in Michigan, and relax at a timeshare.  We just mixed it all up!  I have to say that I am a little partial to the tent and enjoying nature.   Since Don turned 62, he was happy to get his Golden Pass to National Parks, so we got in to the parks free and discounts on camping....very nice.  We take advantage of all those discounts we can get. 

 Now we have spent the week in Branson and enjoyed kicking back in our comfortable timeshare here.  We are going to see the show "Six" tomorrow night.  Friday morning we will head to East Texas--got to see our grandkids (oh, Lee and Rebekah, too!).  I have missed them all so much.

Our August-September vacations are becoming an annual event.  We like to escape the Texas heat!  2013 we plan to visit the Scherdens in Germany.  2014--maybe a trip to Alaska--???