Between December 14-19, 2021, the gal whom I have been dating for just over 8 months took time from her work and mine to visit two vacation destinations in Tennessee. Patty chose a Westgate location through her work in Gatlinburg, TN at River Terrace Resort and Convention Center, while I got my stay through R+L Carriers at our Resort in Pigeon Forge, TN. They were so close we were able to make the most of both locations in our week away together.
The weather turned out to be absolutely splendid while we were in Tennessee as the temps were in the 60s to 70s nearly every day we were there! In the middle of December! Crazy! Even the rain held off until the last few days. We visited some cool sites and got some great photos of nature and the area in the photos below! I hope you enjoy what we captured and consider going to either location on your own soon?
On the way down to Patty’s hotel, we stopped by mine to get my keys and check-in. When we got down to her place we got some photos of the area around her resort and drove around the area to get some shots of the mountains (TN sized). Click on each image to see larger!
As we walked through downtown Gatlinburg, TN we could see some of the lifts and walkways up on the hills! Earlier in the evening then after dark…
There were SO many shops in Gatlinburg, you had no trouble finding something to eat, buy, do, or play! I got some of these shots for my kids and family as we are all car and truck nuts! This place had many more cars inside to see and photograph, but we were trying to keep the trip cheap for both of us, and we skipped out on getting tickets.
More of the shops downtown and one stopping point for me, the active diabetic, who is always getting thwarted by low sugars, even with all the gadgets he has. So we ended up stopping outside a fudge shop as my sugar settled. Patty is emersed in learning about diabetics and what all we have to do to keep up (and down) with our glucose levels. It is not easy even after 26 years of dealing with it. The only thing that works well is to not do anything physically, and that is not going to happen! I love the outdoors…
The following day we got shots of more of Gatlinburg’s waterways and mountains (aka “hills” by Colorado standards, but still beautiful!)…
We also selected a nice short trail not far from town to hike on, just off of one of the roads on the Smoky Mountain National Parks beltway. Quiet, serenity, morning sun, and oddly enough lots of leaves on tress and plants still (in December!) with the sound of rushing water in the fast-flowing stream just beside us…
Later that night, we visited the
Great Smoky Mountains Church of Christ for study. I had visited there 2 years ago on a Sunday and the building was bursting with visitors like me, but it seems far fewer take time out of their trips to join the group there for a mid-week Bible study. We did and it was nice!
The next day we set off for an even bigger hiking trip. Instead of a 2-3 mile hike we had done, we were looking at a close to 6-mile hike! We did not get to the location we first wanted as we couldn’t find the trailhead just outside of town. So we tried for one out of town several miles away. When we got there, we discovered after a long drive on a small gravel road that they were doing tree trimming in the direction we wanted to go to. So we had a choice: 1) Either we go straight ahead, away from the stream we wanted to hike by, or 2) We go back to find a new location. We opted for the straight-ahead option. It was an excellent choice as you can see below…
One section we happened on pretty early was a trail that led to an old property boundary made of large stones in the middle of the woods! At first, we could barely make out some of the fences but then saw what appeared to be foundation areas for homes or shops from many years ago. While climbing up to look at one area on stones laid as nearly perfect steps, we found a photographer taking photos of the old tombstones. Then she suggested we get off the path again and we discovered a large barn built back in the mid-1800s, that was still complete! There was an original spring house too, that was mostly still working, and a newer camp cabin built where the old home once stood…
Patty and Roger are pretending to be circa 1700’s homeowners in the TN valley here, even if the structure is the camper cabin built in the early 1900s…
The long hike continued for a total of about 3.5 hours, with even more beauty to behold, and some scary creek “bridges” leading up to an unexpected beautiful waterfall that neither of us had expected to see…
Back in Pigeon Forge, we got some cool shots of the local fun places to go, including an area with go-karts that we rode that ran on a corkscrew wooden track! There was a cool ropes course, a lumberjack duel arena, a log roll course, and many other stores and shops to visit.
One thing I wanted to do in Pigeon Forge the last time I was at the resort, was to ride the giant Ferris wheel that took groups up in an enclosed cabin. We got some nice photos from atop the Ferris wheel as well as while on the ground in “The Island” (of Margaritaville’s hotel and areas) as they called it. We also caught a bit of music from Caroline Owens and the local band she was performing with…
The R+L Resort at Pigeon Forge gets its saltwater taffy from a local shop. We both liked the taffy and wanted to see the place, so we stopped by there the next day. Later that night we finally got a photo of the Welcome sign we had been trying to get a photo by. Then on the way home after church in Sevierville, TN on Sunday, we got a photo of where all of the Little Debbie’s Christmas Tree Cakes were hidden!
It was a great, short trip for both of us. Both of us are still healing from relationships that failed from our past, and both of us needed to get away from work for a while and learn about one another more. It was a very pleasant respite!
Tennessee
