Hurray we're rollin' again!

Wild turkeys
One of many little valleys

See the deer?

Appalachian folk art and humor

At last we are turning our wheels again, doing our tourist thing. The month we sat in Ohio was fun, but with the turning of the weather we like to head for sunnier skies. We have been 2 1/2 days here in Raccoon Valley (Escapees) RV Park and have made good use of them. When we arrived and set up we joined the afternoon social hour and met some of the friendly folk who make the park a nice place to stay. Both mornings have been overcast and damp, but by afternoon have made way for sunny skies and dry air--perfect for sightseeing. Yesterday we headed for the Great Smoky Mts. National Park and Cades Cove. This is one of many little settlements in the mts. It is an 11 mile drive to visit some of the home places. I can't say homesteads because the people who settled here actually bought land. Some places are right by the road and some are a short walk away. There were several roads crisscrossing the cove. Some have been preserved as walking/hiking trails and some are now paved and drivable. Since we were there in the early afternoon we didn't see much wildlife (dawn and dusk are best for this), but Ole Sharp Eye managed to spot the deer and turkeys even though he was driving. (I was reading the info booklet). After we exited the cove we headed for Gatlinburg and took the artisans' loop outside of town. We found a nice quilt shop and a couple of local carvers and the ice cream shop before everything closed up.

Today we took off under cloudy misty skies to visit the Museum of Appalachia. This is a large complex of several original historic log buildings that have been moved to the site to represent Appalachian Mountain living. The tour is self-guided. The buildings are full personal belongings--tools, toys, clothing, utensiles, etc. that were used by the original inhabitants. One of the buildings is called the Appalachian Hall of Fame and features notable, historic, famous, interesting, colorful and unusual folk that lived in the area. We thought the cost--$15 each--was more in line for a living history village, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

As of now we haven't decided whether we will move on tomorrow or stay for the weekend. We are done touring the area for now, but don't really like to travel on the weekend. We'll see.

Basta por hoy,

Louise and Duane