Craig's blog

Today we had a big day.  We got up at 6:15 and got on the road by 7:15.  We drove the 85 miles south on the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping at Linville Falls for a 1.6 mile hike and Craggy Gardens for a 1.4 mile hike as well as at some of the overlooks. I last drove on the parkway in 1986, and it was as beautiful as I remembered.  They keep the road in excellent shape and there are turnouts everywhere for easy viewing of the sights.   It took us until noon to drive the 85 miles (we probably averaged 40 mph while driving).

Next I dropped the girls off at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville.  This is “the biggest house in the country”.   I left them to tour the house and I ran errands in the motorhome.  It took 20 minutes to drive off of the estate!  Then I went to AAA, got gas, ate a wrap and stopped by Starbucks before heading back up to the estate to pickup the girls.  It sounded like I didn’t miss much.  They said it was old fashioned and not super-interesting. 

We left the Biltomre and next hustled to the town of Hartford, TN just outside of the Great Smoky Mountains.  We had a white water rafting reservation and had to arrive at 3:30.  We rafted down the Upper Pigeon river which has class 3 and class 4 rapids.  It was a perfect ride – exciting enough, with perfect temperature water and air (~68 and 82 respectively).  We bumped a rock near the beginning in a class 3 rapid and lost Katie, our guide and ¾ of Maddie (she kept one foot in the raft).  We pulled Maddie back in, then eventually hauled Katie in the raft.  Our guide, Biscuit, continued to bark out directions while floating down next to the raft until we finally got her back in (Jessie and Kelli helped haul her in).  Overall it was a great float trip and we all had a blast.

Next we drove to our campsite in Elkmont campground in the Great Smokey Mountains.  Unfortunately that meant we had to drive through Gatlinburg, which was as bad as I had heard.  It’s like driving through a mini-Las Vegas as Patty put it.  Tons of tourist trap junk and traffic that was awful.  It took about 20 minutes to drive the 1 mile through town.  L

After we got through we were almost immediately in the park and it was just the opposite – beautiful forest with almost no cars.  We got to our campsite at about 7:45.  Patty actually cooked dinner during the last 20 minutes of the drive, which was great because we were all starving. 

Now we’re sitting by the campfire – it’s dry camping again.  The plan for tomorrow is to relax.  Go for a hike, refresh our groceries and sit in the campground.