[Tanya]

A trip to Tennessee had been planned for last fall, but instead we executed a cat caper for a long time friend and flew two cats from New Mexico to a place more likely to find adopters. Limited vacation dictated the trip had to be rescheduled. Yes, the kitties did find new homes.





Since said cat caper, there have been numerous comments from Cort about the number of Stein air shirts in my possession. So, what would I do? Embrace the comments, of course, and make it a central theme of the trip. Only Stein Air shirts would grace the suitcase, except for some base layers for warmth.

Day one took us from Austin, TX to meet Roy and Sandy Thoma at their new airpark home at Hensley Airpark in Chuckey, TN. It was a long overdue visit, and I couldn't have been happier to finally make it there. We stopped in Greenville, TN to fill up the fuel tanks.



Day two was a tour of the local area thanks to Roy and Sandy. We headed out for a short 20 minute car ride to the trailhead of a beautiful hike up to a waterfall. I'm super jealous that something like that is in their backyard. 22C had a safe place to rest for a few days with one of her Caribbean traveling buddies.







We traveled down to the Great Smoky Mountains after the waterfall hike and woke up on day 3 to start our exploration of the national park. We got great advice from our friends to stay near Townsend instead of Gatlinburg. It made the drive into the park trivial, and beautiful.



Day 4 gave us a picture perfect description of how the mountain range got its name. It was a rainy day, so we decided on a leisurely morning and then headed out to a tourist trap that had been on Cort's list for a while, The Lost Sea. It's the largest underground lake in the US. We enjoyed the walk down to the water through the cave and boat ride more than we anticipated. On the return, Fort Loudon was just a couple miles off the road home, so we took a quick detour. The fort wasn't much to write home about, but the location in the bends of the river was very well worth the detour.

 

[Tanya]

More day 4 pictures since I surpassed by 10 limit in the first post.





Day 5 was a beautiful sunny day with cool temperatures. First, we had to reach a goal to hit another tourist trap, "Goats on a Roof". Then it was back into the park for a few stops. The main visitor center is worthy of a good chunk of time. Cades Cove was highly recommended, but it didn't make the highlight reel of our trip. There were just too many cars traveling along a one way road that made for a very long drive through it. The visitor center there was not much more than some run down buildings with poor signage and a gift shop. We finished the day by clearing 1/250th of the Appalachian trail with a hike out to Charlies Bunion.







Day 6 ended up being a rainy day, and the planned bike ride on the edge of the park and some more hiking was derailed. We lounged a bit for the morning, and as we were heading out, we had a blurr go by the windows on the 2nd story deck. A momma bear and her two cubs sauntered across the deck (did I mention it was a 2nd story on one side) and exited the deck by the main house entrance. That was followed by some time in the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center.






Day 7 took us back home via Meridian, MS. There's always inexpensive fuel, ice cream, snacks, and often some fun aircraft. Fortunately the Airbnb had a wash machine or I would have been short a Stein Air shirt for the way home as I had to re-wear one. I guess I'll crown it my travel turquoise for the trip. Stein, we need to remedy that at OSH 2025.