The Great Smokies + Chattanooga

Hey There! Happy Monday! 

Once we left Kentucky with my parents we were ready to get out of the cold and head towards the mountains for a few days. That seems to be a pretty good balance for us. A few days in the city and then a few days in a state park or national forest. It's good for us and good for the dogs. I get a little paranoid about ticks but someone has to..  (Blake actually just had one on his leg and it was one of the grossest things ever - I had to pull it out in a parking lot with tweezers right before a gym class and it took me a minute to recover.) 

The Great Smoky Mountains were only about 4 hours away and we were hoping to get there and have hookups so we could get through the next few days without our tanks freezing. Thankfully - it didn't get cold enough because there weren’t any hookups in the side of the park that was open! You mid- southerners and your winter hours! Seriously everything has been closed - but there were still several really pretty spots in this little campground near Cades Cove. 

Cades cove is an 11 mile loop inside of the Smokies with these amazing views of the mountains and these gorgeous meadows. It was like a scene from a painting or a movie. We parked and went for a walk along the one way road that goes through the park. Most people drive it but it is open to pedestrians and bikes and is really the only place in the park where dogs are allowed. I always complain about that rule but I understand now because there were deer everywhere! We saw at least 20 on our first day just walking about 2 miles. They are so beautiful but I am kind of scared of them. If you read my instagram post from Mammoth Cave then you saw that this is an on going thing for me. I like nature but as soon as any wild life larger than a rabbit is within 50 yards of me I’m out of there. I’m an admire from afar girl - there are no pictures of any of those deer on my phone because I read the signs saying “stay back - interaction could result in death” (unlike Blake) who hung out near the road long enough to get a few photos of a buck that was about 10 yards from the trail. 

We got into the Cove on SuperBowl Sunday and Blake was a little disappointed that we probably wouldn’t see the game. We thought about staying in Knoxville but our desire not to sleep in another Walmart parking lot won so we figured it was a long shot. As soon as we crossed into the park both of us lost cell service and I could tell Blake was bummed. When we got back from our walk though we tried the TV to see if we would get any channels at all - and after a quick auto scan we got 3. The TV flipped on, and there it was you guys - the only channel that came in clearly was the SuperBowl. I was hoping Atlanta would win so I was a little sad but Blake said it was one of the best football games he’s every watched so I’m glad we had it.

The next morning we got up and geared up to do the full 11 mile loop. The weather was a little wishy washy so I wasn’t very sure how the day would go for us and I was also really paranoid about bears... Blake would start talking about something funny or telling me a story and I would be so distracted looking around in the woods and over analyzing every sound. There was a stretch where I kept checking to see if there were branches nearby that I could use to scare one away with. 
I know I’m a crazy person - I don’t know when this happened to me! Anyway! We really enjoyed the park. They have an auto tour that you can follow along with and it was really cool to walk with as well. They give you information on all of the homesteads on the property and it nice to learn the history of the park. We have definitely added this to the list of places to come back to sans dogs... sorry guys, love you!

After 3 days with no cell service we were ready to get back into real life. We made the short trek to Chattanooga and found a place to stay just outside of downtown. The next day we went downtown so that Blake could hit a yoga class and I walked the dogs along the river and down around the city. I always mean to take pictures during these walks but I get too wrapped up in podcasts and forget. I really liked it there though. The people were really friendly and I was even invited to a running club meeting by the girl at Lululemon. I was so tempted to go but the rain made it less appealing - especially when I don't have a hot shower to come home to. 
Instead, we took our chances with another Civil War Battle ground and it was so spooky! We learned that it was one of the most deadly battles in the Civil War with nearly 12,000 casualties. The fog was really thick so you could barely see the memorials and the canons around the field. The view was supposed to be fantastic and we did a hike on the outskirts that was gorgeous! I feel like this whole post has just been about my irrational fears but here's one more - I was prepared the whole time to have a ghost encounter. (I'm half joking...) but Blake was trying to freak me out and it was working - I almost hightailed it out of there more than once. 

We were kind of hanging around Chattanooga waiting to hear from family and once we did we were ready to hit the road for Atlanta! I have always wanted to go there and was so excited about it soooooo more on that next time! 

Thanks for reading, and sorry that this recap was a bit boring! As fun as traveling full time is, it's not always very glamorous or action packed. Sometimes it's a few days in a row of bad weather and bad moods where we only take out the camera if something ranks above an 8 on the interesting scale. Other days, we go on an insanely long walk, then hit a gym class, shower and grocery shop. Not super great blog material - but the point of writing this little blog/journal is to remember all of it, even the boring parts! ;) So thank you for following along!

-Brit