Chimneys

My last post brought to remembrance that I still have quite a bit I could blog on about several of our last vacations.

This one is more about our trip to Tennessee a couple years back.

We had found out from some locals about one of the trails out in the Great Smokey Mountains, a hike out to a natural rock formation called The Chimneys. My younger son and I left mom at the trail head with the rental car and started out.

I went back through my pictures and selected several of the good ones from the hike.

Another of those situations where almost all the pictures came out really good!!!

It was only a little over three miles of a hike, but it's upsy most of the way. It gains almost 1,500 feet.

The first part follows along a stream bed, so there were many water shots.

It started out as a bright sunny day with a few clouds, but as the day (and our hike) went on, it became more and more cloudy.

Which was actually pretty nice, otherwise it would have been even more sweaty!!!

It appears that the only actual shot I got of the wood beam steps that were prevalent for the later part of the hike was one of my bad shots, where it blurred.

The main color that we saw was the forest green, which made the red flowers and red leaves we saw stand out all the more.

When we got to the actual Chimneys, the trail ends and you have to scramble up the exposed black rock.

There's not a picture that shows it very well, but it goes up. Almost straight up!!!

There were some other hikers up there to take a shot of both of us.

And the last couple of shots were from my newly acquired smart phone, a selfie of both of us.

And another, attempting to get a shot of the sheer steepness.

Disaster Man

Here's a disturbing trend I've noticed.

Back in 2016 we vacationed down in Tennessee, notably in the Pigeon Forge area, as well as an afternoon in the Great Smoky Mountains just outside Gatlinburg. It was a great vacation, and I could have posted more about it.

A few months after we'd gone, devastating wildfires engulfed the area.

The next year, 2017, we went down to Texas, flying into Houston, and spending some time there, as well as Austin, San Antonio, and Galveston. Another great vacation, and again worthy of more posts than I have done. (This was about the best shot that I have outside in the Houston area.)

Just a couple of months later, Hurricane Harvey blew into town and flooded the area.

Just last November my wife and I traveled up north to the San Jose area for our anniversary.

While we were in the area, the Camp Fire broke out. You could smell smoke in most of the places we were at, and it was smoke hazy the whole time. I took the last picture on the flight out, and you can see the layer of smoke.

I'm taking bids on where not to vacation next year.

Down South Vacationin'

Welcome to the recap of this year's vacation trip!!! A few years back I had the idea of going to check out Dollywood, and finally this year that is what we did!!!

Compared to the perpetual fail of last year's trip, it was a great vacation!!! (On that trip, I could have, and probably should have, and if I ever had the chance still might do a post about the other parts of that vacation that epically failed... Looking at you, Expedia and American Airlines, two companies on my "Do Not Patronize" list since then)

In the second shot, you'll see the cool Dr. Who cats shirts my wife thought would be good to get to travel in!!!

I had the idea of hitting Nashville and Memphis while we were there, but it turns out that Tennessee is a pretty big state, and flying from one area to another would take a while with the NSA lines and whatnot. I had 11 days consecutive, but my son was still in school for the first four, which worked out, as I had time to fix Scruffy. If it hadn't been for the school thing, we may have hit all three areas.

We left VERY early on Saturday (like don't even bother going to bed the night before early) which worked out good in that there was very little traffic on the roads, and the airport lines weren't that bad yet. We got there a bit longer than the prescribed two hours early, and the airline kiosks weren't open yet, then when they were, the TSA checkpoints weren't. Still not bad at all. Knoxville is the closest airport to Pigeon Forge, and there are no direct flights, so it was via Denver on the way there, and O'Hare on the way back. Upon arrival, and even before looking for which way to get to our lodging, we cruised aimlessly into Maryville, where we happed on the Dead End Barbecue, which turned out to be as good as it sounds!!!

Didn't do much else after checking into our room that afternoon, just reset our sleep clocks!!!

As you may expect, the whole of the area of the state we saw is very lush. Lots of little creeks and streams, hills and valleys. Oh yea, and humid, too!!! Not Florida humid, but still more than home. Seemed like for most of the drive we were on two lane country roads, very picturesque!!!

Got the three day passes for Dollywood and Dollywood Splash Country. Had a couple days where we weren't at those parks, but it turns out there's a LOT of other things to do in the area!!!

There is a new coaster at Dollywood, the Lightening Rod, the fastest wood coaster in North America, with a power launch. Looks awesome, with turns banked to near vertical, but both days we were there it wasn't open. Something like that happened last year, too.

Other things to do around Pigeon Forge??? There's an Alpine Coaster, with one or two person sleds, almost bobsleds, that are right on the mountains. You control the brakes, but they really aren't necessary!!! They are worthy rides, and we ended up going twice, once at night.

Of course, there's also the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We heard of a hike out to the Chimneys that we did one afternoon. Only two miles, but upsy most the way in. That is where I got most of my pictures on my real camera, and worthy of a post of it's own. Maybe that will happen.

According to a statistic I just made up, Pigeon Forge has the most go-karts per capita of any town in America. Seems like at least half a dozen places down the main drag. Mini golf and arcades are also abundant. Made it to the Titanic museum, but not the Elvis museum.

There is more to come...