This photo was taken by me in April this year.
If you happen to be near East Tennessee there is a lot of kewl places and people to see. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited park in the USA. To me the heart of the Smokies is Cades Cove. A beautiful scenic area full of natures best, there is a campground in Cades Cove but you have to call ahead becuase it is hard to get a spot. There are other places to camp close to the park but I am sure you will have to call ahead also. And for the kids (the old ones too) there is Dollywood just over the hill and down the holler a piece in Pigeon Forge. I don't work for the Park or any Tourist outfit (not hawking for them), I am just an ole boy who loves the mountains, my mothers people use to live in Cades Cove way before it became a National Park. If you would like to know more about this area give me a holler and I will be glad to point you in the right direction and heck if time premits I be glad to show you around abit. I am retired and have some time on my hands when not watching my grandson and working on that Honey-Do-List, seems like your hubby got out of his list for a year anyway the lucky dawg....LoL
Enjoy you trip and it will surely be something that you and your children will never forget. Strong and close families are the backbone of America but that is just me thinking out loud. One more thing the reason for the Orange text is well this is the BIG Orange Country, home of the Vols.
Thex

Love the picture! Looks like you do a little more than just Honey-Dos Is photography a retirement hobby? We are very interested in learning more about photography but haven't found the time to take any good classes and develop a skill for it yet. Maybe one day.
We stopped in Gatlinburg on our way to Virginia Beach. I love the Smoky Mountains. The most beautiful hike I've ever done was there one spring. Dan and I hiked up to Mt. LeConte Lodge and back down in the same day. 13 hours - and I got the t-shirt! The scenery was breathtaking. When we stopped at Gatlinburg we took the boys hiking for a couple of hours on the Appalachian Trail. Didn't make it to Cades Cove, but that's one trip that we'll be able to do later without the RV. Sorry we missed you.

Glad you liked the photo, and yes photography is a retirement hobby. I have always like taking photos but lacked the time to really get into it like I should but digital photography has made it a lot easier to mess with the photos. I like playing around with graphics and such. If you would like to see some of my stuff, photos and gifs that I have played around with you can find them at my blog. Now don't get put off by the name, there is a story that goes with it. I have people asking me all the time as to why that name it doesn't go with my personality. You will see what I mean, here is the address if you would like to look around inside the head of an ole mountain boy from Tennessee :
http://wicked4everdad.stumbleupon.com

Now do know that I do not have any kind of pron on my Stumble Blog, I want it so that any member of my family can look at it, even grandchildren. It does seem that I am always hawking something but that is not the case. Oh yeah I will be posting a link to and a photo from your site if that is Ok with you. Just let me know if you would rather I didn't and I will remove it. I post stuff that I find interesting from life and the net.... Getting hard to tell the difference sometimes...

I do hope you all have a great and safe trip across the US. There are a lot of good folks out there but all we ever hear much about is the bad folks, it is nice to hear of families like yours enjoying life and taking the time to be with one another.


Here is one more photo that I took outside my home about a week or so back.
Peace.
Thex

While we were in Washington DC we saw the 2007 Nature’s Best Photography International Awards and the National Wildlife Photography Awards competitions at the National Museum of Natural History. Gorgeous photography! Check out 16 of this years’s winning photos as well as some of the winners from last year. http://www.thedctraveler.com/natures-best/