Gatlinburg

Well, you haven't heard much from me for a few days. We've been too busy in Gatlinburg for me to take time to write! We made the drive from Hendersonville to Gatlinburg without incident but not without some white knuckles! I've driven the mountains many times in many places and don't think too much about it, but driving a motorhome in the mountains was a different experience, expecially in the construction zone on I-40 where a rock slide had obliterated part of the road a couple of years ago and kept it closed for quite some time. The highway is open, at least one lane, but it was a narrow lane and the road is still winding. But I made my first mountain drive in the Fiesta and we made it fine!

We are at the TwinCreek RV Park in Gatlinburg. It is an excellent place to be. The sites are good and well equipped ... and fairly level. Even better, it sits on the trolley line that lets us travel in Gatlinburg without a car of our own. The campground has some they rent out, but the cost is a little pricey and so we elected to not rent this time.

Tuesday we rode the trolley into G'burg, walked around town, had a good time, ate a late lunch and walked some more and then came home pretty tired. But a good time was had. Came home to the campground to find we have new neighbors on both sides. And one of them is driving a Fleetwood Fiesta, a 27 footer like our too! This is only the third on we've seen. It's a 26-Y as opposed to our 26-Q, meaning they have different floorplans, but still very similar.

Wednesday, July 14, was my 63rd birthday. Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are great places to celebrate a birthday. A BIG thank you to all the people who wished me a happy birthday via eMail and FaceBook. The many greetings of the day were deeply appreciated! We ended the day with a rousing game of Tri-ominoes. Ah, the life!

Today, we took the aerial tramway to the top of the Ober Gatlinburg where we had beautiful views of the Great Smoky Mountains. It was a beautiful day. This may be the first day of our vacation where I got too much sun. We finished off the day by doing a load of laundry. That's not much fun but had to be done.

Friday we hope to see a high school classmate of mine, Jim Sidwell, who lives in Sevierville. And then Saturday we'll hit the road for home, hopefully by Sunday night.

Later!