On top of old smokey!

First Amendment
Originally uploaded by hollybrekken.

This past weekend was spent in a place I really never thought I would be. Shady and I drove up to Tennessee for a weekend in the Smokey Mountains with my mother. Its about half way between us, and proved to be an excellent time.

We left Florida Thursday evening, about a half an hour before the storm hit. One bonus about traveling during a hurricane: no tolls! ;)
We ended up staying the night in a random place in northern Georgia- easily the trashiest place I have ever slept- but it was an adventure. We got to the area about an hour before my mom the next day- so we went to the cabin rental office to check in- when we left with the keys Shady said to me, "I did not understand a single word that woman just said". ...and he thought I was exaggerating about the accent differences...

The cabin was wonderful. After taking several practically vertical roads we found it nestled in the mountains with rustic appeal but all the comforts of home. Well, actaully, a heck of a lot more comforts than our home... cable, pool table, king size beds, fireplace, hot tub... microwave... ha ha ha.

Our one full day, Saturday, we did the true tourist experience. A drive through the mountains up to the peak of Old Smokey- really- but unfortunately in was too foggy for us to see anything. This is where we found the sign on the right- at the end of the road where cars had to stop and people had to finish the route on foot. Apparently they wanted to make sure people knew that the summit of old smokey was a perfectly fine place the practice your "first ammendment" rights- as long as it was in the designated area and you had the proper permits of course.

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening wandering the tourist town: candy factories, t-shirt shops, art galleries, mini golf, weapons stores... it was quite an eventful day. Sunday afternoon before heading out we even managed to squeeze in a helicopter tour over the town, foothills and mountains.

An additional unexpected suprise that the weekend had in store for me- kait alluded to earlier. Gaitlinburg Tennessee happens to be the home of none other than the famous Dollywood! Although I did not enter the theme park- we did see it. Quite exciting really. ha ha ha. That is definitely one place in the world I never thought I would be.

Its the little suprises that make life really great, isn't it? ;)