Spontaneity Exists - What Fun!

On Tuesday, August 8, just four days after our 51st Anniversary, Bubba and I were sitting in our recliners checking e-mail and listening to the news.  Bubba said, "We should just load up and head for the Tetons."  I laughed and told him that was too far and we were going that way in September anyway.  Then I said, "We could go somewhere closer though.  What's stopping us?"  I had a hair appointment at 11:00 that morning.  We quickly packed our clothes. I went to my appointment and we were on the road by 1:00.  It rained off and on all day but we headed to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg via Birmingham.  We spent our first night outside Birmingham and the next day drove on in to Pigeon Forge.

I posted this picture on Facebook.  That's when Amy knew
about our trip.

We stayed at the Comfort Inn Apple Valley which is near the Applewood Restaurant that we enjoy.  (How convenient!)  Our first evening meal was at Big Daddy's Pizza.  The next day we ate breakfast at the motel and drove up on the mountain to look around.  The road went through places that you could tell had experienced the fire earlier in the year.  I can't imagine fleeing through fire on both sides of me.  The Smokies are still beautiful.  Greenery had filled in the charred places that we saw.

The Smokies - Always Beautiful!

Lush Greenery

Later we rode up and looked for the old motel where my family always stayed in Gatlinburg when I was growing up.  The sign was still there.  We pulled in and found the remains of the old shuffleboard court and the filled in pool.  Everything else was gone.  What a lot of good memories were made here!

Laurelwood Motel

Lunch was at the Applewood Restaurant.  We returned to the motel and fell into a deep food induced coma which lasted a couple of hours.  We woke up in time to walk back (exercise, you know) to the Apple Barn for ice cream.  And yes, we had wings that evening at a place called Quaker Steak which had an auto racing theme.

Apple Friters with Apple Julep

Checking out the jams in the Apple Barn

The next day involved shopping at the Smoky Mountain Knife Works, lunch at the Old Mill Restaurant which was followed by another food induced coma followed by the walk over to the Apple Barn for ice cream.

Saturday we headed toward Amy's stopping at two big produce stands where we bought tomatoes, squash and delicious Georgia peaches.  Amelia was quite excited to see us.  She had big news.  She proudly displayed her newly pierced ears with her birthstone earrings.  I understand that she almost backed out and nearly fainted, but in the end she was very pleased with herself.  I said, "That wasn't so bad, was it?"  She replied, "Are you kidding?  I was screaming on the inside!"  Darryl grilled steaks for us that night (delicious).  On Sunday we drove home in light traffic which is always nice.  


Spontaneity exists for us!  We had a great time without planning in advance!