The HANDFUL

The best thought out plans change! So on Sunday we were rested and ready and decided to head on into Great Smoky Mountain National Park... Yeah, I'm not gonna say it was m.i.s.t.a.k.e. but it WAS super duper busy and crowded.  The drive up to Clingman's Dome was long and bumper to bumper traffic. People were doing pull off parking about for the last half mile up. When we left they were even farther back on both sides of the road. But the mini donuts on the way there were scrumptious!

Walking up the .5 mile path to the Dome was a worlout. Gracious! It was straight up, ooh-kay, okay, maybe NOT straight up but up at a huge angle. I made it. Views were good, some haze but still overall a spectacular view. Took the time to stop (wait in line) at the little ranger store on the way down in hopes of scoring a T-shirt but no joy. Not only are they VERY proud of their T-shirts at GSMNP ($34.99) they didn't have a size M in hardly any styles I liked. I'm just disappointed that the last few NPs we have visited are so stinkin' expensive with their T-shirts. Why?

We started our trek home this week. There were several routes to take and we pretty much had decided to just wing it but when we hit Kentucky we were sooooo close to Mammoth Cave National Park we decided to stop. And stop is all we did. While I had been here and got to take a cave tour in my childhood MiRVB had not so we were plannig to do the self guided tour like we did at Carlsbad. Nope, that didn't work out, they had no tickets for this type tour until October 18th. So we got the T-shirts (which were much cheaper than any other Park we visited and just as cool) and motored on.

As we motored we passed a very large GM factory... and as we pass MiRV realizes it is the corvette factory. Next thing I know we are crossing three lanes of traffic to make that exit and find ourselves in the parking lot of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Now I'm quickly googling and find out there are factory tours. We head inside to get the scoop. Unfortunately, no tours, you know COVID and all. So since we are here and all we just decide to tour the museum instead and $28.00 later we are in the museum theater learning all things corvette. While it was a cool stop, the venue has a big focus on the sinkhole that occurred a few years back. By far the Harley Davidson musuem in Wisconson is way better. But it you're a 'vette enthusiast I'm sure you'll enjoy a visit. MiRV certainly did. AND we go the T-shirts though MiRV would have preferred to pick up an actual corvette there!

Thankfully, we are back at the Meadow, have ROADA tucked away (although she needs to get in for a looksy at the water tank issue and service) and now we are catching up on home chores. I have sadly only really scratched the surface on our trip. There were so many more things we were able to see and do and I have just not captured them, this makes my crazy but also I know I cannot put everything here so I have attempted the highlights.