The first day, we drove from the Atlanta Airport straight north and stopped for the night in Murphy, NC. This is the second day in early morning right outside of Murphy. We stopped to get gas and I liked this creek - I was dying to get in, but the banks were too steep...
I liked this little bridge, too, but it has a limit of 4 people - I think I'll stay right here.
We rented a silver Camaro Super Sport - the "Tail of the Dragon" is a road going up to the Great Smoky Mountains. It has 318 curves in 11 miles - boy, did Jack ever have fun!!!
Still in one piece...
a lake that I can get into!!! Yeesh...it was brrrr rabbit cold!
First good view of the Smokies...
Leaves, y'all...you couldn't paint something this pretty...
Can y'all tell I love playing in the water???
This was just outside of Cades Cove in the Smokies...the air was so sweet and clean - I've only smelled air like that before in Colorado...I truly felt like I was driving through the middle of a picture book here...it was so pretty...
...and we even spotted some turkeys...
This is our second night's stop - in Cherokee, an Indian Reservation...Houston had cows, Dallas had horses, Cherokee has bears...
...and a Big Chief...
a lake that I can get into!!! Yeesh...it was brrrr rabbit cold!
First good view of the Smokies...
Leaves, y'all...you couldn't paint something this pretty...
Can y'all tell I love playing in the water???
This was just outside of Cades Cove in the Smokies...the air was so sweet and clean - I've only smelled air like that before in Colorado...I truly felt like I was driving through the middle of a picture book here...it was so pretty...
...and we even spotted some turkeys...
This is our second night's stop - in Cherokee, an Indian Reservation...Houston had cows, Dallas had horses, Cherokee has bears...
...and a Big Chief...
...and my favorite, Smokey the Bear...he was a big deal when I was a kid, but this is the first I've seen him in years...
This is at a roadside stand - he's happy just looking at pumpkins...gosh, we need to get away more often...
This is our third day...we decided we would drive to Asheville, NC to go see Biltmore Estate. It was too long of a venture to have accomplished, but we didn't know...this is the weather once we finished up at Biltmore...and it's not even dark yet. I can see better at night than Jack, so he finally relinquished the wheel to me, but it was some scary stuff. We were up in the mountains with fog, blinding rain and, of course, there's no street lights way up there, so it was pitch black, too. If we were going 15 mph, we were lucky. No hotels...no food...it's 2 AM, so I can't even tell you where we finally found a Wendy's or where we finally stopped at a hotel, but I can tell you we both wanted to kiss the bed when we got there...
This is our hotel...
...and even though this was the decor...it was clean and it had a bed...excellent!
This was the prettiest place we saw our entire trip...the morning was clear and bright, so whatever nasty weather had visited us the night prior had pushed through and I was sooo happy because Alicia's party was that evening...
We drove straight to Columbus, GA, checked in to our hotel and I promptly took a nap - still tired from the evening before...now, we're at Alicia's home and she has spent all day at a park with her mom, sister, neice and two children...and she has no idea what she will see when she turns the corner of her street...
this is her husband, Terry...the man with the plan...
out of all of the people, she's looking right at me and she's crying...I think she was definitely in shock...
...but it turned out good...
This is her Mom and her son...
...she even made a speech...
her daughter, Katie, her sister, Lorrie, and Lorrie's daughter, Lily Grace... 
her puppy, Bradley...
Alicia and Katy...
me and the old lady...gosh, I hope she's not reading this :) I bought her that tiara! So cute!
yummmmmmmmmmmmm
...and she danced the night away.... 
Just she, Jack and I met for breakfast early the next morning before our flight home...it was so good to see her and celebrate her special day...it was just like we had never been apart, even though the last time I saw her was when she was my Matron of Honor at our wedding over seven years ago...she is one of the most kind, gentle-hearted people I have ever known and I am so, so glad she is my friend...
This is at a roadside stand - he's happy just looking at pumpkins...gosh, we need to get away more often...
This is our third day...we decided we would drive to Asheville, NC to go see Biltmore Estate. It was too long of a venture to have accomplished, but we didn't know...this is the weather once we finished up at Biltmore...and it's not even dark yet. I can see better at night than Jack, so he finally relinquished the wheel to me, but it was some scary stuff. We were up in the mountains with fog, blinding rain and, of course, there's no street lights way up there, so it was pitch black, too. If we were going 15 mph, we were lucky. No hotels...no food...it's 2 AM, so I can't even tell you where we finally found a Wendy's or where we finally stopped at a hotel, but I can tell you we both wanted to kiss the bed when we got there...
This is our hotel...
...and even though this was the decor...it was clean and it had a bed...excellent!
This was the prettiest place we saw our entire trip...the morning was clear and bright, so whatever nasty weather had visited us the night prior had pushed through and I was sooo happy because Alicia's party was that evening...
We drove straight to Columbus, GA, checked in to our hotel and I promptly took a nap - still tired from the evening before...now, we're at Alicia's home and she has spent all day at a park with her mom, sister, neice and two children...and she has no idea what she will see when she turns the corner of her street...
this is her husband, Terry...the man with the plan...
out of all of the people, she's looking right at me and she's crying...I think she was definitely in shock...
...but it turned out good...
This is her Mom and her son...
...she even made a speech...
her daughter, Katie, her sister, Lorrie, and Lorrie's daughter, Lily Grace... 
her puppy, Bradley...
Alicia and Katy...
me and the old lady...gosh, I hope she's not reading this :) I bought her that tiara! So cute!
yummmmmmmmmmmmm
...and she danced the night away.... 
Just she, Jack and I met for breakfast early the next morning before our flight home...it was so good to see her and celebrate her special day...it was just like we had never been apart, even though the last time I saw her was when she was my Matron of Honor at our wedding over seven years ago...she is one of the most kind, gentle-hearted people I have ever known and I am so, so glad she is my friend...Now, I'm off to dreamland for all of about 3.5 hours, as I have to go to work in a few hours, but when I started this post, it was my Mom's birthday, so happy birthday, Mom...we'll see you soon...
WOW looks like ya had a GREAT time.. Love the view....
ReplyDeleteSuzie what a great gift to give your friend by traveling all that way to be apart of her special day. What a great memory she and you will have.
ReplyDeleteOh where, oh where is Suzie????
ReplyDelete