Four States in One Day - Part 2

 After an evening of lots of conversation and laughter and a good nights rest, Cheryl fed us a delicious breakfast before we said our goodbyes.  It was a cool morning but still no rain.  We drove through Smoky Mountain National Park.   It has been years since we have been in this park.  Again, the weather cooperated and gave us a sunny, cool day.

We started the day in North Carolina, crossed into Tennessee in the park, drove north through Virginia and are spending the next two days in West Virginia.

This part of the USA is  with beautiful with covered mountains which the interstate weaves and curves around, up and over.  It was a very pleasant drive which took about two hours.  Then it was another two hours to drive through Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville,  It was bumper-to-bumper traffic and the sidewalks were lined with tourists.

This time of the year, the elk herds are in the meadows.  The bull elk are trumpeting trying to attract the females to form their own herds.  This guy put on quite a show but while we were watching, he didn't attract any females.

Smoky Mountain National Park

We took I-40 East to I-81 North and I-77 north.  Again, the scenery was beautiful.  As we crossed into West Virginia, it began to rain. I pulled up the weather map and found that there is a 100% chance of rain tomorrow which is the day we planned to visit New River Gorge National Park.  I think Ian may have caught up with us.  With the rain, the temperatures dropped so we turned on the heat in the motel room.  It is the first time this trip we didn't run the air conditioner.  Hope the weatherman is wrong about all the rain; but, no matter, we are here and will see the park despite the rain.  Ate supper at Outback Steakhouse.  It had been a long time since we had eaten at one and we could walk to this one, so it was a good choice.   We are in for the evening.