Smokey Mountain Sunrise

I’m trying to think how many times I have actually been to the Smokies.  For those reading this blog and don’t know what the Smokies is or where they are, the Smokies is a major mountain range in the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains.  For someone who has never been there, it’s something magical about these mountains that’s really hard to put into just the right words.
Let me give you a visual so you can try to understand where I’m coming from:

Smokie Mountains

That still doesn’t do it justice.  Let me try again:

Smokie Mountains

Ahh…now we’re cooking.
Like I was saying, I don’t know how many times I have been to the Smokies, it’s been that many and it’s not like it’s a hop, skip and jump away.  Going from Chincoteague to Pigeon Forge was exactly 620.90 miles which is 10 hours and 31 minutes driving time.  Roughly, I would say I’ve been four or five times.
The reasons were varied.  The first time it was on a lark coming back from Arkansas.  I saw the sign for the Smokie National Park and decided to veer off 80 and go check it out.
But the second, third and fourth time, it was for vacation because ever since that first time, I felt like I had to keep going back.

Smokie Mountains

And you see why?

The picture above was a special moment.  I wanted some sunrise pictures.  In order to have sunrise pictures, you have to get up literally at the crack of dawn.  Forget the fact that you’ve not had much sleep from the night before.  You were on a mission.  Here’s another:

Smokie Mountains

These were taken off the deck of our mile high cabin.  Oh, btw, if they tell you these cabins are in the clouds, believe’em.

I’ll be back to tell you more about my Smokie vacations tomorrow.

Tree Art in Blacksburg, Virginia

I’ve had somewhat bad news.  We’re waiting on the results from blood work to come back for one of our pooches, Skylar.  The doctor found a mass on her spleen yesterday.  It’s my daughter’s dog, but I’m just as close to her.  Please pray for her!

I’ve not posted in a few days because I’ve had to put a lot of muscle into my online business, although I have got good news – I’ve got a trip to Lancaster, PA, coming up!  I’ll tell you all about it as it gets closer, but I wanted to share a picture with you I found the other day.  Here it is:

 

I’m not sure if you can make this out, but is this the craziest tree art you’ve ever seen?  We were traveling to the Smokies and this was taken at a hotel somewhere on the Interstate in Blacksburg, Virginia.  These two trees are actually nailed to this brick wall and are thriving!  All of the branches are nailed, too.  It was the neatest but craziest thing I’ve ever seen.

And here’s a picture of Skylar who went with us and who ended up loving the media room in our cabin but I’m jumping ahead of the story.  Tomorrow…our first trip to the Smokies!