South Pittsburg, First Alabama Cache, Great Smoky Mountains, First North Carolina Cache and Gatlinburg

The alarm went off really early.  We got up, got cleaned up a little and packed up our stuff.  We had another long day ahead of us.  We grabbed our luggage and headed downstairs.  We grabbed some of the free breakfast before we left.  It wasn't all that exciting but we didn't have to spend any money on food...which was nice.

I really wanted to get an Alabama cache since we were so close to the border.  Plus, we kinda wanted to see where they made the cast iron Lodge pans.  The time zone line is right in the middle of the state of Tennessee so we kept going from central time to eastern time back into central time.  We had to pay attention so we knew how long to stay in a certain place.  We drove the 30 miles to South Pittsburg, TN.  I had the address in the Nuvi on where to go.  South Pittsburg is a small town on the Tennessee/Alabama border.  It is home to the National Cornbread Festival held every year during the last full weekend in April.  We got to the Lodge store too early so we drove around looking for a few caches to find while we waited.

I started with our Alabama cache first.  It was less than two miles away in Bridgeport, AL. We drove down Hwy 72 paralleling the Tennessee River.  There was a small pullout where I parked the car.  There was a white marker welcoming you to Alabama.  Alabama Trail of Tears Historical Marker (GC6GPE5) was a pill bottle in the bushes just left of the marker.  It wasn't hard to find.  I got back in the car, got back onto the highway and made a U-turn to head back to South Pittsburg.

I set the coords on the Nuvi to IRON Man (GC271TF) near the Lodge store.  Again, no one wanted to get out so I found it by myself.  The cache was boring but the location was pretty cool.  The man was made out of Lodge products.  I signed my name, took the necessary photo and went back to the car.

We've wasted enough time now to where we can get into the store.  Erika decided to stay in the car again since she was sleeping.  Mom and I headed in to see what kinds of things they had and if we could learn anything about the cast iron industry.

We learned that the only tours of the Lodge factory was in April during the Cornbread Festival and sadly it was August.  Mom did buy a cast iron Lodge skillet and I bought a yellow reusable shopping bag because it was cool.  We used the restroom before we left.  We decided we were done with the small town and headed back to Chattanooga to go see the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  Mom got the address for me and off we went.

We found Terminal Station, which was owned and operated by Southern Railway and in 1989 turned into the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  A famous song, Chattanooga Choo Choo, was written in 1941 about the train going through Chattanooga.  I got as close to it as I could but I had to stay in the car so we didn't have to pay for parking.  I let mom out while I sat in the gravel parking lot eating my leftover chicken from last night.  Erika was still asleep in the back.  Mom was gone for about 20 minutes.

Mom came back and she said she talked to someone inside the hotel that there is a parking garage you can go up to and get a great view of the city.  We looked for a free place to park and left Erika inside the car.  We walked to the parking garage and went up the elevator.  When we got on top of the parking garage you could see a 360 degree view of Chattanooga.  We were up there for about a half hour checking out the sites.

We walked back admiring some of the murals along the way.  I wanted to get the webcam, I See You (GCPB7G), inside the convention center before we left town.  I plugged the coords into the Nuvi and off we went.  We were not that far away from the center.  When we finally got there, avoiding as much traffic as we could, I had to find a place to park for a few minutes and got inside.  Unfortunately, mom and Erika would have to stay in the car while I ran in so we didn't have to pay to park.

I found the website I needed to screen shot my photo once I found the spot I had to stand in.  I found myself on the website and took a few pictures just in case something went wrong.  Before I left I looked at my saved screen shots to see if one turned out.  All of them did so off to the car I went.  We put Knoxville into the Nuvi and to I-75 we went!

Erika was finally up for the day and chatted with us as we made our way east towards Knoxville.  I checked to see how much gas I had and we should make a stop soon to fill up.  I asked mom to check my gas buddy app to see what gas stations were ahead of us and which one was the cheapest.  We found a Love's just a head of us in McDonald, a small town east of Cleveland, TN.  We got off at exit 33 and filled up.  Erika got out and grabbed a sandwich from the Subway and I grabbed a few Pepsi's and a Milky Way.

We got back onto I-75 and watched the landscape go by as we made our way east to Knoxville.  Of course there were the dumb stupid drivers we had to avoid here and there.  We arrived just after noon.  We took the I-40 junction and got off of the interstate towards Sevierville and Pigeon Forge.  We found the exit and got onto the Winfield Dunn Parkway towards Gatlinburg.  This was a very long road and it seemed to go forever.  I didn't realize this road was this busy!  We pictured something completely different than what was in front of us.  We thought this area was a small historical town...we were way wrong.  Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were basically the Las Vegas strip of Tennessee!  There were buildings, stores, people, restaurants, traffic, traffic lights and to top it off it started raining really hard.  We decided to go to the Smoky Mountains first.  We just followed the road towards the Sugarlands Visitor's Center.

We actually waited in the car until the rain calmed down a bit or we would have been pummeled or possibly drowned.  We all ran in really quickly to find out where we needed to go and to get a few maps.  We all used the restroom and browsed the gift store for a while.  We thought it if we stayed in there for a bit the rain would subside.  All three of us got a few things while we were there.  I got a few postcards (I send them to my pen pal in Germany), a magnet and a plush possum because I could.  We talked to the clerk about how awesome it was that there was no national park fee.  Here's why:

"The reasons for free entry to the national park date back at least to the 1930s.  The land that is today Great Smoky Mountains National Park was one privately owned.  The states of Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as local communities, paid to construct Newfound Gap Road (US-441.)  When the state of Tennessee transferred ownership of Newfound Gap Road to the federal government, it stipulated that "no toll or license fee shall ever be imposed..." to travel the road.

At that time, Newfound Gap Road was one of the major routes crossing the southern Appalachian Mountains.  It's likely the state was concerned with maintaining free, easy interstate transportation for its citizens.  North Carolina transferred its roads through abandonment, so no restrictions were imposed.

Action by the Tennessee legislature would be required to lift this deed restriction if Great Smoky Mountains National Park ever wished to charge an entrance fee."

We headed out to the car and started up the grade toward the Newfound Gap.  There were lots of people going to and from.  When we finally did get to up to the Gap, we also noticed that we were straddling the Tennessee and North Carolina state line.  We would have to visit it on the way back down.  We continued on to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the Smokies and in the state of Tennessee.

We saw a wild turkey on our way to the parking lot.  It's been a while since I've seen a wild turkey wandering around.  It was kinda cool.

We finally got to the lot and found a place to park.  We grabbed the stuff we might need for our half mile up and our half mile back.  Mom brought her backpack and we crammed some snacks and water inside of it.  We started up the nicely manicured, paved, slightly uphill trail.  We had to stop a few times because the elevation got to us.

As we reached the top we saw signs for the Appalachian Trail and now I can say I've walked part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and the Appalachian Trail, two of the longest trails in the US.

We saw Clingman's Dome and made our way up the ramp to the top.  There were a lot of people up there.

We got a few pictures and answered the questions for the cache, Top of the Smokies Virtual Picture Cache (GC84C0).  We were very happy some of the clouds cleared away so we could actually see some of the landscape.  We stayed up there for about 20 minutes enjoying the view before we made our way down.

We took pictures of some of the butterflies and birds as we made our way back down to the car.  I checked to see if there were any other caches along the way.  There were two earthcaches but I only did one of them.  We got down to the bottom of the trail and while mom and Erika wandered around I did the earthcache, NP Smoky Mountains - Clingman's Dome Concretions (GC6TRMK) which talked about the large boulder anomalies.  I answered all the questions and took a picture of myself near ground zero.

We got back to the car and mom said, "let's go to North Carolina!"  We looked at the map and the nearest down was not too far away.  We plugged Cherokee, NC into the Nuvi and headed down the Smoky Mountains.  Cherokee is a small census-designated place in western North Carolina full of Native American culture.  We grabbed See the Dancing Water (GCY5P9) as we entered town.  It was my first North Carolina cache but the cache wasn't that exciting so I got a picture of the location instead.

We drove around the small town before mom saw a store she wanted to go into.  We parked the car and noticed a man was dressed in full Native American garb chanting and banging a drum.  We hung out for a while listening to it.  Mom talked to him for a few minutes and then we went inside the store to see what was inside.  Lots of jewelry, leather, T-shirts, sweatshirts and other miscellaneous items.  Mom got grandma a shirt and Erika bought a dream catcher.

We got back in the car and headed back up into the Smokies but we took a small detour to Mingus Mill.  We were the only ones there and had no idea where we were suppose to go after we parked.  We found this old road and followed it for a short time and then decided to walk back and take the other trail.  The mill was pretty cool.  We read the informational board to find out more about it.  Of course we took a few dozen pictures as well.  I also did the virtual 1886 Turbine (GCGYMA) while we were here.  It asked us questions about the mill and the stones.

We used the restroom before we headed back up to the Newfound Gap.

When we got there, we almost missed it.  I made a wacky turn and parked in the lot.  We enjoyed the view and straddled the TN/NC border.

We got a few pictures and I did some more reflecting.  I thought about Grammie again and how I missed her terribly.  Losing a family member definitely gives you perspective on life.  It makes you question everything that you've been doing and things that you might do in the future.  These past six months were really hard for me and I wished everything would have turned out differently.  I would trade my job if it would bring Grammie back to us.

We got back in the car and headed into Gatlinburg where we feverishly tried to find a parking spot in the sea of cars and people.  We found a cheap lot near Gatlinburg's version of the "Space Needle."  We paid our money, put the ticket in the window and grabbed everything we though we might need for dinner and some walking around.

While mom was looking for some things to see, do and eat before our trip, she saw a place called the Mellow Mushroom and she really liked the sign.

When we drove through here earlier we made note of what part of town it was in.  We did pretty good.  We didn't have to walk that far.  We walked inside and were ushered to the second floor.  Apparently, the lower part of this building was Dude's Daiquiris.  The three of us sat in a giant booth.  The waiter took our drink order and we scoured the menu.  I am pretty content with boring cheese, pepperoni and olives pizza.  Mom was there with me and Erika really didn't care because she was hungry.  We got our side salad before our pizza and the three of us destroyed it.

Our food arrived and we inhaled it.  It was so good and it hit the spot after a really long day.  Mom took a few pictures of the place.  You almost needed to be high to hang out here.  The décor reminded me of the 60's and 70's.

We paid for our meal and headed out to the chaos.  We walked around some of the shops in town.  I ended up getting a few postcards and other stuff for some of my peeps.  We found this awesome shirt for Doug and it was only three bucks!  It basically said something about his girlfriend being 100% redneck or southern or something like that.  We thought it was funny so Erika bought it for him.

We walked back to the car and we though since we were in the area to go see where Dollywood was.  We took some back roads from Gatlinburg according to Nuvi's directions.  When we got there I didn't realize it was a theme park.  Since it was now closed for the evening we just took a picture in front of the sign just to say we've been there...kinda.

We looked up the closest Walmart and there was one just down the road from us.  It was also insane.  So many people wandering around.  I mostly went for some cheap souvenirs and birthday gifts for the people back home and to say we went to a Walmart in Tennessee.

We were getting tired and decided to head back to the freeway to find out hotel.  I put the address into the Nuvi and for some reason we were having a hard time finding the hotel.  I turned around a few times looking for the hotel sign.  We finally found it after about ten minutes and some careful looking.  The address was not correct.  Mom got out and checked us in while Erika and I parked the car.

We grabbed our stuff out of the car and went to our room.  This time we had two double beds and I shared with mom.  I got cleaned up, we relaxed a bit and went to sleep.  We had another long day ahead of us.  Over the course of the night mom got a Charlie horse and kicked me.  She woke me up and after about 20 minutes of stretching it out she went back to bed.

Next Adventure:  Knoxville, State Parks, McMinnville and Heading Back to Nashville

Old Stone Fort SP, Jack Daniels Whiskey Tour, Ruby Falls and First Georgia Cache

We got up really early because we knew we had to get on the road if we wanted to get all the stuff on our list done.  Mom took a shower while I got ready at the sink.  We packed up all of our belongings and toted them out to the car.  This hotel did not have any continental breakfast.  We all decided to find something on the way.

I plugged in the coordinates to our first destination which was Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park near Manchester.  We got onto I-24 and headed south.  It was a work day so there was a lot of traffic on the interstates, highways and side roads.  I had Erika and mom put in some searches on their phones for food or grocery stores.  Erika wanted some coffee so we stopped at a McDonald's in Murfreesboro.  Since we were there we just ordered breakfast.  We all got sausage biscuits, a hash brown and oj's or coffee.  Erika found a store just down the street called Publix.  We found the Publix and ate our breakfast in the parking lot.  When we were done we made our way into the store.

It reminded us of an IGA or a Thriftway from back home.  We all had never heard of a Publix.  I guess it is a southern store chain with its headquarters out of Lakeland, Florida.  It is employee-owned and operates out of seven states.  We decided to get a few things to tie us over for our upcoming breakfasts and lunches (mostly so we don't have to go to a restaurant and spend a lot of money) until we can make it to dinner.  We grabbed some doughnuts, cheese, bread, PBJ, deli turkey, chips, a cooler bag, ice, water, soda, fizzy water and other miscellaneous stuff we thought we'd need.  We went up to the register and it was a nice little southern lady.  She heard us talk and asked where we were from.  We told her Washington State and she said her daughter lives in Everett.  We had a conversation about how Tennessee was so green and most of Washington State was on fire.  We told her about all the places we were going to go see and she told us to have fun.

We packed our stuff in the cooler and headed back onto I-24 to Manchester.  I followed Nuvi's directions and it lead us right to the state park.  Tennessee doesn't require anyone to pay for a recreation fee, which was nice, because Washington State does.  I made sure we didn't need a pass when I was doing my state park research.

Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park is a prehistoric Native American structure located in Coffee County Tennessee in the southeastern part of the United States.  The structure was most likely built between 80 and 550 AD during the Middle Woodland Period.  It is the most complex hilltop structure found in the south and was likely used for ceremonial purposes rather than for defense.  The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We parked in the lot and walked to the information building.  On the way there we heard these really weird sounds we've never heard before.  I looked it up.  It turns out they were Cicada's.  I've heard of them before but have never heard one in real life.  You couldn't really see them but you could hear them singing all over the trees.  We walked into the building and a really nice college-aged student greeted us very friendly.  She asked where we were from and we said Washington State.  We talked a little about our state parks and whatnot.  We wandered around the building learning about this state park and what makes it cool.

Mom basically just came for the waterfall.  The girl gave us a map of the area and some of the notable spots to go see.  We thanked her and headed down the trail.

This state park is located on the Duck River.  The Duck River, is 284 miles long, is the longest river located entirely within the state of Tennessee.  Our first stop along the trail was at the Blue Hole Falls.  It did not disappoint.  It was probably hands down my favorite waterfall I've ever been to.  It was so magical and I don't mean that to sound silly.  I climbed on down because I wanted a better view and it was amazing.

I just stood there in awe of how gorgeous this waterfall was.  Erika didn't want to come down but mom did.  I had to go back to where I went down and help her down because she didn't trust her balance and didn't want to fall on the rocks.

We got down there and she was just as in awe.  It was a really cool waterfall and we spent a lot of time here.

We walked further down the trail to learn about the interior of the park to check out the structure.  We tried to figure out how they moved the rocks and how they decided on where to put and orient the rocks.  It was pretty detailed.  We got a few pictures and decided to move on since we still had a lot of driving a head of us.  Our next stop was the Jack Daniels distillery tour in Lynchburg.

We got onto Hwy 55 and headed west towards Tullahoma.  We followed Nuvi's directions and saw that Hwy 55 took us right to Lynchburg if we stayed on that road.  It took us less than twenty minutes to get into the small town of Lynchburg,  We followed the Jack Daniels tour signs and parked in a lot across the highway from the distillery.  I can't believe we were actually here.  I've known of Jack Daniels whiskey since I was little kid.  It's black label was very well known all over the world.

We took the small shuttle to the front doors of the distillery and got in line to do one of the five tours.  We chose The Flight of Jack Daniel's Tour, which was $20 and lasted and hour and a half.  We also got to taste some of the whiskey's at the end of our tour.  While we waited for our tour, we walked around the building and looked at some of the history of the whiskey, Jack Daniels and the distillery.

I walked across the street and looked for Jack Daniels Cache (GC2771P) which eluded me at first.  The hint wasn't very helpful nor were the logs really.  I thought to myself, could it really be under the bridge?  I made my way down there and yep, it was under the bridge underneath some rocks.  Someone had also stuck a trackable sticker on the bridge.  I discovered that too.

By the time I walked back it was almost time for our tour.  I met up with mom and Erika and found our tour group.  Our tour guide spent some time telling us the rules and how the tour was going to go.  I was excited to learn some history and how they make their whiskey.  We took a shuttle up to the Rickyard.  There, they showed us the process in which they get their coal that they filter their whiskey through.

Then we headed up the road by foot to see the limestone spring that they get their water from.  They've been doing that since 1866.  It was nice being near the cave because the cool air that came out of it since it was pretty warm outside.

We walked up the stairs to the mash house.  A special mixture of barley, rye and corn.  It smelled like sour/spoiled chicken feed that got wet and rotted.  I couldn't wait to get out of that building.  We then went to the mellowing building.  There, it is a 3-5 day process of the whiskey filtering through the 10 feet of charcoal.  Watching the whiskey filter through the charcoal was pretty cool.

Next, was the barrel room.  Jack Daniels makes their own barrels for the whiskey to age inside.  The barrels are then filled and stored in a barrel house for up to 7 years while it ages.  Moore county is a the wettest dry county in the United States because most of the warehouses are located in Moore county.  They were currently building another warehouse to store their barrels.  The Jack Daniels workers every first Friday of every month get a fifth of whiskey of their choice.  Our tour guide joked around that you can guarantee every worker shows up for their shift that day.  I didn't doubt it.

We saw one of the barrel houses followed by our whiskey flight taste.  We were in a glass room with a flight of shots in front of us.  We had a card with an explanation of what each whiskey was.  We were given 6 different whiskeys to try and I decided not to try the cinnamon one because I wasn't a fan of cinnamon.

I really enjoyed the honey one though so much I went and bought a bottle of it from the gift shop.  This was the only place in Moore county that is allowed to sell alcohol.  We got a complimentary shot glass from our tour which was pretty awesome.  The tour guide said if we headed to the Jack Daniels gift shop just down the road you could get another shot glass for free.  Of course we went.  We thanked him and headed towards down town.

We stopped at a shop first for some post cards and dad had asked us to find a Confederate flag because he wanted one to bother Doug with it.  We actually found a flag here.  Erika bought a few things as well before we headed to the other gift shop.  We walked over and ended up wandering around inside that shop for about a half hour.  I got a few things as did mom.  We did get that other free shot glass before we headed back to the car.

Before we left Lynchburg for good I stopped at one more cache, JTGT - Moore - Welcome to Lynchburg (GC59VQ5).  It was a quick park and grab.  I saw it immediately when I got out of the car.  It was a cute little bird house.  I got a picture of the Welcome to Lynchburg sign as well.

The Jack Daniels tour was definitely worth it.  I would recommend it for anyone visiting Tennessee.

We were getting hungry so we stopped in Tullahoma at an old Coke a Cola factory that was transformed into little shops.  We parked in the lot and got out our food we bought that morning from the grocery store.  We had some cheese, crackers and some fruit.  I looked for the cache, JTGT - Tullahoma - Historic Cokers (GC57615), while mom and Erika went inside to check out the little stores.  We were there for maybe an hour. Erika bought some mittens.

Before we left town and got back onto the freeway, we had to find a Dairy Queen because Erika wanted some ice cream.  I used the restroom while we waited for her ice cream.

We drove the remainder 80 miles down I-24 towards Chattanooga.  I plugged the coordinates to Ruby Falls into Nuvi.  Along the way we saw a ton of billboards and a lot of them told you to go see Lookout Mountain or Ruby Falls or the Rock City Gardens.  At one point we saw several buildings that sold fireworks year round and we weren't even near an Indian reservation.

As we got closer to Chattanooga we saw that this part of I-24 was very unique.  You have to enter Georgia and then enter back into Tennessee before you got to Chattanooga.  It was pretty cool.  Mom was mad because she missed getting the Georgia sign.  I'm sure we will be back through here.  I followed the directions to Lookout Mountain for Ruby Falls.  We found a parking spot and walked into the building to pay for our admission ticket.  As we stood in line, we got to know some of the people who were standing near us.  There was a couple from Georgia who came here to celebrate her 40th birthday and an older couple from Alabama who were here on vacation.  He would say stuff to us and I didn't know if he was joking or going senile.  I just went along with it.

We finally got to go down to the cave.  It took a few trips up and down to gather the group.  We took a photo of us before the tour as a keepsake for coming to Ruby Falls.

Our tour guide told us some of the rules and we would be stopping a lot to talk about the formations and whatnot.  We were suppose to stay to the right for people coming back from the falls.  This cave definitely reminded me of the one we did about 6 years ago in Manitou Springs, Colorado at Cave of the Winds.  Again, here to preserve the tites and mites, she told us not to touch them unless the signs said we could.  We followed the group as they talked about the formations.

Ruby Falls is a waterfall found in the subterranean area of Tennessee's Lookout Mountain, in Chattanooga, in the United States.  Ruby Falls is found in a cave carved into limestone rock and the  cave itself has been formed by water erosion.  Ruby Falls was first discovered in 1928 when access to the area was drilled into accidentally by the chemist Leo Lambert, who had a fascination with caves and was trying to create a new path into the nearby Lookout Mountain Cave.  Ruby Falls is formed by an underground stream that is 1120 feet below ground and the falls area is accessed only by an elevator.  In 1930, Ruby Falls Cave was opened for tourism and the caves were among the first to feature electric lights for tourism purposes.  New paths have been created in the Ruby Falls area, such as in 1954 to avoid consumption of water that has concentrated levels of magnesium in it, and later in 1975, to provide an alternate exit in case the main elevator ever malfunctions.  Ruby Falls was named after the wife of Leo Lambert, who was called Ruby.  Ruby Falls is 145 feet tall, making it the largest underground waterfall open to visitors in America, while the cave is the deepest with public access in the United States, and it is considered as one of the most amazing waterfalls in the world.  Ruby Falls is a popular tourist destination and it has been mentioned multiple times throughout literature, particularly in song lyrics.  Ruby Falls requires an entrance fee to access the falls and groups are guided by a designated staff member.

Ruby Falls Earthcache (GC20DRH) was the first non-event cache I've ever had to pay for to find. I tried remembering what the questions were as we moved through the cave.  When we got to the falls I was in awe.  We were 26 stories down looking at a underground waterfall.  They knew where the waterfall ended (into the Tennessee River) but had no idea where it began.  There were colored LED lights that were pointed at it so we could see it.  It was awesome.

We walked back with our group and she showed us some of the other formations just before we got back to the elevator.  When we got back to the main floor, we used the restroom and browsed the gift shop.  I got a few postcards, a magnet and bought the photo of us for a keepsake. We walked up to the top of the building to check out the view of Chattanooga.  It was a pretty nice view.

It was slowly getting dark and we needed to find some dinner.  I had suggested at some point visiting a Cracker Barrel because I kept hearing about these.  The closest one was in Idaho and I didn't see that happening anytime soon.  I did a search for one and there was one nearby Lookout Mountain.  Score!  We didn't have to drive all over creation.

The Cracker Barrel was founded in Tennessee in 1969.  It's menu is based on your traditional southern cuisine.  We were there to try it and see what all the fuss was about.  We were seated and then ignored for a while.  Our waitress seemed to either be a really giant airhead or she was new and was being trained.  Eventually we got our drinks, our food and our check.  Mom and I ordered the fried chicken and mashed potato dinner and Erika ordered the shrimp. The food was exceptionally good but we couldn't eat it all.  I ate all of my potatoes and green beans and one of my chickens and saved the other chicken for tomorrow.

I needed to find a Georgia cache before we went to our hotel.  I looked for one on the map that was an easy park and grab.  I found one we could get really fast, Quick Gas-N-Go (GC393JD) was at a small gas station of of I-24.  I parked about 30 feet from it, made the find, got my photo and headed back to the car.  I plugged the hotel address into Nuvi and we made our way to the hotel.  We had gone back and forth into central and eastern time zone.

The rain started falling and as we drove through Chattanooga the thunder and lightening pummeled the sky.  I seriously thought we were going to have a tornado.  It was so hot and humid at 8:00 at night anything was possible.  We found our hotel, which was in the East Ridge part of Chattanooga.  We were less than a mile from the Georgia border.  Mom checked us in and we were in a room up on the second floor.  We all shared a king sized bed.

I got cleaned up before it was time for bed.  We were exhausted with all the time zone changes.  Plus, we had to get up early if we wanted to get all of the things on our list done.

Next Adventure:  South Pittsburg, First Alabama Cache, Great Smoky Mountains, First North Carolina Cache and Gatlinburg