The morning dawns sunny and just
about the right temperature at 23C. I go
for a walk around the camp perimeter and see if I can track down the otters, or the wild
turkeys, deer or even a bear or two! See
lots of pretty sights but not too many critters : (
Twin Creek RV Resort is family
owned and operated and has been since 1984. The entrance is marked by a huge
pine tree, 150 ft tall. Unfortunately it
was damaged in high winds back in 2008 when some limbs had to be removed and 32
ft lopped off the top. A local chainsaw
artist took five weeks to carve ten animals in the remaining tree.
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| Hunting for the otter family who have come here each year for the last five! |
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| Giant Pine Tree Art, looks way better in real life, very clever artist! |
It was Johnny Cash who mentioned
Gatlinburg in the song, My Name is Sue:
"Well, it was Gatlinburg in
mid-July. And I just hit town and my
throat was dry, I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud, There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me Sue."
Of course there are many songs
about the Smoky Mountains and Tennessee, ie - Rocky Top Tennessee, My Tennessee
Mountain Home, and even Copperhead Road by Steve Earle, the list goes on and we all know them enough to hum along!
Last November (2016) wildfires
burned through the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg, taking the lives of 14
people, destroying over 2,400 structures and annihilating nearly 16,000 acres. It is told that the original fires were lit by
two teenage arsonists but as they were underage nothing much was done about
it. They weren’t to know that a couple
of days later unseasonal southerly winds would pick up and spread the fire to
such an extent, or did they?? Regardless
it is very tragic!
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2016 Fire photo - courtesy of internet
|
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| Fire damage still visible up along both sides of the SkyLift |
Right next door is Crockett (of King
of the wild frontier fame) Mountain.
Actually
though, as we were reliably informed by our entertaining trolley driver last
night, Davy Crockett was always known in these parts as David Crockett and it
was Walt Disney who was responsible for the diminutive moniker change to Davy! There you go, trivia for the day! Hope that question comes up in one of our LBYC quiz nights!
Anyway, so far today, apart from the walk, we have been mucking
around, making the most of the internet, drinking tea then coffee, until we
decide we really should get into town and finish our sightseeing. The trolley comes along in about 20 minutes
and once we are in town we check out the mall (?) and some of the villages before hopping
onto the free open-air trolley and let it take us a full circle before dropping
us outside a Starbucks-like coffee/icecream bar where we order a couple of ice
cold frappes to go – yep brain aches ensue!!
You’d think we would have learned by this time of life, but Kim swears
he didn’t get them when he was a kid!!
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| Open-air trolley ride |
Anyway we hear distant thunder
and see the sky is ominously dark, so think we should best get back to the
coach while the gettin’s good.
Once home, the rain has pretty
much been and gone so we spend a couple of hours outside on our deckchairs contemplating
the pool and enjoying the ambience!
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