Woke up and walked downtown early for breakfast at a place called The Breakfast Camp. This is a super authentic looking monument to the old mountain-man logging-camp moonshine-hustling history of this place: Gatlinburg. The menu was inside of a mountain-man newspaper which contained historical articles of famous people and events of the era. And, breakfast was really top-notch and inexpensive. These pictures will give you an idea:
Yet, the place is also super hyped up on campy touristy stuff to the max!
Only in America. But, seriously, I really would want to go back and do all the fun stuff there- it’s a unique little town.
Saw this hound dog hanging out a car window… how perfect for deep woods Tennessee.
So… got a shuttle back to Clingman Dome. As we approached the top for me to resume my hike (along with 7 other hikers), the weather changed quite a bit.
I jumped into a bathroom, with others, at the visitor center to rapidly up-gun my clothing to the extent possible. I came out into a Jack London survival story complete with all the fixin’s except the sled dogs. I had to lean into the (accurately predicted) 50 mph winds. Holy moly cow- late April in the South?!
Fortunately, after plunging into the woods, the trees cut a lot of the wind and I just got pounded with cold rain and hail for a couple of hours.
I think the frogs and locusts are on hold for now.
Took a short day and stayed at Mt. Collins Shelter- where I am now writing this. Lots of people here, myself included, absorbed completely in the business of staying warm and dry- wet stuff hanging everywhere. Very crowded shelter due to the weather.
Halfway through The Smokies!
Penultimate 
OMG!! The torrential rains and winds!! Just when I thought this might get boring compared to me sitting on edge waiting for 911 people to arrive…Nope! Also never thought we were going to get an insight into the towns along the way. Amazing. Thank you!❤️
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🤓. I want the weather to get boring- warm and sunny…
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We do too!😬 Still waiting…
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Congrats, 200 miles is amazing! Love the nature pictures of the animals and flowers, and the snow! It’s seems to be a cross country wet and cold pattern breaking records. So thankful our Perrin Plumber fixed up a drain pipe in the cellar! ☔️ The little cowboy town is something, maybe that’s why Uncle Doug wears a cowboy hat well, and loves the West! Keep on moving! 🥾♥️
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I’m a’gonna’ try to keep on moving Jo!
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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the U.S. (Wikipedia). Keep your health foremost; you’re doing great!
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Thanks for being a loyal Base Camp Keef!
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Laura was in Gatlinburg same day with her son. He was in band competition. Came in 2nd place. U could of met up. Who knew.lol We’ll be in Tenn. on 8 May. Take care.💕
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The Breakfast Camp lodge looks awesome. It reminds me of our hiking trips on the Appalachian Trail to Lake in the Clouds hut. We never went solo though. It was usually a rowdy bunch of 20 to 30. I remember teaching Alicia to play poker for m&ms with licorice cigars for effect. She was about 8 years old and turned out to be quite a good poker player. Thanks for bringing back the good memories of hikes of the past.
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I remember those hikes too! It was always fun with that gang…
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Those were the days Tim!❤️
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