Honeymoon Blog: Days 1-3
Today was the second full day of our honeymoon. We decided to go to Cade's Cove! It's one of those historic communities of set'lers and the like (like my southern? It made Rachel roll her eyes, as did that last comment). (Ad infinitum).
Anyways, I suppose the first thing we should do is catch up on the locale first. We're in Townsend, a quiet, home-town kind of place with very nice people (but most don't respond when I say hello or wish them a good day, that's kind of unnerving for me). We got two bottles of pop for free today! It was awesome!
Ahem, the cabin we're staying at is near the top of a small mountain in the Smokies. The view is terrific, and in the morning the mountain tops are ringed in mist. But the drive up! Oy! Rachel's car will have to shift to third gear and pull 3000 RPM's to go about 4 MPH up some of these drives (I swear some of them are less than 1:2 grade!)
Our first day, due to a wrong turn (my fault!), we came in around 7:30 and night had already set in. Driving up a mountain at night is scary! So, back to today...
We went to Cade's Cove. Our first activity was horseback riding. We spent an hour going through the Smokey Mountain National Forest on a pair of very placid horses (flacid for all ye hecklers of my early days at Purdue! ...wait, they were mares). Rachel saw a doe lying down in a glade as we passed, but I missed it :(
Then we went hiking! Our target: This set of falls in the back of Cade's Cove that sounded awesome. Our mistake: we brought one water bottle... for the day. This trail was 2.5 miles one way, spiralling up and down mountain sides. Sweaty work, and we were both exhausted when we finally got there... but that was after Rachel fell and hurt her knee (which still came away better than her jeans). The water fall was pretty nice, and we got some pictures. At that point, the best part was cooling our feet in the water [Evil Grin]. Then came the 2.5 mile hike back... by the time it was done, we were both suffering from severe dehydration and heat exhaustion. Not good, and it made for a cranky pair of newly weds.
But one bottle of water, courtesy of the visitor's center and my cousin's two dollars (thanks Maggie!), and some nice AC later, we were feeling much better. The day was still a little draining... until we stopped at the Apple Country Store for dinner, only to find out they were closed. Then it was kinda like... bleh! But on the up side, we thought that maybe some apple pie from their store section might cheer us up... that's when the free pops came in. THAT... made the day good. Really good. Everything bad (except Rachel's poor bruised knee) was washed away with sugary delight.
Tomorrow looks like fun, as we explore Gatlinburg, and enjoy Dolly Partin's (*SHUDDER*) Dixie Stampede Dinner Show (should be good for the price! @__@)
Just a sleepy synopsis of our first few days of our honeymoon... nothing naughty... I swear! *wink*