{"id":2275,"date":"2013-09-10T19:45:55","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T00:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2275"},"modified":"2013-09-10T19:45:55","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T00:45:55","slug":"vacation-day-5-no-bear-scat-just-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2275","title":{"rendered":"Vacation Day 5 No Bear Scat, Just Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is Day 5.\u00a0 We slept in again.\u00a0 This is getting to be a bad habit, you know.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure Sascha won\u2019t stand for it.\u00a0 Let alone my boss.After breakfast, we packed up the car and headed out for Cades Cove.\u00a0 This took us to Sugarland Visitor\u2019s Center first.\u00a0 We looked through the exhibits and checked for other hiking books.\u00a0 During our break there, we ran into several German tourists.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if they were on a tour or driving themselves, but there were a lot of them.<\/p>\n

In the car again, we headed out across the park to the south.\u00a0 Cades Cove is one of the areas settled first.\u00a0 In the early 1800s, farmers were moving to the area and building log cabins for their families.\u00a0 The Cove area is an 11 mile, one-way loop that stops at churches, homesteads, and other signs of settlement in the area.<\/p>\n

We stopped by the Greenbrier Schoolhouse.\u00a0 This side trip took down a single lane gravel road.\u00a0 At the end, we found the single room schoolhouse used for a lot of years.\u00a0 Inside, there were the typical benches and desks.\u00a0 It still reminded me of a church.\u00a0 Rich started back out for the door pretty quickly saying something about a bat.\u00a0 I looked up and there was a single bat hanging from the ceiling.\u00a0 All was quiet in there.\u00a0 We tried to get pictures of him and then leave him to his sleep.<\/p>\n

The Walker graveyard was also there.\u00a0 I love graveyards.\u00a0 The stones are curious.\u00a0 There is so much history in a yard.\u00a0 This one was being pushed out by trees and roots as well as eroded by water.\u00a0 There were a lot of stones there.<\/p>\n

We got to see a black bear.\u00a0 The cars in front of us were stopped and we were trying to tell what was going on.\u00a0 Several people were getting out of their cars and moving to the woods.\u00a0 Finally, a very young bear sprinted across the road and headed for the woods.\u00a0 Poor guy was probably just about 3 years old.\u00a0 He was just a teenager in bear years.\u00a0 The people were frightening him pretty badly.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe that people weren\u2019t afraid of him.\u00a0 They were trying to get closer to him.<\/p>\n

The cars started to move and we got back underway.\u00a0 The first stop was to John Oliver\u2019s home.\u00a0 John brought his family to the valley in 1818 and built this log cabin.\u00a0 It was pretty much a couple of rooms with fireplaces.\u00a0 On the walk up to the cabin, a couple of ladies were standing on the trail yelling about something.\u00a0 We never saw what they were looking at.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t matter, because I\u2019m pretty sure they scared the hell out of it when they started shouting.<\/p>\n

Back in the car, we headed up to the number of churches on the road.\u00a0 The first was the Primitive Baptist Church.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never heard of this denomination, but I guess they have some differences from just the Southern Baptist.\u00a0 The church is down a single lane gravel road.\u00a0 With the number of cars, we had to stop for wide places in the road to get past each other.<\/p>\n

The church is white clapboard these days, but would have been a log cabin structure in its earlier days.\u00a0 There is a graveyard behind the church.\u00a0 John Oliver and his wife are buried there with stones marking who they are.\u00a0 One stone was for a man named Russell Gregory.\u00a0 It indicated he came to the valley in the 1830s.\u00a0 He was killed by rebel cowards for his support of the Union in 1864.<\/p>\n

We got back out to the main road and to the Methodist Church.\u00a0 The two buildings were similar.\u00a0 You saw a lot of the same last names in the churchyard adjoining the church.\u00a0 A stone for a man named George Seaton said he was about 75 when he died.\u00a0 He might not have been sure either.<\/p>\n

Next, we stopped at Elijah Oliver\u2019s house.\u00a0 This is John Oliver\u2019s son.\u00a0 He built his own home down the road from his parents and farmed for a while.\u00a0 During the Civil War, he left the valley and then returned after the war.\u00a0 He purchased his old farm back.<\/p>\n

We started down the road thinking the house was close.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 The first barn was .2 miles.\u00a0 The rest of the homestead was another .25 miles or so back in the woods.\u00a0 The house was interesting.\u00a0 It had standalone kitchen from the rest of the house.\u00a0 There was an addition on the side called the stranger\u2019s room for people travelling through the area.\u00a0 It was little more than a place to put a pillow on the floor.<\/p>\n

Now we had to walk the half a mile or so back to the car.\u00a0 It was very warm and humid by now.\u00a0 The air conditioning the car felt great after the walk.\u00a0 But we were tired, hot, and hungry.\u00a0 Time to find a place for lunch.<\/p>\n

Signs along the road tell you to be courteous and pull over when you want to stop or slow down.\u00a0 Not many people observed the signs.\u00a0 We had cars stopping all along the way or crawling at 5 miles per hour.\u00a0 The hills would have been more fun at 25, like they were marked.<\/p>\n

We stopped at the Cades Cove Visitor\u2019s Center for a break and to have a sandwich.\u00a0 A group of buildings were standing from an earlier time.\u00a0 Rebecca Cable\u2019s house was originally a store as well as a boarding house.\u00a0 It was very spacious and a good example of a house at that time.\u00a0 There was a smokehouse, corn crib, barns, grist mill and blacksmith shop there as well.<\/p>\n

We sat up our chairs in the shade and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need much, but a little protein helps when you are hiking.\u00a0 With food, water, and a rest, we were ready to hit the road again.\u00a0 The cars in front of us were going slow again.\u00a0 A couple pulled off for some of the other churches and homesteads.\u00a0 We continued on.\u00a0 Down the road a bit, we saw a couple of people hanging on the side of the road.\u00a0 Now what?<\/p>\n

It turned out to be another black bear.\u00a0 This one was not happy.\u00a0 The cars in front of us were pulling off the road so they could also jump out to take pictures.\u00a0 This was not going to make the bear any happier.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t get any shots of him and decided to push on.<\/p>\n

Around the next corner, we came upon another obstacle.\u00a0 There were bicyclists in the road.\u00a0 The road is a lose term though.\u00a0 It is more a country lane that one car can barely fit on.\u00a0 The cyclists had nowhere to go to get off the road.\u00a0 I manage to find spots along the way to squeeze by them.\u00a0 The girl out front was being competitive and not wanting me or her buddies to get in front of her.\u00a0 Poor guy at the back was being left further and further behind with every inch.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure they knew that.<\/p>\n

We finished up the Cades Cove loop and headed out to Townsend.\u00a0 Townsend sits just outside of the park in Wear Valley.\u00a0 There\u2019s not a lot in town and it looks like it rolls up at 5:00 on a week night.\u00a0 We did see several places to go tubing on the river there.\u00a0 Thought of you, Rose. Not much to see here though.<\/p>\n

We cut across country to go back into Pigeon Forge and hit the Kroger again.\u00a0 We discovered there was no toilet paper at the cabin.\u00a0 So the stop was necessary.\u00a0 There were a couple of items we needed also.\u00a0 I stocked up on some of the good country sausage as well.<\/p>\n

We got back to the cabin around 3:30.\u00a0 After cleaning up from the day, we headed out for dinner.\u00a0 I had seen the Smoky Mountain Trout House in my research of the area.\u00a0 It sounded interesting.\u00a0 I knew that Rich loved trout and good trout is hard to find.\u00a0 We drove by it on the north end of town as we were coming and going through.\u00a0 This was the dinner destination for the evening.\u00a0 We parked in their lot across the street and then made the mad dash across the Parkway for our lives.\u00a0 People speed and don\u2019t stop for crosswalks!<\/p>\n

Once safely in side, we were seated by the window.\u00a0 We could watch traffic zooming by at our leisure.\u00a0 The entire place is maybe 10 tables total.\u00a0 It was a very small place.\u00a0 The menu is also small.\u00a0 As their name implies, they do locally caught Smoky Mountain trout.\u00a0 The menu lists the 10 different ways they do trout and they all sounded wonderful.\u00a0 There were some other items, but that was limited.\u00a0 They definitely do trout though.<\/p>\n

The waitress was an older lady with a back or neck problem.\u00a0 She was kind of leaning to the right side at an angle when she came to the table.\u00a0 She was funny though.\u00a0 We enjoyed talking to her.<\/p>\n

Rich ordered smoked mountain trout with green beans.\u00a0 I ordered the trout cakes with baked potato. \u00a0The meal came with complimentary hushpuppies.\u00a0 I love hushpuppies and these things were wonderful.\u00a0 Rich got a glass of the house chardonnay.\u00a0 I stuck with lemonade.\u00a0 Rich says it was the best trout he had ever had.\u00a0 The trout cakes were awesome.\u00a0 I truly have to recommend this place if you want good food in Gatlinburg.<\/p>\n

After dinner, I had a couple of places I wanted to go and look at.\u00a0 We drove into downtown and found parking.\u00a0 Parking here is definitely at a premium and can cost dearly.\u00a0 We found a $5 lot close to where I wanted to be.\u00a0 We headed down and Rich had to direct me.\u00a0 I would have missed it altogether.\u00a0 It is called The Village.\u00a0 It is a small, bricked lane with shops on either side.\u00a0 It resembles a European village, but maybe smaller.<\/p>\n

I wanted to go to The Celtic Heritage shop, which was closed until 7:00.\u00a0 So we moved on toward the second shop I was looking for.\u00a0 However, we got caught by other shops along the way.\u00a0 We went into the spice and tea shop.\u00a0 The smells were wonderful.\u00a0 I picked up a couple of items for someone\u2019s Christmas.\u00a0 Rich got caught by the Hofbrau Haus restaurant, which turned out to be a cheese shop and sandwich place.<\/p>\n

We finally wondered around to The Day Hiker.\u00a0 I wanted to check out some hiking supplies.\u00a0 The place was stuffed with all kinds of things.\u00a0 When we came in, there was a young guy talking to the owner about trails and places.\u00a0 They were having an interesting conversation and it was hard not to listen.\u00a0 I found the couple of items I wanted.\u00a0 Rich wanted to check out the t-shirt he saw in the window.\u00a0 We found it and it was in his size.\u00a0 The t-shirt stated:\u00a0 I hiked the entire (in small letters width) of the Appalachian Trail.<\/p>\n

We went to pay and kind of got caught in the conversation also.\u00a0 Dave, the owner, has hiked most of the area and the Appalachian Trail.\u00a0 We talked about trails and a local guy who was showing the younger man around.\u00a0 The stories were pretty good.\u00a0 Then we left and back to the Celtic Heritage shop.\u00a0 I was hoping to find some tartan pieces, but they didn\u2019t really carry much.\u00a0 We headed to the car and back to the cabin.<\/p>\n

It was time for the evening ritual.\u00a0 Tonight, we had Sweetwater Brewing Company IPAs and sat outside on the porch watching the clouds roll in over the top of the mountain.\u00a0 Some bats were flying over head and doing a pretty good dance for us.<\/p>\n

We came in for a while to read, work on blogs, and rest.\u00a0 We went back out when it got dark and we watched the stars and talked.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there were no shooting stars tonight.\u00a0 Then it was time to go to bed, to read for a while, and then sink off into dreamland.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking out across the valley to Gatlinburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One room schoolhouse at Greenbrier. There was a bat hanging from the ceiling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View when walking from John Oliver homestead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Primitive<\/a>
Primitive Baptist Church and its graveyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One lane bridge going out to Elijah Oliver’s homestead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca<\/a>
Rebecca Cable’s house in Cades Cove. She and her brother lived in the house together since neither one had married. She was 95 when she passed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich doing a rose pose down by the barn. It was a unique style of barn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grist<\/a>
Grist mill at Cades Cove. It was actually working while we were there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Large<\/a>
Large storage barn at Cades Cove.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Smoky<\/a>
Smoky Mountain Trout House where we had great trout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich on the porch enjoying one part of our new ritual.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Clouds<\/a>
Clouds over Mt. Leconte.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mist<\/a>
Mist coming in over the top of the mountain ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Watching<\/a>
Watching the clouds roll in to create the layers of mist on the mountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Trust<\/a>
Trust me, there is a bat up there dancing around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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This is Day 5.\u00a0 We slept in again.\u00a0 This is getting to be a bad habit, you know.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure Sascha won\u2019t stand for it.\u00a0 Let alone my boss.After breakfast, we packed up the car and headed out for Cades Cove.\u00a0 This took us to Sugarland Visitor\u2019s Center first.\u00a0 We looked through the exhibits and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,12,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2291,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions\/2291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}