Great Smokey Mountains

Wow have we had a busy few days. We left Thomasville GA last Sunday and drove to McRae GA for a night at Little Ocmulgee State Park. Beautiful place, but out in the middle of nowhere!. We left Monday morning for Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge, west of Atlanta. Someone must really like cherry trees because the town streets were lined with them, and they were all in bloom.

Ron wanted to go the micro car museum that wasn’t too far away. The museum didn’t open until Tuesday, so they drove around the area and discovered Madison---another Georgia town with loads of old houses. Apparently the senator for the area just before the Civil War refused to vote to succeed from the union and resigned his seat, so when the Union army came through the area they spared the town and only burned the cotton gin and the railroad station. Besides the houses there was a cute downtown with lots of neat little shops.

The micro car museum was great. Here is a picture of one of Nancy’s favorite cars, but you can see all of the cars at: http://microcarmuseum.com/virtualtour.html.

Hard Labor State park was on two lakes (built by the CCC). The weather was lovely---warmest we have had since leaving Michigan in January! We even had a campfire one evening. First one all vacation.

On the 31^st we were on the road again—this time to Pigeon Forge TN. We got to drive through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Nancy held me and Ron drove carefully and I didn’t get car-sick on the curvy roads. It was beautiful. We are at a lovely campground right in Pigeon Forge called Riversedge. Our campsite is near the pool and the trolley stop. I got to catch up on my sleep today while they went to Gatlinburg and on a trolley ride around Pigeon Forge. It got up to 80 today and R&N even went in the swimming pool! We will be here another night and then we are heading North.