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So our next stop was North Carolina but we didn’t do much there except eat and sleep. These are our only pictures from there. What a lame sign, huh?

Next stop was South Carolina.

BMW factory!

Teresa was making fun of me because I was uploading a pic to Facebook.

Here are some of the sights inside the factory.

This would never actually happen.

Mmmmm, E30 M3!

We did the factory tour while we were there. They didn’t allow cameras so no pictures in the factory.

Our next stop was Atlanta, GA, but before we got to the border, we needed to eat. Teresa has never been to Cracker Barrel so that’s where we stopped. Cracker Barrel meatloaf… mmmm…

The Great Smoky Mountains!

We met another couple at this sign from Texas. They took our picture for us.

Our first encounter with nature is a black bear cub. He was pretty close to the trail.

After hiking for a while, we came to our first waterfall, Laurel Falls.

We climbed down to take more pictures.

Thirsty?

Pictures from the bottom of the waterfall.

On the auto touring trail, we spotted a mother black bear and her three cubs.

Trail scenery

Salamander

Teresa was walking in front of me on this trail and I noticed something poking out on the left. I called out Teresa’s name and she stopped and turned. I probably should’ve not said anything and let her keep walking passed it. Teresa stopped right in the path of a snake making it’s way across.

There were mysterious poop droppings. Or as the kids behind us would say, “poo-berries”.

The “poo-berries” belonged to this group of llamas.

Here’s our second waterfall, Grotto Falls. It’s not as tall as the first one but it was nice.

I debated walking into the waterfall but it was way too cold.

I decided to walk down the stream while Teresa walked on the trail.

Further down the stream was a smaller waterfall.

Picture of the car in nature.

Clingman’s Dome was suppose to be an easy .5 mile paved trail. It definitely was not easy. It was a steep incline to the top and it was really cold. This is the highest point in the park.

Views from atop Clingman’s Dome

The different directional views.

On the way back to the car. We saw an Elk, or a buck, as the redneck put it.

It was a pretty long, eventful day so we ended up heading out to Asheville, NC for the night.

Gatlinburg, TN

We chose Gatlinburg to be our final destination in Tennessee because it’s right on the border of the Great Smoky Mountains. Since we visited so many things in Nashville, we left there a little later than we expected. So as we were driving into Gatlinburg, it was already dark outside. However, we had to drive through Pigeon Forge to get there. Pigeon Forge was far from dark. It was like we entered into Vegas. Dollywood is based there, so you can image the bright lights and hoopla there. Entering into Gatlinburg, there were some twisty and winding roads that were fun to drive at night. Not much was going on as we drove through the city. We were afraid the food places would be closed by the time we checked into our hotel. Once we checked in, we took a look around and didn’t see much. However, one street over, it was a whole different scene. There were a lot of cute gift shops and eating places in a little village area.

After walking around and grabbing dinner, we went back to our hotel room. We relaxed by the fireplace and jacuzzi. That’s right, fireplace and jacuzzi… in our room. It was really odd. Our view from the balcony was nice though. Does anybody know what a “free hsia” is?

Before we left for the Great Smoky Mountains, we rode the Sky Lift (basically a ski lift that took us to the top of the mountain).

At the top of the Sky Lift was a platform and a souvenir shop. We didn’t buy anything because it was overpriced, but Teresa did try on a ranger’s hat.

This is the street during the day.

They actually have a Chinese restaurant there too. Don’t worry, we didn’t try it.

Apparently there’s no longhorn pooping allowed in Puckers. Sorry Austinites.

There was a store called “All Sauced Up”. They had a ton of sauces. You could sample over 200+ sauces there if you wanted too…

The Donut Friar was closed the night before when we were walking around so we went back in the morning. It was kinda disappointing.

Once we finished walking around the area, we got back into the car and drove on towards the mountains!