Fall Getaway

 

And here we are in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The government shut down hasn't affected this particular park, so we could drive through on our way north, and enjoy the beautiful views.

Before moving on, let's talk about GDOT's epic failure just north of Clayton.  To call this a masterclass in ineptitude would be not really do this amazing collapse of common sense and planning justice.  We - along with thousands of others - were trapped in a bottlenecked area of traffic - all planned ahead of time - by the GDOT for some construction.  No warning.  No escape.  I am not exaggerating when I say that it took us well over two hours to travel roughly three and a half miles.  I'm not suggesting we charge those responsible with war crimes, but I do know that words like "travesty" fall well short when attempting to describe what is happening here.

Anyway, that added about two hours to our journey, so by the time we got to our destination, we were fairly all tuckered out. 

Let's do a scheduled stop in Cherokee, shall we?  Here we are, driving in town past the tank there, and then stopping at the McDonald's as always.

And so finally, we made it to the Resort.  It's capitalized because that's its name - the Resort.  And it's a nice place!  It has this massive pool - an outdoor one and an indoor one with large water slides and fun.  There is a big outdoor area that's all decorated for fall with pumpkins galore and inflatables and all kinds of seasonal decorations.  We walked around a bit for that and enjoyed the crisp, cool weather and the atmosphere.

And then we went out for a ride!  We were planning on going by the Island in Pigeon Forge tonight, but it was way too crowded, and we didn't think that would be as much fun.  So we stopped at the Mellow Mushroom again and got ourselves some wings and pizza, and of course it was delicious.

The long drive kind of killed our energy levels and ate up some time, so we decided to just chill at the Resort, and walk around the grounds there to see some of the decorations at night.  It was really nice!

And then we stopped to hang out at the fire pits, just relaxing.  It's a nice area out there, especially with the hot chocolate Mom made us!

Our condo is pretty nice.  Nate has his extra room and extra bathroom, while the three of us share another area as always.  There's a couch that we can sit on, which we did tonight - we all sat and watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas," of course my favorite seasonal movie.  I'm wearing my Nightmare-themed pajamas that Mom got me too!  

Anyway, it was a pretty nice and chill night.  We said our prayers and got some sleep tonight.  A few of us are somewhat medicated for sore throats and coughing, but it's not too serious.  It's going to be a nice little getaway.