Day 52-August 26, 2014-Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Drove 49 miles in 3-3/4 hours.
Sunny, high of 82, except at the top of the mountain where it went down to 64.
Forty miles of our 49 mile drive today was on the Newfound Gap Rd. which goes from Gatlinburg, TN to Cherokee, NC through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Twists, turns, s-curves, up and down the mountain with beautiful scenery on both sides. Seems there was always a shallow rocky river or a stream right by the side of the road. Lots of scenic pull-overs (and some construction, too). Speed limit is 35 most of the way, but some turns are so sharp they’re 15 MPH. Three tunnels, but they’re nice and high, even on the sides, so we didn’t have to drive in the middle. A few waterfalls, too.
We stopped at both visitors centers, Sugarlands Visitors Center at the beginning in TN and Oconaluftee in NC at the end. There’s a herd of elk at the last one but not in the middle of the day, we’d have to go back at dusk to see them.
Our campground, Flaming Arrow, is close to the Cherokee Indian Reservation and right off the highway. It’s nice, lots of hills but our site is level. Has a pool, rec center, playground and all the amenities we need, even cable TV although we haven’t watched TV in almost two months. Set up and went into relax mode, we both started new books. After dinner we drove the 2 miles to Harrah’s Casino but I think we left lady luck back in Michigan. Casino is huge, the biggest we’ve been in. Two levels and a nice non-smoking area. Slot machines galore and table games for black jack, poker, roulette, etc. and some games I’ve never seen before. And all of them busy, usually the tables aren’t busy, especially on a Tuesday night, but all these had players. It has a buffet and four other restaurants, a hotel and convention center attached and a multi-level indoor parking lot. When we went in they gave us a map of the casino and there are computerized interactive maps scattered throughout for people like me who threw the paper map out. Took us a while (and asking somebody) to find the way out.
Back at the campground we talked to our neighbors (also from Florida) for a while. Lots of stars here but I wish there weren’t so many lights so we could see them better.