Day 6

Last days are hard. It's always sad that your trip is coming to an end, but, on top of that, it's more difficult to enjoy that last full day when you have packing on the horizon. Alas, that last day still comes. 

We decided last night that we better take Mione with us today since she was hyper as all get out yesterday after chilling solo most of the day. The problem here is that, while we walk her, the walks are not very long because 1) it's all uphill, 2) it's terribly hot and humid, and 3) bears. And there is not a yard for us to let her out in, so she isn't getting a whole lot of exercise. This meant, though, that we had to choose a non-NP activity. 

We knew we had to go back to the rope swing in Townsend because Ethan has literally asked 17,000 times to go back since the day we went. First, though, we went to a park in Pigeon Forge that had a path around it so we could walk her a bit on flat ground. The park was very modern with nice playground equipment, some pavilions, a bathroom, and pristine ball fields. It was definitely hot, though, so none of us lasted too long. 

From there, we found the Pigeon Forge recycling center (our second recycling center of the trip, thank you very much) to drop off more paper and cans. Then we took the long, winding road to Townsend more more time. First, we stopped at the visitor's center because Ethan wanted a pin. He has a collection of national and state park pins from most of the places we have visited. He also bought a mug for his collection, and Eleanor got a small bear she named Smoky. 

Finally, it was time for the rope swing. When we got to it, there was another family there. They had set up shop on the bank I was hoping we could bring our stuff to, but they weren't using the swing, so Ethan had fun jumping in. Someone had tied bike handlebars to the rope since the other day, too, and he liked that. Eleanor went, and the kids even convinced me to do it once. It wasn't as deep as I would have liked, and when I jumped in my head didn't even go under. Not too scary. 

It was nice and sunny on some big rocks, so to dry off, we set up our towels on them and did some rock hard sunbathing. 

The plan after swimming was to drive the Foothills Parkway back toward home. It would take us a bit longer, but it is lauded as one of the prettiest drives with a lot of pull outs. The road was quite nice and, to Will's satisfaction, wider and less busy, so it seemed to have been a good choice. And the views were gorgeous! Out the right side of the car were beautiful vistas of the Smokies. The skies were blue with white clouds, contrasting nicely with the green mountains. We stopped a couple of times for Ethan to set up his tripod or selfie stick for family pictures. We even had a Mione photoshoot.

The parkway ended at 321, the road we take to most everything, and we set off to find lunch. I had packed a lunch in the morning and promptly left the cooler in the cabin. I forgot to tell Will to put it in the car. This meant, though, that we stumbled upon a little food truck area where we got the most delicious lunch. It was called the Chicken Coop, I think, and it was yummy. Eleanor got tenders and fries. Ethan got buffalo wings. And Will and I got this cucumber salad with red onion, feta, dried cranberries, and a Vidalia onion vinaigrette. It was delightful, and I will definitely be recreating it with cukes at home. I knew we would also share a bit of the kid's chicken, too, which was yummy! And the beer battered fries were perfection. The bbq sauces (many options) were super tasty, too. A great lunch and love that when we did eat out, we ate at local places, not chains. 

I asked Will to stop in at a couple of little general store places because I was looking for chocolate cake for our anniversary. Celebrating 17 years today. Chocolate cake has become sort of a tradition. The first place didn't have cake but did have homemade fudge and chocolates, so I picked up Will some dark chocolate sea salt carmel bites, dark chocolate almond bark, and some caramel pecan fudge. It will have to do. 

Once we got into Shagbark, our gated community, Will dropped me and the kids off at the pool for another try. This time, it was even more crowded, but since we knew we were walking back up again, we jumped in the water to cool off. The kids didn't make it long with so many people, so we got our clothes on, packed things up into our packs and set up for our final hike...up the road to our cabin. It is just about a mile and a half. I honestly wanted to do it because we didn't do a lot of walking today, but--man, was it hot. I was dripping sweat. 

Back at home I've just been packing up now. We did do a little photoshoot on the deck after we all showered, too. Oh, and there was an incredible rainbow below us in the mountains after a short rain storm. It was so cool - a rainbow we looked down at! 

Leftovers for dinner, and now just trying to make sure we pack everything up. Will wants to get on the road around 6, which seems awfully ambitious, but we will see. I know he is excited to get back into the plains. 

All in all it was a good trip. I do wish our place had been a bit easier to get to and that we were closer to the entrance to the national park. I also wish we could have done more in the park. We really only did 3 decent hikes. There was a lot we were not able to see, mostly because we couldn't leave the dog for the entire day. So that was frustrating. On the other hand, I am usually so exhausted at the end of each day of our trips. I was still tired and slept very well here, but we were able to relax every afternoon. We went in the hot tub, played games and pool, watched movies, and more. On most of our trips, we pretty much go to bed after dinner and then we are up early and out the door. This trip, we didn't leave before 9 often at all. So there were some good trade offs. 

Looking forward to being back home in our own space. But happy to have gotten away and had a safe, fun trip.