Smoky Mountains? Or is that fog?

When I got up this morning I immediately looked out my back porch and saw the rain had finally stopped. So I quickly got my stuff together and checked out. Leaving my car in the hotel parking lot, I walked downtown again to check out the t-shirt shops. I was hoping to find some good redneck paraphenilia, but I had no such luck. Seems the John Deere and Harley Davidson t-shirts were the big sellers.

Before long I was driving south on Hwy 441 through Smoky Mountains National Park. I had planned to stop and do some hiking, but once I had gained a few thousand feet of altitude, the thick fog I had experienced yesterday returned. When I reached the summit, the big parking lot was filled cars as everyone was clamoring to see the view that wasn't there. It was just too foggy. What a disappointment.

I continued back down the other side of the mountains back into North Carolina. Then I turned northeast on the famous Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic 400-mile road that runs from the Smoky Mountains all the way up to Virginia along the ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The was supposed to be a spectacular drive, but still fog and rain persisted.

Eventually I landed at my next destination, Asheville, NC. It was about 5 p.m. when I got there, so after I checked into my hotel, I cleaned up and headed back out the door to the local TGI Friday's for dinner. The beer was cold, which is one nice thing about TGI Fridays. And somehow I held off the temptation to order fried cheese. After I ate my black bean soup and chicken fettuccini, I drank one more beer and headed in for the night. I'm tired, and I have a lot planned for tomorrow.