The Great Smoky Mountain Adventure

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Above is our route to the Smokies!  Over 900 miles and five total days of driving I am happy to report that Kevin and I are still married and not even one kid was beaten during our adventure.  In fact, we had the best time ever!

On our way, we passed through a little town named Rayne, LA which is Gabrielle's middle name.  Spelled the same way (we combined our middle names Ray and Anne to create Rayne).  We chuckled to ourselves for what the city is known for:

Our goal for the first night was Meridian, Mississippi.   We pulled in when it was dark, so we weren't quite sure what the park looked like.   The kids were in dreamland upon our arrival, so when Kiera woke up and looked out the door, she said, "Whoa, how'd we get here?"  It was a very nice park.  In fact, we stayed at the same one on our way back home.

Happy little traveler:

After two full days of traveling, we arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee just in time to enjoy a dinner with my brother and his family.  It was very enjoyable company and so nice to be out of the car.    We headed up to the Mountains after dinner and swore off getting in the car for at least two days.  We were ready to enjoy some nice Mountain scenery and cooler weather.   The Smokies never disappoint:

One of my favorite things about camping is playing games!  Here we are playing some Chicken Foot with my Aunt and Uncle.

Our RV site in the mountains sat on rolling hills.  The twins had a fabulous time learning to walk down the hills.   But, most of their time was spent just being happy little kids.

Food is simply delicious when enjoyed outside with friends or family.  Of course if my brother comes, then it is done professionally,  He came with ribs, pulled pork, pork roast and even chaffing dishes and of course an outside favorite: watermelon!  

My brother is quite the jokester!  Kiera asked him to hold her baby so he decided to nurse the baby.  I couldn't quite catch a picture, but I did get his evil little grin!

Even though Kevin is on vacation, he finds projects to work on.   This time he has a little helper or is that a little hinderer?

On the first Sunday we were there we drove up to Virginia and rode down the Virginia Creeper.  It is a 17 mile (mostly downhill) bike ride that replaced an old railroad.  It crosses the Applachian Trail.   It is beautiful and the weather was in the 70s.  We did run into some rain, but that did not affect our fun!  The kids LOVED it!  The babies sang and napped in their trailer.

   The views are amazing!

 We stopped at an old (and still open!) post office.   It was also a train station back in the day.

On Monday, we got to go to the lake on my brother's boat.  We always have fun with him and absolutely love the lake.

We talked Kevin into jumping off a cliff.  He wasn't very happy, but the good sport he is, he did it!

Monday night, we went and watched Courtney play volleyball.  She is quite good and we thoroughly enjoyed watching her! Here she is about to spike the ball.

Kiera and Daddy had some fun up in the mountains!   She went ziplining by herself (we didn't get any pictures ) and went to a aircraft museum.

On one of our last days in Tennessee we went to a popular site called Cades Cove.   There is a 12 mile loop around the cove that is very beautiful and quite serene.  Supposively there are 1500 Black Bears in the cove.   While looking at the old churches and log cabins, we kept our eyes peeled to the windows trying to spot a bear.  Even though we had tons of fun wading in the creek as we left, we were quite disappointed there was not even one bear spotted!

After Cades Cove, we decided to take a little drive around the RV site and up in the mountains right above the RV park and that's when we spotted a BEAR!!!

After 10 fun filled days in the mountains, we had to say goodbye to all the mountain fun and head home.   But this time, we decided to take our time and drive the long drive home over three days.   Our first goal was Mississippi once again.  Kevin had wanted to stop right outside of New Orleans in Picuyune, MS and show us the 40 acres his parents had owned when he was a boy.   I have heard about the land many times, but never had a complete picture in my mind of what it looked like.   It was absolutely beautiful and the new owners (who are pilots!) are pleasant as pie!  I love the south!

 

Garrett was enthralled with the planes.  

His little shirt that read "This is your Captain speaking" was perfect!

 

The best part of visiting the land, was Kiera got to take her first small airplane ride from the runaway named after her grandpa:  Simpson Field

What a great memory!  She absolutely loved it!

We had a picnic lunch on the land before heading out to Louisiana.

For our last stop of our trip we pulled into a beautiful state park in Louisiana.   

They had moss hanging from all the trees which Kevin thought was beautiful, but I thought was sort of creepy...sort of Scooby Dooish. 

It was a truly beautiful park, though:

Before pulling out, we had a little playground fun!

This was our home for two weeks and we had a blast!  I cannot wait to go again.  We are already planning next Summer's big trip:  The Ozarks in Missouri!