Smiles For Many Miles: December 2017

This final Tennessee post covers the

remainder of our visit to the

Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg / Great Smoky Mountains area.

We all toured

Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum.

in Sevierville one fine morning.

It houses 92 classics.

Here's a couple of Corvettes.

This car was used to run moonshine.

It looks quite mobsterish!

I'm pretty sure they'll be adding the word
"mobsterish" to the dictionary any day now.

The yellow car below is a
1970 Torino King Cobra.

There may be only three in
existence according to their website.

It is a pretty cool place and a must-see
for any muscle car/classic car enthusiast!

If you're interested in a

virtual tour & more,

click HERE.

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The Old Mill Restaurant

in the Old Mill District

was a yummy lunch stop one day.

There's always a wait at the Old Mill but the

down-home eats and modest prices

make it well worth the wait.

We always love eating here!

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The Incredible Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge is a magical treat! Linda, Sandy and I spent a little time experiencing this festive wonderland!

A pretty, snowy mural up near the ceiling.

And another one.

Can you see the little, green

train running the perimeter?

You might find yourself "ooohing" and "aaahing"
a lot around all this gleeful yuletide!

Santa & his reindeer paused amidst the murals.

Captivating stained class,
a festive tree, and a

very cool nativity set.

Mary, Joseph, Jesus and

one of the three wise men.

The star of the nativity set,
Lord and Savior,
Baby Jesus!

There are many incredible rooms in The Incredible Christmas Place with a few additional shops just outside the main building. Also on the grounds outside the stores, a little fenced area can be found with a train meandering it's way through small tunnels and other train-related landscape.

If you enjoy Christmas, you'll love The Incredible Christmas Place! If you don't, it might entice you right smack into the joy of the season!

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The eight mile Gatlinburg Art Loop features
120 working artists and craftsmen so
a cruise through the loop was in order.

Access to some of the artist's creations

can be found HERE (or above).

A map of the art loop

can be found HERE.

There's even a dulcimer shop,

Smoky Mountain Dulcimer.
The owner was playing music,

providing info, and selling dulcimers.

He was kind enough to

let me take his photo.

For more about the
art loop and a short video

about watercolor artist,
A. Jann Piesto,
(I love her work)
click HERE

to go to my blog post on
the Yak Yak Art blog.

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Clyde & Sandy ventured on into Gatlinburg after a few stops on the art loop. Once we were finished, we headed into Gatlinburg to meet up with them but stopped off at this back road cemetery along the way.

This is the peaceful country

road next to the cemetery...

...which rests atop a small hill..

...and provides this splendid view!

It's always a joy to drive around

the Tennessee back roads and
take in the remarkable countryside!

Once in Gatlinburg, we chilled a bit and
people watched from upstairs at Hogg's.
Look at all those people!

Actually, it was near 5:00 and things

were winding down but would

pick up again soon.

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Our final day was spent in the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

meandering the 11-mile Cades Cove loop.

The John Oliver Cabin is our first stop.

This was our attempt to mimic the way
folks looked in pictures back in the day.

Sandy took the photo. She didn't miss out
on our momentary trip back in time though.
She made a fine attempt to look
very sad and quite blurry
while taking the picture!

There are three churches in Cades Cove.

We walked through this one and the cemetery.

I'm not sure if it's the

Missionary Baptist Church or

the Methodist Church though.

A stop at the
Cades Cove Visitor Center

took us into a grist mill.
Official name:

The John P. Cable Mill.
It's still in operation.

Built in 1868 by,
none other than,

you guessed it,

John P. Cable.

A little store and a few other buildings

are on the spacious property as well.

A cantilever barn.

We got a late start so we didn't make a lot of other stops in the Cove. If you want to drive the loop in a timely manner--the earlier you go, the better! It's a one-way road and bumper-to-bumper although there are a couple of roads on which you can cut through to exit sooner.

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As planned, we returned to Harpoon Harry's Crab House for dinner our final evening so we could sit upstairs.

The downstairs bar area is adorned with impressive wood carvings apparently done by a very gifted artist!

Turtle on... perhaps seaweed?