Central BBQ, Memphis, TN

 Do you remember the time when domestic flights were hardly full and a delay in a trip was an exception? The 14 hour long drive from Dallas to The Smoky mountains was way more pleasant than my 4 hour flights to NY and Virginia from Dallas. We broke our drive into two seven hour trips with a stop over at Memphis.
 Wall Of Visitors - German Commissionary Any Southerner will tell you a trip to Memphis is not complete with out a visit to the local barbecque joints. We visited two of the Memphis' best BBQ joints in town. The German Commissionary and the Central BBQ. The German Commissionary on our way to Tenessee and the Central BBQ on our way back to Dallas. It's really hard for me to tell which one was better. If I had to badly pick one then my choice would be the Central BBQ. Light, moist and slow cooked is how I would describe the food from both the joints.

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Burg Coffee, TN

 
Between the rains and the long walks there is certainly a special place for a coffee shop serving good coffee. It took me many many years to figure out what kind of coffee I like best; that any Barista could make. It happens to be a shot of espresso + hot water + a little bit of steamed 2% milk extra hot. It's neither a Cafe Mocha (espress + lots of steamed milk)  nor a Cafe Americano (espresso + hot water) and my version is a combination of the two.

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Sweet Tooth in The Smokies

 
Kilwin's is a chain and serves fudge, ice cream and chocolates with a limited collection of sorbets. This post needs no explanation. Presenting glucose, sucrose, dextrose, maltose, lactose and everything sweet.
Candies
Nuts
Honey ... what else do you expect in a place where there are too many bears.
 
... and more fudge, which seems to be star attraction in the Smokies.

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Gatlinberg, TN - Part 2

The Celtic Heritage offers jewellery and music from Wales, Scotland and a couple of other European countries belonging to the Celtic culture. I am sure you can wiki-pedia-up Celti culture, so I shall refrain myself from cut-copy-pasting information. What appealed to me was the architecture of the building and of course, I was not expecting to see any Celtic reference deep down in the state of Tennessee. 

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Gatlinberg, TN

Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are infested with Pancake houses and fudge shops. I find the latter too sugary and the former is an everyday actually just on weekends item in our household. So we were not too keen on trying either. 
A walk around the city does not take too long and there are free shuttles that drive you up and down the streets. The city has an old world charm and all the reminiscence of a mountain resort with log cabin style shops selling items raging from travel magnets to chilli sauces, cheeses, tees with hilarious captions on hiking and everything in between.

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Flora In The Smokies

The route to our cabin was steep, and on wet rainy days, you truly wished for that 4x4 fuel guzzler you refused to rent. A few mornings, Mahesh and I sans kids, walked around the steep path. One of best work outs I had in days.
The flowers remind me of the peaceful morning walks in the mountains. It pays to wake up before anybody else does to enjoy the temporary solitude.

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Fauna In The Smokies

We were lucky enough to spot a few wild life in it's natural habitat during our 19-mile drive in the Cade's Cove. To read about wild life and their protective mechanisms is one thing but to see it live in nature is an absolute thrill. Picture above : A Wild Turkey.
A bat in the barn
Centipede on dirt, rocks and dried up branches.

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Cades Cove, Smoky Mountains, TN

Cades Cove looks the same way it probably did centuries ago. A place well preserved. Plain grass lands with patches of wild flowers set against the back drop of mountains is home to beautiful cherry trees and abundant wild life like bears (of course), elks, deers, wild turkeys and more. 
You could drive through the trails or camp at one of the camp sites close by or simply park the car and take a detour like what we did. 

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Laurel Falls, Smokies, TN

Not a huge waterfalls, but a fun hike with a less inclined steep. The road is paved and allows for strollers and such. Over all an easy hike up. Beware of bears on the trail. A few ahead of us did see one, we missed it by about 5 to 10 minutes. You may want to read the "What to do if you see a bear" section of the national park website before you head on any of the trails in the park.

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Early Settlement, Smoky Mountains, TN

Cades Cove has preserved some of the home sites and the homes of the early settlers. The road tour is mapped in a way to provide access to these homes and the churches. My dreamy self was ready to move in  to write a sequel to "The Little Women", Tennessee Edition. The setting was apt with luscious pastures, barns, and the wooden homes.
The Carters, Olivers, Lawsons and a few more lived in the settlement with appropriate space for blacksmith shop, mill flume (they used water to power a mill), smokehouses, mills, et al. Not too much has changed in the fundamental structure of the fire places and the attics from those times to now. What a view these families woke up to !!!

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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN - 2

Picket fences, colorful flowers, wooden bridges and rocks in the way of water are some of those things, I cannot stop myself from photographing. There is no way I would miss the photo-op of a lovely old rackety wooden bridge nestled among the trees. I have teeny-tiny ounces of patience with no real liking to fishing. If I did, this would be a great spot for catching a bass or a trout or even fly-fishing; which I have no idea how some do it.  We found this stream close to a mini-hike on the day we arrived.

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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN

A lovely wooded cabin in the middle of the mountains nestled in clouds with breath-taking views. The picture above is a view from our cabin. The weather changes constantly every now and then from being muggy and sunny to being cloudy and breezy with plenty of showers in the Summer. An ideal place for family reunions saying that, just because we did so. There's plenty of activities to do for all age groups or you could simply enjoy the view with a cup of smoking hot tea or wine, accompanied by friends and family.

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Back To Work

Quiet mornings, unexpeceted summer showers, mountains amongst the clouds, reading, white water rafting, long hikes, water streams, hot sauna, lots of quick-fix home cooked food, a bit of wild fauna and Mahesh's aunt and cousins/family were part of the vacation. All good things come to an end, so does this vacation. I unpack one set of baggage and re-pack for my business trip to New York.

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