Our Camping Trip- Near Smoky Mountains

We had lots of fun in TN. The Mister had to work....and work...and work before we were to leave. I somehow got it all organized. I typed up a list, revised it, re-worked it until I thought all the items we needed were on there.

Finally my dear hubby got home and after a quick debate about leaving that night or the next morning, we decided to go on the adventure that night. We drove North west and headed to Tennessee. I took my laptop and the aircard so we could have real-time maps available as we went.

We drove in circles a few times but finally stopped and asked some nice young men at a Sonic which direction our campground was. They gave us good directions and we realized we hadn't gone far enough down the highway the first time. Off we go....up a winding 7 mile road. We drive though very quietly...shhhhh. No sites available. None. Uh oh. Now what?

I pull out the trusty laptop ..... no service. No cell phone service, no aircard service. Um. It's midnight. Drive back down the winding road. We made one stop so the Mister could water the flowers and I gave myself my shot. Back in the car we head down...I find a little map once we get one bar of service at the end of the road. We head to the next area that appears to have campgrounds. We pass a sign. It's a campground that is on my map. Up another 7 mile dirt road. We chance it. Up we go. It takes 20-30 minutes and when we arrive, there's lots of sites! Miracle! Woohoo! No flushing toilet but who cares. It's a little smelly but we can deal with it. Then we realize there's no water. YIKES! Well, it's do-able. We can just drive down for water tomorrow. We set up camp super quietly. Just the tent and the blow-up mattress. We gratefully lay down to go to sleep. *sniff* *sniff* What's that smell?! Holy crap we're down-wind from the "bathroom". Yuck. I poke the Mister. "Wha?" I say, "Tomorrow morning, we're looking for another campsite. We might not find one but let's look. Can you SMELL that?" "Shhh. Go to sleep.", was his response.

The next morning we did not hop out of the tent and inhale the lovely mountain air. Instead, we picked up everything but the tent and headed out. We did quickly use the bathroom but we held our breath. Down the winding road again. We find a place to stop for gas. It was the coolest place. An original Texaco from 1936. Family owned business where you can rent rafts, tubes and kayaks to use on the Hiwassee River. The best part? They point us to an outdoor adventure store up the driveway and they have a little cafe! Woot! We put off looking for a campsite and eat breakfast first. We could see the river from the tables outside. We chatted with the locals and other visitors. It was great.

Then we take off again! Down the road 2 miles and we see Quinn Springs Campground. We're in the Cherokee National Forest now. We pull in, it's beautiful! There are flushing toilets and showers! Nice perk. We found 2 empty sites. We leap out, fill out the paperwork/envelope and drop it in the box. Yahoo! We quickly unload the Jeep and set up camp. The only thing left is to go get our tent from the stinky campground.



We set up the tent and revel in the beauty of this campground and site. It was just great. Not too close to other sites, not too far from the bathroom. Perfect. An hour or so later we head to the river.


Of course, once the Mister found out that we could ride the river down he was all about it. This river only had Class II and a tiny bit of Class III rapid. No big deal. We had a lot of fun in our blow up kayak/raft for two. A couple of times we got stuck on the rocks. My wonderful husband would push us off, lift up his butt, wiggle and jiggle until we were off again down the river. It took about 3 hours. It was fun. A couple of times I said, "Do you know what you're doing?" To which I heard from behind me, "Baby. The river is slow, the level isn't very high. We're going to get stuck sometimes. It's no big deal." "Yeah, but stop going over the rocks.", I say. Next thing I hear is laughter. "Um, Honey. The rocks make the rapids. I can't go around them. We have to over them." My response? "Oh." There was also some back and forth banter about his ability to steer the raft. I can't even go into that since it would take up even more space. Suffice it to say, I am not a paddling pro.

We did lunch in the raft. That's how not fast it was. Only a few of the Cheetos got soggy and the chicken salad sandwiches I made were delish.

The rest of the weekend consisted of book reading, a hike to some waterfalls and scouting out other campgrounds for future visits. We realized we literally had the best one in the area. We found a local dive bar named appropriately the "Hillbilly Bar". The locals were quiet when we walked in but after a few minutes and us ordering a Coors Light we all were chatting. We even got invited back for karaoke that night. We didn't go. But, I bet it would have been hilarious.
Wish you all could have been there.