John and Jackie's Midwest Journey: Day 43 ~ Pigeon Forge, TN

We were told that the Smoky Mountains got their first frost this morning. We are certainly feeling the Season changing! Fall is definitely here, very chilly in the evenings and chilly in the mornings.

We got up super early this morning to take a drive through the Historic "Cades Cove" in the Smoky Mountains National Forest. It is the number one rated attraction in the Smoky Mountains. We were so glad we got up early to do this!

Cades Cove was a farming community established in the early 1820's. Prior to the establishment of this community, it's still not known when Native Americans first visited the Cove. The history behind the families who settled here are so interesting.

The park was established 100 years later. There is now an 11 mile Loop to allow visitors from all over the world to view the historic community. It was certainly amazing to see these buildings still standing after all these years. The scenery was beautiful!

We spent about 4 hours in the park. It was incredible. Later we went back to camp to have lunch and give the boys some play time. Since we were up so early, we took a good rest and decided we would take off to see some more sites after our rest.

We enjoyed some antique stores, local arts & crafts stores and by far the most enjoyable was visiting with the locals. Everyone is so friendly here. John was craving Pizza for dinner, so guess what we had??? There was a wonderful Pizza joint just down the road from our RV Park we went to...mmmm...Good!

When we got back to camp it was just a wonderful evening. The evening crickets were so loud tonight! We sat outside and enjoyed the evening and then called it a day. What a wonderful fall day!