Vacation Recap

We left for the Smokey Mountains Tuesday night after work and drove four hours. ROAD TRIP!

My new obsession is Hot Wire. I scouted out deals off of 75 South and booked not knowing which hotel until after we booked. We stayed at a Ramada Inn which wasn't the nicest hotel I ever stayed at, but it was only $40 (originally $100) so I felt like I won. We had a nice swim in the pool, a cocktail, and then went to bed. We slept in, ate breakfast and I started our first full day of vacation severely burning my hand on coffee. I'm so klutzy sometimes, it's awesome. I'm kidding when I tell you the rest of the trip Garth would not let me hold or walk with coffee. He would serve it to me. I'm not complaining!

We drove four hours from our hotel in Ohio to Lexington, KY and had our first ever taste of Chick-fil-a. It was amazing. I really hope we get one in Michigan!

After a delicious lunch we hit traffic. Major traffic. 75 South was closed on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee because of a sink hole combined with a fatal accident and we just sat. And sat some more. Then people started getting out of their cars. We made the best decision of the whole trip and turned around and took the country back roads for thirty miles. We ended up on to the 75 detour with all the other traffic and semi trucks. Oh my goodness gracious. The poor semi trucks! We are on back, country roads in the mountains with winding roads, narrow turns, and cliffs that just drop. It was not a relaxing part of the trip. God bless Garth! He was calm, collective and such a great driver while his crazy wife had an anxiety attack.

At one point we were going up a steep hill and the semi truck in front of us stopped and then proceeded to start rolling down the hill towards us. Praise the Lord the truck gained his traction and was able to get up the hill. But oh. My. Gosh. Talk about an adventure! We made it back to the freeway and the rest of the trip to our cabin was uneventful.

Oh! We did stop at Kroger right outside Sierville to stock up on groceries and there was a whole isle of beer, but no wine. After searching the whole store we finally asked someone. He started laughing and said, "You're not from around here are you? You won't find wine in any grocery store. You will have to go to the liquor store." Good to know. We stopped at The Smokey Mountain Liquor Store and met some of the most fun people there. They got a kick out of it that we were from Michigan because they were Michigan State fans. While shopping for wine they asked if we wanted to do a wine tasting. Wine tasting in a liquor store?! We are not in Michigan anymore, that's for sure.

Finally, after six hours of driving, two stops, lunch and navigating the traffic detour we made it to Timber Tops Luxury Cabins. We stayed in Teri's Treasure and could not have been happier with our decision. It was a scary drive up the mountain, but the view was well worth it. Not to mention the stay two nights get one night free. Love that!

The dining/living room:

Kitchen & Garth's lazy boy he is obsessed with:

Master (& only bedroom)

The game room

/ loft:

The view:

Love these rocking chairs and want them for our porch more than ever:

The hot tube, my favorite place to be:

I wish I could really capture the loveliness of our cabin, but their website is a better place to view pictures of our cabin. My pictures just do not do it justice. It was a lovely cabin, very comfortable, clean, and private with a gorgeous view.

After spending all day on the road we put a pizza in the oven and then enjoyed the hot tub. Stay tuned, tomorrow we explore Gatlinburg, eat Southern cookin' and try moonshine.