greetings from the road

Hello, Blog World (or the small piece of it that reads this stuff). We (wife, son, and myself) have been spending some quality time tromping around down in the Smokey Mountain area of our country, and now we are working our way north and east along the Blue Ridge Parkway - a fabulous drive. Stood at the summit of Mount Mitchell this afternoon - the highest spot east of the Mississippi. I recommend the following things:
1. Hotel Park Vista in Gatlinburg - actually up and away from the madness, looking down on the town with an aerial view. Big 15 floor atrium and glass elevators and all that. If you have vertigo, stay away.
2. Hikes to waterfalls - always rewarding in my experience.
3. Eating any meal at the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg.
4. Getting through Pigeon Forge as fast as you can. One big sprawling traffic jam on a Saturday night.
5. Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway til you are sick of the endless overlooks of awesome mountain/valley combinations.
6. The Ripleys aquarium in Gatlinburg. A really fine aquarium, ranks with the Baltimore one, I think, in many ways. Big glass tunnels you walk through under the big tank, so sharks and schools of fish swim beside you and over you.
7. This Hotel Floyd, which offers free Internet access, and its 12 or 13 rooms are all appointed with art from local artisans. And it's one of these green buildings you hear so much about...geothermal energy for heating and A/C (and it is cool in here although the temps are warm), bamboo floors, environmentally friendly fibers (have to read up on what that means...), fair trade coffee in the coffee maker too.
Floyd seems to be an interesting little town. Only a few hundred people here nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains, but they have a couple coffee houses and restaurants, and a big bluegrass jam on Friday nights up at the General Store. We got here after dark, but I hope to walk around in the morning. I tihnk they are on to something here in Floyd, but I need to figure out what it is. And maybe get some eggs and toast.

Anyhow, I took a lot of pictures of all the aforementioned, but am too tired to think about locating the camera and USB cord, so maybe a later post will include highlights (like seeing YOUR HOUSE from Mount Mitchell).
And I won't mention the part about leaving my wallet at an information stop along the Parkway. Only had to backtrack about five miles to retrieve it...
Onward...