We are home having covered over 2,400 miles! It certainly didn’t seem that we had traveled anything like that distance as we have spent longer in each destination!

August 12th is when I’ll be back blogging as we head to Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, one of our favourite states where the scenery is beautiful, the sunsets are magnificent and the fishing is great!

I look forward to welcoming you back for yet another adventure.

Until then, Happy July!

We are nearly home after four plus weeks on the road.

It has been a fun trip, different from our past road trips in that we have used the time to further explore our ideas on what’s next on the home front. We have eliminated some places and added others to the list!

The kitties have all behaved beautifully and, as ever, have adapted themselves to being on the road.

Artie chilling on the back of the settee! From here, when desired, he can turn his head and undertake intensive bird watching without experiencing discomfort!

Abigail ensuring she remains hydrated by drinking water directly from the kitchen tap!

Archer pursuing a quiet place where he can nap undisturbed! The shower is his napping place of choice!

Cricket likes to use the dashboard as a launch pad from which to catch any unsuspecting fly that dares to enter the motor home! She is relentless in her pursuit!

With its intriguing mix of history, geology and nature, Hot Springs, Arkansas holds a unique place among America’s national parks. The smallest of the parks, Hot Springs National Park wraps around a modern urban area set within a valley of the rugged Ouachita Mountains. The park and city, both named Hot Springs, developed side by side and remain intimately linked.

The US government created the Hot Springs Reservation in 1832 to protect thermal springs that had become renowned for their supposed therapeutic properties. By the time it was made an official national park in 1921, Hot Springs had grown into a popular spa, attracting holiday makers and patients seeking a cure for all sorts of illnesses.

It also became a spring training home for several major-league baseball teams, whose players used the thermal baths to relax after work-out and training sessions.

Water that fell as rain more than 4,000 years ago flows from the Earth here at an average temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit (around 62 degrees Centigrade), having been heated at a depth of about a mile below ground before rising back to the surface. Today most of the natural hot springs have been diverted into pipes flowing to hotels and to a line of spa buildings known as Bathhouse Row, pictured above.

The eight remaining bathhouses on the row were built between 1892 and 1923 and display a rich diversity of architectural styles.

On Monday we headed to Nashville, Tennessee, where we planned on spending three days checking out properties.

Our RV Park turned out to be the second from worst we have ever stayed in and, what’s odd, is that the worst was also in Nashville! The park was badly maintained, our pad was barely long enough to take the motor home and we only just managed to get the sides out before hitting the folks next to us, there was no sewer connection, a 30-amp power supply meaning we could only run one of the air conditioning units and the park was only just off the motorway with the noise of traffic in the wee hours deafening.

We left Tuesday morning and are now sitting just outside Hot Springs in Arkansas. Our pad overlooks the Hot Springs National Park and it is so beautifully quiet that all you can hear are the worms wriggling!

Nashville, Tennessee as seen from the motor home. The city has just ballooned with development. As we skirted around the town, all you could see were cranes on the horizon. Being the country music mecca of the world and having an international airport, I’m sure it will only continue to grow. We have crossed it off our list!

While walking Miss Poppy in our Hot Springs park, we noticed what we think is a Timber Rattlesnake soaking up the sun. He is a poisonous little devil and the last thing we want is for Miss Poppy, or us, to get bitten!

The Cherokee described these mountains as “shaconage” meaning “blue, like smoke”. A smoke-like natural bluish haze, and mist-like clouds that rise following a rainstorm, prove the inspiration for the name Smoky Mountains.

During the growing season, the Smokies’ lush vegetation emits large quantities of moisture and organic compounds. Together they form a natural haze, which is thickest on calm, sunny, humid days.

At over 6,500 feet, Clingman’s Dome is the Smoky Mountains National Park’s highest point and a great way to appreciate the sheer scale and beauty of these mountains. The Dome also happens to be the highest point in Tennessee and is located on the state-line ridge, half of it being in North Carolina and half in Tennessee. One of the views, pictured above – the mountains really do have a blue hue.

Clingman’s Dome is accessible by road and then walking up a steep half-mile, paved trail which leads to a really neat 54-foot high observation tower. On a clear day, the views are simply spectacular and expand over 100 miles and seven states. However, air pollution limits the average viewing distances to around 22 miles. Despite this handicap, breathtaking scenes would warm even the coldest of hearts. I must remember next time to try and make it here either at sunrise or sunset which I’m sure would be a sight to behold.

On Friday, for the first day since arriving here, the skies were blue and it was a perfect day for taking photographs.

I headed into the Smoky Mountains National Park and spent a glorious day whizzing around all the sights and taking-in a couple of hikes to appreciate the natural beauty of this glorious park.

It was after 7 p.m. and I was still in the park but heading back to the motor home. The traffic was very light and I was just cruising along the park’s winding road when I noticed some movement ahead of me. I stopped the car and out plopped onto the roadway a black bear. I froze in sheer enjoyment of seeing a bear. I grabbed my camera which was sitting handily on the passenger seat when onto the road plopped bear cub number one and then number two. They scampered across the road following their Mum.

I was so excited at seeing the bears that I was all fingers and thumbs getting the cap off the camera. I rolled the car forward just a little as I didn’t want to frighten the bears or draw attention to myself, and managed to take a couple of pictures before Mum and cubs disappeared into the forest.

The photo was taken through the car windscreen. Here is Mummy Bear having crossed the road.

One cub is at the base of the tree and one cub is about three feet up the tree! The cubs were so tiny. Not very good photographs … too much excitement at seeing the bears.

Caution: The trail to the Bluffs is steep and strenuous …

Whomever wrote this gem of a line, wasn’t kidding. The 2.3-mile hike, up the side of the mountain, nearly killed me. But it was certainly worth the views once I got there and my heart had regained its normal beat!

As you step across the first wooden bridge on the Alum Cave Bluffs Trail in the Smoky Mountains National Park, and the constant splashing of the Little Pigeon River drowns out the sounds of the road, you enter a very special environment, a place peculiar to the Smokies, where human meddling has been kept to a minimum.

Sheltered by steep slopes and spared by the logger’s axe, the forests surrounding the trail look much as they did in the days when the Cherokee hunters slipped silently beneath their branches.

When I finally reached the Bluffs, the view of the spectacular Appalachian scenery and the cave, which is really a rock overhang, made me momentarily forget the tingling muscles in my legs.

The cliffs around the Bluffs are natural and are covered with numerous colonies of small plants, including ferns and herbs. The Bluffs is an outcrop of the Anakeesta rock formation which is high in sulfur and has interesting chemical properties where it is exposed and weathering.

The very picturesque Little Pigeon River which hikers hear burbling for the first half of the trail.

The top of the Alum Cave Bluffs Trail. On a clear day, which finally arrived, the view was spectacular and well worth the hike.

We continue to be plagued with bad weather so much so that Mike and I were up at 4 a.m. this morning pulling in the sides of the motorhome as the rain and winds were so violent that we didn’t want anything to get damaged!

As the forecast was for much of the same all day, we headed to Tellico Village, an established, master-planned community located in Loudon, Tennessee.

Situated on the enormous and seriously picturesque Tellico Lake, with the Smoky Mountains as the backdrop, this 5,000-acre series of communities developed around three golf courses is home to some 3,000 residences spread across seven inter-linked neighbourhoods. The development began over 30 years ago so it is very mature, although there are still some lots available.

What appeals to us is that it is an established community and although not age restricted, most residents are like-minded, retired folks, who between them have set up over 200 clubs – everything from learning bridge to hiking in the Smoky Mountains National Park – plus there is access to great exercise facilities, the lake and within a 30-mile radius to a major town such as Knoxville where there is all the necessary shopping one needs.

The folks at the visitor centre kindly gave me access to a couple of photos to use. Above, an aerial photo of part of Tellico Village.

Tellico Lake – magnificent and man made! The area was dammed in 1979 and has over 350 miles of shoreline.

The Smokies are estimated to be anywhere from 200 to 300 millions years old. Prehistoric people also occupied these mountains, but it wasn’t until the 20^th century that human activity started to affect the natural course of events.

Although the idea to create a national park in the Smokies came about in the late 1890s, efforts to create it didn’t become successful until the 1920s. Motorists actually played the biggest role in the push for a national park alongside transport organizations who were interested in developing roads so that they could drive through the beautiful scenery.

Joining the National Park System was far from easy for the Great Smoky Mountains. Even with money, the land for the park was difficult to buy as it was mainly owned by hundreds of small farmers, and a handful of larger timber and paper companies.

The Sinks is a scenic roadside stop on the Little River Road that one takes to wind up and through the park towards one of the visitor’s centres.

 At the Sinks there is a great view of the waterfall but very strong recommendations that however tempting the water looks on a hot day, the currents are very dangerous and visitors should not jump in and try to swim. Sadly, there have been many deaths here for people underestimating the currents. 

We are now in Townsend, Tennessee, some two miles from the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

It is the most visited national park in the US, with over 11 million visitors enjoying the sights every year. And, much to the credit of whomever took the initiative, the park is totally free to enter. Likely why the visitor numbers are so large, especially for young families, who, with bringing their own picnic, it makes a lovely, inexpensive holiday.

As with so many of the American National Parks, this one is no different in it being humongous, covering over 800 square miles in both the states of Tennessee and North Carolina.

I have only spent a very rainy day here thus far, and I am not stunned by the sights but my breath was taken away by the sheer scale of the park. And, not to beat the traditionalist drum, but the park has no cell/mobile phone coverage at all. Imagine an old-fashioned scene where everyone is not walking around, heads down, welded to their phones, but instead is out and about enjoying nature.

And, that’s why you come here, to enjoy nature. There are miles and miles of walking cum hiking trails, depending on your level of fitness and competency.  Most of the trails have been made accessible for the masses but at every trail head there is a good description of the time and fitness level required to fully enjoy the experience.

Even on a rubbish weather day, the views are spectacular.