Gatlinburg Getaway

Gene and I both planned to take Owen's birthday off of work.  I knew there was no way I would be functioning that day, so I knew it was pointless to be there.  When Gene asked off for the day, his boss suggested that he take off a couple more days and then take advantage of his weekend.  We decided at that time we would try and go somewhere to getaway and that we would try and go somewhere that we could take Buttercup with us.

We ended up renting a 1 bedroom cabin in Gatlinburg, TN.  We left on Saturday (after Gene took his deputy test) in our loaded up car and puppy on my lap.  We made it to Gatlinburg rather late that night.  We had a 1.5 hour drive (that should have been about 20 minutes max) once we arrived in Pigeon Forge thanks to the hot-rod festival going on in town.  We saw so many crazy rednecks and all we wanted to do was to be at our home away from home and relax.

We woke up on Sunday to an amazing view from the balcony in our cabin.  I sat out there and ate my breakfast in such peace.  The stress of the week was gone (as much as it can ever be now).  We then hiked a trail called the Gatlinburg Trail with Buttercup.  (There are only 3 official dog friendly trails in all of the Smoky Mountains).  It was an easy hike right on the outskirts of Gatlinburg.  Buttercup loved every minute of it...so many sniffs to sniff...her nose and feet were going crazy.  She also got in the river a few times and loved that too.  We saw many butterflies on the hike...beautiful, big, blue/black butterflies (say that 5 times fast).  Buttercup made several friends while we were resting outside the visitor's center.

On Monday, we trekked over to North Carolina to hike the other reasonably close dog friendly trail.  It was a 30ish mile drive and we got there in about 1.5 hours.  We stopped many times to take in the great views and there was a lot of traffic due to the great weather and road construction too.  At many of the stops we again saw beautiful butterflies.  Oh and we drove the entire round trip with the window down so Buttercup could ride with her head out the window.  I did have to wear my warm jacket, have the heat on 80 and had a blanket on my legs...but she LOVED it!!!  On this hike, we ended up seeing 4 elk in the river.  The mama elk was very cautious and kept her eyes on us (Buttercup really) while we were near.  We ate at The Melting Pot for dinner this night...cheese, meat and chocolate fondue!  Yummy!! :) 

Tuesday morning, we got up a bit earlier and went on a zip-line tour.  We really enjoyed that and wished we would have done the longer one.  We relaxed at the cabin in the afternoon.  Then, took Buttercup in to Gatlinburg to walk around town some and got pizza to take back to the cabin for dinner.  I did have a difficult night...I was thinking that the next day was 1 year since we physically saw Owen for the last time and buried him. 

Wednesday, we packed up and headed home.  We did stop a few places in Pigeon Forge for some quick shopping (and NOT at the 8 or 10 "As Seen on TV" stores or the flea market stores or the wolf t-shirt/dream catcher stores that were everywhere). 

We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves on the trip.  I hit the hot tub on the balcony every night and did some reading and looked at the stars...that helped with relaxing! 

Thursday was back to work for both of us and back to reality again.

We were glad to get away and glad that Buttercup ended up being a good traveler (except for not really eating until Tuesday night and not potty-ing for 1.5 days).  I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow (well later today really since it is after midnight).