Day 3 - Smoky Mountains

Steph was up early and out the door. I offered to go with her, but she had a plan. When Tysin's mechanic couldn't fix it by resetting the panel, she headed to Knoxville, where the BMW dealership told her they could fix it for a million dollars. Okay, it wasn't that many zeros, but it was enough.

Steph: "An expensive vacation for me."

Because it would take all day to repair, we let Maggie eat ice cream for breakfast and headed to Knoxville to join Steph. We picked her up (and some free creamers) from the posh dealership and parked downtown. We had brunch at a cute little New Orleans-style restaurant, Ruby Sunshine. They use local food and make it from scratch. We sat outdoors because, for once, it wasn't raining.

Steph: "I'm having a bloody mary."

Me: "No worries, you deserve it."

From Ruby's, we walked downtown, shopped, and listened to a street musician. At a welcome center, the lady directed us to Ijams Nature Center, and Kim drove us there. 

Ijams was an educational facility with plenty to do between hiking, biking, canoeing, and rock climbing. Maggie considered rock climbing, but it had started to rain, and we decided a short hike made more sense.

There were twelve miles of natural surface trails. We took an easy hike around Mead's Quarry, a former industrial site with a spring-fed lake. As we passed a couple with a dog, they told us they'd turned around because of a large snake on the boardwalk. 

Wildlife! 

Steph kept walking while I weighed the pros and cons, deciding a) the dog would've scared the snake off the boardwalk and b) a snake was smaller than a bear. 

We did not encounter the snake.

Everything was so green. I kept saying that, and I know the others thought me nuts, but Florida doesn't have this color green in its foliage. The rain came and went. Steph and Maggie, who were in much better shape than Kim and me, went ahead, circling back every once in a while to make sure we hadn't been eaten by a bear. Kim was a month or so shy of foot surgery, and I used her as my excuse--I was keeping an eye on her.

 

I took a lot of pictures of green things. And colorful flowers. Maybe I need a photo dump page after each day's update. 

As we came to the end of our walk, I took a picture of a bunch of lazy susans, zooming in on one. It wasn't until later that I realized I'd captured quite the photo. I hadn't even noticed this little guy!

We picked up the repaired car, asking for the broken instrument panel because Steph's Hershey mechanic wanted to take a look at it, and headed back to Pigeon Forge. 

Later that evening, after games, Steph asked if we had flying insects in our bathroom. We didn't, and after I answered her, I didn't think much of it. 

Boy, was that my bad.