"Cades Cove? I vote for Hades Cove 'cause it's hotter than hell here!"

We really appreciated the peace and quiet of the campground. At night all you would hear is the small creek behind our tent and the frogs. Because we were in the mountains, it would cool off a lot at night and we would sleep soundly. I'd recommend this place to anyone who's looking for peace and quiet, but you better have experience riding on hilly gravel roads.

The next morning when we awoke it was chilly and foggy. By the time we headed out around 8:00 AM most of the fog was gone.

We went into Franklin for some breakfast, again stopping at the Sunset Restaurant. There was a poster in the ladies room that had a memorable line on it: You'll learn more about a road by traveling it than by consulting all the maps in the world... How true!

The goal for the day was Cades Cove. Since I'd left the directions at home, we had to wing it. I studied the maps we had and routed us back to Franklin, then to Highway 23 north to Dillsboro. We stopped for gas and asked for directions. They didn't know where it was! But they confirmed that we were heading in the right direction for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We took highway 441 to Cherokee--a HUGE tourist trip with a big casino--and then entered the park. It was gorgeous! Lots of curving roads with beautiful vistas and rugged scenery. Also very busy. We rode through several tunnels, which was fun, and one section of the road curved back under itself in a pigtail! Some miles down the road I saw a sign for Clingmans Dome and turned off. We got to the parking lot and it was beastly hot. There were other bikers there and we visited with them a while. We started walking up the path to the observation tower but didn't make it. It was just too hot and steamy to make the half mile, 300 foot climb. Few people were making it to the top, so we didn't feel too bad.

We eventually made it to the visitors center where I bought another fridge magnet and we rested a bit before heading towards Cades Cove. The first 20 miles of the trip was nice. The road ran along a river and it wasn't as hot as before. Finally we reached our destination. It was a one-way looped road. We stopped at the first pull-off and hiked back to see an original log cabin. It was quite nice, but the heat was once again taking its toll. The traffic on this road was barely moving and the bikes were overheating. It was miserable. At one point there was a couple on the side of the road putting their children on bicycles! The road was barely wide enough for a car, let alone having some kid on a bike there, too. Nutty people. If there had been a way to cut out of there, I'd have taken it. But we were stuck. We crawled along, barely moving, and finally reached the visitors center at the half way point. I got a long drink of water and we sat under a shade tree trying to cool off and letting the bikes cool a bit. They had some buildings there to look at. The best part of all of Cades Cove was the working Grist Mill where an old man was grinding corn. I'd left the camera in the bike, unfortunately. He was neat, though.

We headed out after a bit, once again getting stuck behind some fool in an air conditioned minivan who'd stop in the middle of the road every 50 feet. I was never so glad to get out of a place. Biggest mistake I'd made the whole trip. Not a recommended place if it's hot and you're on an air-cooled motorcycle.

From there we headed to Townsend where we had supper at Shirley'sSmoky Mountain Restaurant on Tennessee highway 321--yes, we'd crossed back into Tennessee. The meatloaf dinners we had were very good and the peach cobbler I'd had for dessert was excellent!

We were quite a ways from the campground and I learned there is no way to quickly get from point A to point B in that area, so I routed us the long way around, but on bigger highways. We headed out on 321 toward Pine Grove, then past the turn off for Dollywood--what a tourist trap! The road from there to Gatlinburg, however, was nice and cooler. There was construction in Gatlinburg and the bypass I took was brand-new pavement and nearly deserted! It was a lovely curvy road. We continued on 321 an got gas in Cosby, Tennessee. We finally reached I40 east and were about to pick up speed. We went through a couple of neat tunnels on this road! Because of the mountains, it was starting to get dark, so we stopped at a rest area so I could put on my clear lenses and CrowDog could make a pit stop. We exited at Clyde, then caught highway 23 south to Franklin around 8:00 PM. It was nearing dark when we got there, so we rushed. I definitely didn't want to attempt that nasty gravel road into the campground in the dark!

We stopped for gas and picked up some hot dogs and other snacks and managed to get back to the campground just before dark.

We had previously been alone in our corner of the campground but now had a neighbor, a nice older man with a pickup camper and his dog. He was from South Carolina. I showered and changed clothes and we roasted weenies over the fire. Then we headed off to bed.

There's something I noticed in the area we were staying. There were 35 mph speed limit signs, and 20 mph speed limit signs. Rarely anything in between. Very odd.