Tex and Tom in the Smokies

Today, after church and lunch, I decided to take Tex, the Wonderdog, on a ride up into the Smokey Mountains, so as Cindy and her parents and her sister and niece stayed at home, I packed Tex into the Ford Explorer and headed down the Pellissippi Parkway toward the Miracle Motor Mile and Maryville and the ultimate entrance into the Smokies which goes through the little town of Townsend, Tennessee. After driving down through Maryville and seeing a barbecue place built in the place of a gas station, I took a left down toward Townsend and the "quiet side" of the Smokies. After about an hour of driving we found our way into the entrance of the Smokies and then continued on to the entrance to Cades Cove. I haven't been to Cades Cove for quite a while and going into the Smokies on Labor Day Sunday is taking your life into your hands, but by the time I made it into the traffic jam which is your normal route into Cades Cove, I found myself in a rumba line (or bunny hop, if you prefer), heading into a quite beautiful part of the Smokies which was preserved about fifty years ago and is now one of the most used parts of the National Park system. This was quite evident to Tex and me as we headed down the one way road that goes through Cades Cove. I wasn't ready to stop the car and get off the rumba line to go see one of the surviving buildings on the route, so I continued in the line until I ran out of the desire to follow the line completely around the loop and took a short cut across the valley which is Cades Cove and picked up the loop on the other side of the valley. I did see a jeep parked on the side of the alternative road with Spalding County plates. Id didn't recognize the parties in the car, but I continued on and a nice person in a white pickup truck with an Arkansas Razorback license plate on the front. More later.