Alena and her friends set up a 5 day stay at a cabin they rented in the Great Smokey Mountains. It was going to be an 8 hour drive to get there, so Alena and I took turns driving. We listened to a lot of music, and as we started getting into Kentucky, we started getting some more interesting terrain.
We made a couple stops along the way, and one of them turned into a bit more of adventure than we were expecting. On the map, Eagle Bluff was marked as a normal point of interest, with nothing particularly remarkable about the road to get there.
After getting some mid chicken at Popeyes, and admiring the mountain, we set off on the side road for Eagle Bluff, which turned out to be less of a road and more of a dirt path.
Despite my car being a glorified golf cart, it proved to be surprisingly capable at off-roading, though there were definitely some harrowing bits. Alena was also behind the wheel, and handled it excellently. Good job!
when we arrived at the Bluff, we simply saw a private driveway with a closed gate, and we were definitely despairing a bit. However, an old man doing garden work on the side of the hill waved us over, indicating there was a gate a bit past where we stopped.
Eagle Bluff was indeed a place we could go, and it was glorious.
The old man was very talkative, and told us all about the area, and gave us a lot of advice about how to get back safely. Apparently the other route I was thinking of taking back was a lot rougher, so we decided to go back the way we came.
Also, there was a dog who really wanted to play fetch. Very cute.
We managed to make it back to the highway without too much trouble, though we did bang the bottom of the car a bit. Hopefully it's fine.
In any case, we continued on our way, and as we made our way into Pigeon Forge, we started getting our first glimpses of the Smokey Mountains
Pigeon Forge is a thoroughly wacky place, and the traffic was kind of a nightmare, but we made it through, and started the final stretch to the cabin in the woods.
The roads here were some crazy mountain roads, but now we had some experience at navigating these. At least they were paved.
After arriving at the cabin, which was absolutely lovely, we had a girl dinner of cheese and crackers, and then played a social game where we judged each others character flaws, which was a great time.
