Since the original plans we had made for this weekend fell through we decided to take the boys on a bike ride and camping up on Cades Cove. For those that aren’t familiar with the area, it’s an isolated valley located in the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
We headed out early Friday morning for our three-hour drive to arrive at Cades Cove. Of course with the leaves being peak in color the drive was absolutely beautiful and we are so blessed to always be surrounded by the beauty of these mountains.
When we arrived at Cades Cove we had our picnic lunch. Thanks to my fitmark bag, I was able to pack us all lunch, drinks and a few snacks for our meal.
Once we completed our lunch we headed to the campsite in hopes for an early check-in. That way we could get camp set up and ready to go before we left for our ride. Well that’s when our day completely changed. As we all know, life happens and plans changed. Once we got to the area we were going to be camping in I looked down and we had a flat. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge deal, but in the area of Cades Cove, you are 45 minutes to an hour away from most stores and you have cell phone service.
When we first arrived at camp
We got the spare put on and it had a flat, so we headed down to the camp store to see where could get air and get our other tire fixed. The nice man at the store pumped up our tire and told us the nearest place to get the tire fixed. It was around 1pm at this time so there was still time to get the tire fixed and take the boys on the bike ride, or so we thought.
When we arrived at the tire place, it was closed so on we went to try to find something else. Once we were able to get cell phone connection we did a search and realized there was a Walmart, not close, but better than nothing. We arrived there to get the car fixed and during that time grabbed breakfast for the next day and lunch (poor planning on my part with that one. I had forgotten that once in Cades Cove you are about an hour from any main stores). We finally left Walmart at 5:30 and took the boys to get dinner there since they were both starving.
We found this awesome little place, Hot Rods 50’s Diner in Alcoa, TN. We decided to give it a try and it was pretty awesome! They had over 70 different kinds of burgers.
I ordered the Reuben Burger which is a steak burger piled high with fresh corned beef, swiss, grilled sauerkraut and Thousand Island.
The wife ordered the Guacamole Burger which is a steak burger topped with pepper jack cheese, bacon and guacamole and a side of onion rings.
As we started back to camp we called the camp store to see if it was still open since they prefer you to not bring your own firewod into the park. Once again the day didn’t go as planned and the camp store was already closed. One our way back we noticed and stopped at a firewood vending machine. I didn’t even know these things existed but it was pretty neat.
After that we headed to camp, started a fire, got all bundled up and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
Will we actually be able to go for our planned bike ride, or will something else change our plans?
