Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Absolutely beautiful. I have to say that I have been impressed with the Appalachian "Mountains." I mean, they're no Cascade or Olympics but they are impressive. I've had a great time in our two days here. Yesterday we hiked to Clingmon's Dome which is the highest peak in the Appalachian mountain range, standing at 6,643 feet. Today we had a very busy day. We left camp by 6:30 AM to bike an 11 mile loop in the park before they let motor traffic through. Then we went on a five mile hike to a waterfall where we all swam. One of my passengers mentioned that she thought she was participating in a triathlon or something. I took that as a compliment. However, I think they all enjoyed it. We spent the rest of they day swimming in the pool and river next to our campground. The thunder, lightening, and RAIN was a perfect end to our day. Luckily, here at the KOA in Townsend they have a pavilion that we ate dinner under. I am so lucky to have such an easy going group. Every persons tent was soaked, but they were all in good spirits. Tomorrow we are off to Nashville. I'm really excited but a little disappointed because last night I totally destroyed my toe. I was walking around at night, in the dark and totally tripped over a log. At first I wasn't fazed because I do stuff like this on a regular basis, but I soon realized that my entire foot was covered with blood. Sure enough, I ripped a huge piece of skin off my toe. This was bad enough, but as I mentioned earlier, I biked 11 miles to day, hiked 5 miles and swam for over an hour. None of these activities helped my aching toe. This story is related to Nashville because I don't think that I'm going to be able to wear my cowboy boots now :( Color me sad! Thank God I have a cowboy hat and a cowgirl dress. There are new pictures on my flickr site, check it. Peace