Gotta Love The Great Smokey Mountains

Okay, so I said I was ready to be done vacationing. I am so glad, so grateful, so delighted that we made our last stop in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. One word: Incredible. Wait, one more word: Amazing Creator (sorry, that’s two more.) The beauty we saw often took my breath away. I was in a constant state of thankfulness to Creator God for allowing us this time to see and experience more of His majesty through His creation.

Our first full day in Pigeon Forge (Tues. Apr 12) had me “at” work. What made it not so hard to do was the fact that it rained most of the day. About mid-afternoon, about the time I was ready to be done working, the sun came out. We had just enough time to stroll around the Old Mill area where we stopped into a distillery and tried several samples of varied flavors of Moonshine. Fortunately, they were very small samples as we were headed to the highlight of our day: The Dixie Stampede. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a most delicious four course family style dinner show with absolutely beautiful horses, trick riders, including square dancing (on horses), pyrotechnics, great humor, and a beautiful patriotic finale. I’d love to tell you more, but it’s something you have to experience for yourself. One of those, “you had to be there,” types of thing. Oh, I do want to mention how. once again, God answered, what I would call  a “simple (or little) request” prayer. When we arrived in the Smokey Mountains, we really weren’t sure how we wanted to spend our time or if we wanted to spend any money on special attractions. For special attractions, my two top choices were Dollywood and Dixie Stampede. Bill was willing to do either, but was more interested in the Dixie Stampede. Once we settled on that, I started questioning whether or not we should spend the money. Being it was near the end of our extended vacation time, I was pretty conscious of monies already spent and felt maybe we had done enough. Because I was having trouble ordering the tickets on-line, I decided that maybe we weren’t supposed to go. So I prayed about it. Over the course of the next hour, I had two confirmations to get the tickets. So we went and as I stated earlier, enjoyed it immensely. Worth every penny. I didn’t want it to be over and lingered like a little kid as we left the arena.

We went to the early show and had some time in the evening to have a much needed relaxed conversation. In between all these good times, Bill & I found ourselves bickering about things that didn’t really matter. It was a good conversation and we were able to air out a few things. We prayed together and God has been faithful in helping us give each other more grace. So there’s a bit of real life in the midst of our wonderful life.  Please be praying for us in this regard.

Being that it rained most of Tuesday, we were counting on Wednesday’s forecast of sunny with mild temperatures so we could go explore the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in something other than our big rig. I have to thank Jill Heft who regularly vacations in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area for her suggestion on checking out Cades Cove and Roaring Fork Trail. Another answer to one of those little prayer request. 

On our way to Cades Cove, we experienced a bit of a miracle.  Stick with me as I have to go back to when we were still in the Belleville FL area with our granddaughter. Bill has a pair of reading glasses and another pair which are his prescription/safety glasses. He has trouble keeping track of them but was trying diligently to only use his reading glasses and save his safety glasses for work projects.  Well somehow they got mixed up and, you guessed it, he lost his prescription safety glasses. He was pretty bummed. I’ve never seen him search so hard for anything before.  He returned to the gas station he and the girls stopped at for slushies, he called the grocery store he had been at, he searched the car several times and the nooks and crannies of the motorhome. We looked everywhere even in places that made no sense.  I checked all the places he checked and then some. They were nowhere to be found. We left Florida and Bill felt bad but felt he’d have to go somewhere once we arrived in Indiana to get a new pair of prescription glasses. Not happy about the cost. I remember praying a couple times, please Lord, let me find them for him. The morning we left for Caves Cove, Bill said, “well, I guess my glasses are gone. I was hoping they would have shown up by now, but I guess they’re just gone.” My thought was, “dah, yay, I think so.” But, PTL, for once I didn’t make such a comment, instead when we stopped on our way into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, I sat in the car for a few minutes and feeling so bad for Bill prayed once more saying specifically,” oh Lord can’t we just have a bit of a miracle and find Bill’s glasses.” As I sat there,  I reached around the seat in the car, stuck my hand under the one I was sitting on, reached over to get under the driver’s seat, but found nothing. I shrugged my shoulders, said a mental “oh well” and got out of the car. As I turned to close the door, on the floor where my feet had just been, laid a pair of glasses. At first I thought his reading glasses fell out of my purse, but when I picked them up…yup, you guessed it, those were his prescription safety glasses. Call it what you want, I call it a miracle. You should have seen Bill’s face when I showed him what God turned up. His expression was priceless. Total shock, surprise, and delight. Thank you Jesus!  The other really funny thing about this whole episode is the place where we stopped, we didn’t even stay. We thought it was an information center for the mountains but it was a museum with a price tag higher than we wanted to spend. So we hopped back in the car, put Bill’s newly found glasses in my purse, and continued on.

Cade’s Cove is an isolated valley nestled in the Smokey Mountains that was home to numerous settlers before the formation of the national park. It’s known for wildlife viewing and has an 11-mile, one-way loop road that circles the cove. We had an inexpensive self-guiding tour booklet to help us find and understand what we saw which included  three churches, a working grist mill, barns, log houses, and many other restored eighteenth and nineteenth century structures. We also saw three deer, a coyote, and a beaver. Bill was happy; wildlife, that’s one of his favorite things.

The drive was absolutely beautiful and we made many stops along the way, not only to look at the historical structures, but even more so, the beautiful views and amazing rushing waters. I absolutely love white water, the sounds and movement of the water brings a joy and peace to my heart that is hard to describe. It’s something I thank God for with all my heart.

So after spending close to five hours exploring Caves Cove, we travelled to another part of the park known as Roaring Forks Trail. There were many opportunities throughout the park to climb to a waterfall (the ultimate in rushing white water), but Roaring Forks offered one that was less than three miles round trip and of moderate difficulty. Yes, we were getting tired before we even began this trek, but I was determined to see at least one waterfall up close and personal. Once again, words escape me to describe that climb. Parts of it were a bit scary for me, like a narrow path along a cliff, but the tiny waterfalls and creeks along the way, the overall beauty, and the goal of making it to the falls, kept me going. Oh, and Bill saying, “you’re doing good; keep going.”

Needless to say, they were beautiful. This particular waterfall is the only one in this park that you can walk behind. Once we got there, I really had no desire to go behind it; I just wanted to enjoy what I could see as I sat upon the rocks and experienced the sounds and watched the water movement flowing around other parts of nature. Oh, I could go on and on about this as I do love it so. But you get the point. I find myself praising Jesus from the depths of my soul when I experience a beautiful waterfall and the rushing waters like this. We stayed for awhile and as tired as I was, I felt refreshed and kissed by God.

Speaking of kisses from heaven, throughout this whole day, I felt deeply connected in a unique way to our Lord. I’m reading the book “Hind’s Feet in High Places” for the second time, and for those of you who are familiar with the book, you would totally understand that the timing of this reading is no accident. It is definitely a Godincidence.  The main character is named Much Afraid, she has many fears, trials, and doubts along the way, but the Good Shepherd is leading her to the High Places. Some of the beautiful descriptions of the valleys and the mountains in this book, I experienced in the Great Smokey Mountains. This made that experience and the reading of the book even more meaningful and God ordained.  Praise the Lord!  And on that note, I am happy to say we ended our extended vacation in the Great Smokey Mountains experiencing the majesty of our Creator God.