Tuesday, October 4, 2016: Atlanta to Gatlinburg

Today's drive is about 240 miles from Atlanta through Smoky Mountain National Park to our AirBnB  in Glades, TN.  My impression of Atlanta is that it looks a lot like the Twin Cities in the summer,  namely ROAD CONSTRUCTION, with more truck traffic.  I am, perhaps, a little old to deal with an unfamiliar car, unfamiliar roads, semis on every side and slow traffic.  Nevertheless, we are fairly quickly out in the country and stop at a market for provisions (snacks, fruit, coffee, wine, road maps).
We stop at a very friendly visitor center in Andrews, NC, visit a quilt shop and have a late lunch at Makaly's Restaurant.
After a while, we abandon our plan to traverse SMNP from the southwestern corner to Gatlinburg realizing that we would run out of daylight.  This is a problem with starting a road trip in October.  Instead we head, more or less, directly through still beautiful country to Cherokee to head south to north through SMNP to Gatlinburg.
We run into a problem in Cherokee when we find the road completely closed due to a "parade".  After getting advice from multiple men in blue, we find our way around Cherokee and up into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
After very slow traffic in SMNP and no time for photos due to encroaching darkness, we reach our destination of Rocky Top AirBnB in Glades, TN in the mountains above Gatlinburg, TN.  We love Rocky Top
 with the view from the back deck.
All told, about 240 miles today.  It is time for a rest day tomorrow.  But before then, we head out to Wine a Little, a local wine and tapas bar.
Time for some relaxing time while watching the Vice Presidential debate.


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