Smoky Mountain Getaway

[bigbendmarine]

Haven't made many shares this year due to hit after hit (loss of two family members to cancer, business flooding, and most recently a tornado hit)... but blessedly did manage to take our first (and maybe only) family vacation of the year.

Appreciating the forum has more members from up north, not sure what percentage of folks have visited the Great Smoky Mountain area of Tennessee. Put a video of sounds and sights together from the trip. Struggled whether or not to identify the Wears Valley cabin location, because we liked it SO much! Just 10 or so miles from the INSANELY BUSIER Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg tourist spots, but off the beaten path just enough to feel quite remote and slow paced. Hope it can stay that way for the foreseeable future.

For those who have not visited the area, I added chapter IDs to the video timeline to identify the various spots we visited.

 

[bigbendmarine]

On a habitat note, found some wild juneberries (service berries) growing really close to our cabin.... pictures are in the video around the 5 minute 50 second mark.

REALLY jealous of any of y'all who have them as they sure are tasty and ones we found were growing on a big enough shrub that it had achieved a bit of tree form. North Florida's a stretch zone-wise depending on the actual subspecies we picked but I kept the seeds and have them in a damp paper towel /ziploc bag in the refrigerator now for kicks and giggles. Since free, won't cry too much if don't have any luck growing them.

 

[Buckly]

I got robbed on that train. Maybe you did too!