The month of September I stayed in Townsend, TN. I have stayed here a few times as some of you may remember from past blogs.
After being in Townsend just a day or 2, I drove to my mom’s for a visit. She lives about 2 hours from Townsend. On the drive over the mountains, just before the Smokies visitor center outside of Cherokee, NC I saw several elk.
And of course, any wildlife cause a traffic jam – especially when they are crossing the road. Luckily it was early in the morning so there were not too many cars.
You may have noticed from my blogs that I have slowed down a bit in hiking. My knee was still bothering me. Some days it was ok and other days it hurt quite a bit, especially going down stairs or downhill. I visited the doctor and of course, she couldn’t say much and suggested I go to an Orthopedic clinic where they could really tell what it was. They made the appointment for me. The next day I started to get a sore throat and the following day I was sick. For 3 days I didn’t do much other than go to Walmart for some medicine. Then it rained for 2 days. After that my knee felt much better. I had not exercised at all for 5 days and walked very little. So I decided to postpone my appointment until after my trip to the beach to see how it was.
But back to the rain. It rained about 6 inches in 2 days, but most of it within several hours.
It’s not a good sign when your Welcome Mat floats away! I had ended up in one of a few spots that flooded badly. Another camper asked how I enjoyed my lake!
I seem to have good luck in trying to go somewhere I can’t go. A couple of days after the rain, I was headed back to Elkmont and found the sign above. While it says, Road Closed and Ice and Snow, I found out it was really a mud slide that closed the road. One Sunday morning, I debated going to the campground church service or to the River Trail. I decided to go walking. I was just a minute or 2 from the turn off to Elkmont and there were cars stopped (this was about 8:15 in the morning, so I didn’t think there would be too much traffic). It ended up that a tree had fallen across the road and the ranger said it might be 30 minutes or so before they got it moved. I decided that maybe that was a hint that I was supposed to go to church. I made it back just in time for the service.
Most of my time was spent walking the River Trail at Elkmont (one of my favorites in the park), hiking a little and going to Cades Cove. Below is the river beside River Trail.
I saw a lot of wild turkeys while in the Smokies. 
While in Cades Cove, I saw the 2 deer below fighting. I have seen deer many times, but I had never seen them fight. I have a few pictures of them actually fighting but because of the grass when there heads are bent you can’t really see them. 
The Foothills parkway is a scenic drive that they (whoever that is) have been working on for a very long time. One of the open sections is not far from Townsend. The picture below was taken from one of the scenic overlooks.
The next blog will be some more pictures I took while at Cades Cove.
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