Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Gatlinburg - Great Smoky Mountain National Park - Tail of the Dragon

David is great at planning our vacations, even down to details like where we should eat on the way.  My favorite meal of the whole trip was at Flamingo Row in Paducah, KY.  Of course I would like the tropical themed decor, but it was the food that really stood out - coconut crusted chicken on top of salad with a honey horseradish dressing.  With fried green tomatoes on the side!  I'm pretty sure it would be worth the drive back to Paducah just to eat this again.
 From Paducah we headed on to Gatlinburg to spend the night at this neat hotel with a balcony overlooking the river.
 The sun played peek-a-boo the next morning while we traveled through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
 If we'd had our hammocks with us, we'd have had to stay awhile!
 But our next adventure was calling us - a popular section of road for motorcycles, sports cars, and one Subaru Outback - the Tail of the Dragon.  It's not a long road - only 11 miles, but in those 11 miles, there are reported to be 318 curves.  I lost track counting, so I'll have to take their word for it.
 Along the way, people are set up to take pictures which you can later purchase online.  It's not quite as impressive as the pictures of the bikers with one knee nearly touching the ground, but it was fun!
Once we were in North Carolina, I convinced David to stop at a roadside stand for some boiled peanuts.  I honestly couldn't remember whether or not they were good, but I did remember stopping for them on a family vacation though the south many years ago.  David wasn't such a fan, but I really liked them!
Boiled peanuts in hand, we headed to Lake Luke where parts of Dirty Dancing was filmed before continuing on to Savanah.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like you had a great trip. David was by a few days ago, told Dan about the trip, and how he enjoyed the cruise etc. on the Subaru. Leila

Anonymous said...

Almost as good as riding in the
backseat! Wonderful road trips!
Love,
MOM