Day 5

I was up with the birds to pack up our site and move on.  I tried to take some pictures to give you a glimpse of the beautiful area that is our campsite, but I know it's not even close to doing it justice.

I had been looking for salamanders through our stay and never found one.  We'd looked on the rocks, in the rivers, along the trails but to no avail.  Wouldn't you know I'd find one in the sink as I was doing dishes!  He hung out while I washed and we talked a little about the beautiful park.  Just as I was finishing breakfast, the kids woke up and were able to help me take down the tent.  I was about to take it down on top of them!

The kids said goodbye to the river that had been wooshing us to sleep each night and we headed back to the visitor center to finish writing our post cards (Anyone want one while we're on the road, let us know!) and turning in junior ranger books.  The ranger was great with the ultra shy Clarke kids and we finally made it to the pledge.

We had thought about doing the drive to Cades Cove, but after talking to a ranger the day before decided to save it for another trip.  According to him, round trip drives could take as much as 5 hours.  That's for a 40 mile drive!  I guess it's the most visited section of the park as it's where we would see the most wildlife.  I need a little more time to plan for such a venture and make sure to have more than 1/4 tank of gas!

We headed out through Gatlinburg as I hadn't been there since I was a little kid.  The kids loved the little town of course so I told them we could come back some day.  I'm not one for all the goofy commercial stuff in cities like this, but we all know kids enjoy it so I guess that's another joy of parenting!

We headed to a McDonalds in an attempt to power up my dying laptop and post to the blog.  A guy had the only outlet cornered so I booted up to see if I could at least shoot an email to Dave to let him know we were ok as there was no service of any kind in the middle of the park (yea, unplugged!).  As I was writing the email though, my laptop died so I resorted to my phone.  As the kids played and snacked I searched for a bookstore on our route so we could pick up more coveted Mad Libs and just maybe I could recharge and update everyone.  We headed to the Books A Million 30 minutes away but unfortunately it was inside a mall and without a cafe so I was thwarted again!!  Luckily I noticed a hotspot in the middle of the mall close enough to an outlet so as the kids worked on their huge Mad Lib books I worked on an update.

The 2 hour drive left to the park flew by with DS time, a rest stop visit for a state crossing picture, and wrapping up the second 39 Clues audio book.  We pulled into the Bear Tree Recreation Area full of more giant trees and secluded camp sites.  The kids were excited as we'd (finally!) made it to a campground with a playground.  But first we had an early dinner and headed swimming.  The water was chilly and definitely not like our beach, but the kids enjoyed cooling off and building a set of islands called the Royal Islands and bridges with one of Laney's infamous drip castles.

After a trip to the playground and a much-needed shower for mom, we zipped up for the night and finished another chapter of our book.

Day 5 - Unwillingly Unplugged on the road