Mon. morning we decided to visit one historic site before we left beautiful Franklin, Tenn., so we went to the Carter House. It was an interesting 1 hour tour and told us lots of history about THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN, which was one of the bloodiest battles. It is amazing that one of the buildings still standing has bullet holes that went in the back and came out the front. We learned lots about the history of the area.

 

 

THE ROCKING CHAIR fascinated me as a bullet went right through it on the upper slat of the back, and fortunately the family was in the basement!

That afternoon we continued on through gorgeous scenery until we reached our destination, the home of Cathy and Dave Caffee, old friends from the early 80's at Gateway Christian Church in Aurora. They live in the hills near Walland, TN. and he preaches in another town.   It was so wonderful to reconnect and catch up with their family and get acquainted with their two daughters living at home. The treated us to a lovely dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, and then we visited until way too late for people OUR age. Mind you, they are 10 years younger than we are!  I hated to leave their wonderful home but didn't want to wear out our welcome!

Kathy drew us a wonderful map Tues. morning, Sept 24th, to point us to all the neat stops in the Smoky Mtn. Natl. Park on the way to Gatlinburg.  It was such a nice place to enjoy a picnic lunch, and then a 1.3 mi. hike to Laurel Falls!  That was good exercise, even if we did get a tad sweaty for their generous humidity.

 

 

We arrived in Gatlinburg, Tenn. later that afternoon and settled into our motel.  We decided that the first impression of the town was "Estes Park on Steroids" .