We Might Not Be Back: Heading to Maine on the AT

We only had one full day in Gatlinburg and intended to make the most of it. We got up early and had some leftover Tombstone pizza, which my kids may not have ever had before and may never have again. We made it to the Newfound Gap before 900am and it wasn’t too crowded yet. We were going to hike the Appalachian Trail, or at least a couple of miles of it. We took obligatory pictures in front of the sign that said how far it would be to Maine and the plaque for the Rockefellers. We hiked about an hour out towards Maine, which meant we were about 1970 miles short of the end. At that point we were taking too many risks with the youngest member of our party who was suffering some intestinal distress and claiming to need a bathroom. I wasn't trying to call her bluff. By the time we made it back to the facilities the foot traffic was picking up. It is kind of odd to me that people start their hikes so late in the morning.
From Newfound Gap we headed down to Oconaluftee Visitor Center. We wanted to see the old buildings and say we made it into North Carolina. The ranger in the visitor center scared Gabby by drawing lots of attention to the kid in there being sworn in as a junior ranger. She made him stand in front of everyone and then yelled for everyone’s attention as she made him say the pledge. Lottie was in awe and Gabby wanted to puke. We strolled around the little village and finished the junior ranger books. Gabby at first refused to turn her’s in. The ranger got her to say that she’d prefer a more minimalist swearing in. Lottie requested as much attention as she could get. We checked another badge off our list.
We tried to rush over to the Cherokee Reservation and fit in a trip to the museum, but by the time we got there we realized it probably wouldn’t be worth paying to get in for the brief time we had left. We had to get home in time for dinner in downtown Gatlinburg, which is of course a whole different kind of cultural experience.
I wasn’t quite sure we were going to make it to dinner after we had to back out of a parking lot that would only take cash, but luckily we found street parking behind the main drag. Dinner at Smoky Mountain Brewery was fair. Ice cream at Kilwin’s was delicious. Free tastes of moonshine was totally Gatlinburg. We once again crammed everything in. The Grizwold spirit is alive within us.