........ But I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express......

So, the part where we get to places we want to see (other than the Civil Rights Museum) really starts on Sunday. We ventured into the park and to our first hike, this was 5 miles in 90% humidity at about 90* or so. It was pretty brutal for someone not used to the humidity. The fall was worth it, but looking at the pictures, you can see I looked pretty rough after the hike…
After we were finished with the hike we continued through through the park where it became apparent that being stuck behind an RV in Yosemite was no match for being stuck behind a minivan and a jeep with some guy standing up in the front seat in this park. I was literally more worried about falling over than speeding… On the plus side though, we did see our first bear! It wasn’t anything too spectacular, just a small black bear that looked a bit annoyed that we were staring at him walking through the woods.
We continued through the park, unfortunately skipping Clingman’s Dome because of the fog that was already rolling into the area, this was beginning to be an issue on our sightseeing portions of this trip and would continue into the next day as well, but they don’t call them the Smoky Mountains for nothing I guess.
After a full day of making it through the park we (Misty) decided she needed to stay in one of her beloved Holiday Inn Expresses. At this point it was getting late enough that many of the smaller places in the area would be closed, so of all places that would be in a small town there was a massive Harrah’s Casino where we ate dinner. Misty was ready for an easy night, so this was it.