Something Yummy For Your Tummy-- Pizza Edition

FINALLY, THE REST OF THE STORY...

We had a great trip, Atlanta was an adventure. The hotel was VERY cushy and nice. You can look at their website http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/ATLSA if you want to see where we got to stay. The bed there was sooo comfortable! I know I mentioned that before, but when our matress is about 25 years old (not kidding), a comfy matress is a big deal!
When our time was done in Atlanta, we had decided we would take a more scenic way home. We wanted to drive north-ish via the Great Smoky Mountains. ahhh, the mountains, can't you just smell the fresh mountain air?Animals frolicking in the meadows... The place where people have been going for years and claiming it to be just this side of heaven (whatever). People seem to have been inspired there to sing lost, sad sounding, down on yer' luck country music. So, since we have been mountain starved living here in Ohio, we thought we'd go and give 'em a look-see. From Atlanta to the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain, National Park it is 4 hours, 2 minutes and a Total Est. Distance: 193.98 miles , says Mapquest.

Great!! We were planning to take the next 2 days and leisurely see the Smoky mountains. We would drive there at a "get there whenever" pace and just enjoy the ride. Then we'd just pick a hotel once we got to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge. Doesn't that sound like fun??!! Well, it was fun and we got to see some neat things. We stopped along the way and say a VERY deep canyon.

We were all having a nice time and it was getting closer to the entrance to the park. Spirits were high, and Ethan was asleep, things were good. Then zoom! We drove past a sign that said...

"441 CLOSED DUE TO ICE AND SNOW" No Way! You have GOT to be kidding! I can't believe this! This is the only road through the Smoky mountains and as we are 1 mile from the entrance to the park we find out that it's closed???!!! What a bunch of freakin' idiots!! We just drove 193.98 miles, SURELY they could have put a sign up some along the way!!! Oh yes, we were sooo happy now. Our little adventure had halted in a most unhappy way. We pulled into the Ranger Station/Visitor's Center and Brian went in to see if there was any hope of getting through in the next couple of hours. While speaking (respectfully) to the Ranger guy he mentioned that perhaps they might consider letting people know about the road closure a little sooner. The kind Ranger passed him a paper that explained that when the road is closed you can take an alternate route and drive 90 MILES TO GO AROUND THE PARK and said "Well, now you know!" in a sort of sassy ranger voice. You can imagine how much of a happy feeling Brian came back to the car with! So, just for the fun of it we decided to drive up to the road blockade just so we could say we saw it. It was a poor substitution for what we were supposed to see, but at least I got some pictures to use in a sarcastic scrapbook page "The Smoky Mountains".

We ended up driving the 90 miles around the park and ended up in several traffic hold ups. One for construction, one for a Semi-truck that has lost his trailer and spilled zucchini squash all over the roadway, and again more precious road construction. Then after about 1 1/2 hours Ethan woke up and said "Are we there yet? Where are the Smoky Mountains?!" Ha! He'd slept through the whole mess!

We haven't planned to go back and try again. Maybe someday after the irritation has worn off. For now we're content with knowing that the Smoky mountains couldn't be better than any mountains in Washington, so who really gives a rip anyway!