Goodbye, Gatlinburg! (A Trip to the Smokies, part 8 and conclusion)

The view of the Smokies that we saw on our way out

With heavy hearts, we pulled out of our cabin and began the LONG (18-hour) trip back from the beautiful Smokies to not-so-beautiful Houston. We took a different route home, completely avoiding Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and instead driving along a beautiful scenic parkway. We also had the blessing of seeing the sunrise, just to put the icing on the cake.

The trip home was (Thank God!) safe and uneventful, so there's nothing much to say about it. I thought I would leave you some interesting photos of Gatlinburg, in no particular order. I hope you enjoy them, and that you have enjoyed this series.

First, here is a view of our cabin from the outside (this isn't in Gatlinburg, of course, but I thought you might like to see it anyway):

Here's a typical view of what we saw every time we drove through Gatlinburg:

Here's one of many of the shopping centers that line Gatlinburg's streets:

The building in the following photo is the "Little Country Church," which looks to be about the size of a medium-sized bedroom in a typical American house. In other words, it is TINY for a church. It actually has services every Sunday morning. We wanted to take a peek inside (not on Sunday morning) but never had the chance.

Like all big tourist destinations, Gatinburg has a large number of cheesy museums. The one that took the cake (at least for me) was the "Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum" (shown here). I am not kidding! If you don't believe me, click on the photo to enlarge it so you can read the letters on the building.

Gatlinburg must be the pancake capital of the U. S., or at least one of them. It is a very small town, but it must have at least 10 different restaurants that call themselves pancake houses. One of them in particular often had a long line of people waiting to eat there. We marvelled at that sight. Pancakes are pancakes, pretty much. Why wait in a line that goes all the way out the door when you could go to one of 9 other pancake houses that are all within walking distance. We didn't get it!

Being a big tourist destination, Gatlinburg of course has the obligatory Hard Rock Cafe. We went in one night, intending to have dinner there, but the music was far too loud for us to stand.

Most towns have crosswalks. Gatlinburg has "Walk Cross" es.

More shops and bumper-to-bumper traffic:

Bye bye, Smokies! Hope to see you again soon!