Tennessee - Great Smoky Mountain National Park
On day 6 of the road trip, I traveled from the North Carolina side of the Great Smokies to the Tennessee side, and stopped at the Visitor Center. It was raining, and the road between the two visitor centers was very foggy, so I didn't get a lot of the awesome views that are normally seen. At a few times, there were peaks at a view, but mostly it just was drizzling.
Once at the Visitor Center, I chose a short hike to a waterfall. Once at the parking lot, the skies cleared, and since they had JUST cleared, there weren't many other people in the parking lot. The hike was about 1.5 miles each way, to a beautiful waterfall. It was nice, and not crowded, and it was a great way to start the day. On the way back down the trail, I passed a LOT of people coming up, and by the time I got down to the parking lot, people were parking a half mile away and walking to the trailhead. I got out of there quick.
Outside of the park, I got to Gatlinburg. I guess I never realized how ridiculously commercial it was. The traffic was stop and go, and the venues were a thousand times more dense than the Wisconsin Dells. Since I couldn't get down the street, I parked and walked around. The Gatlinburg Convention Center, right in the middle of town, was having a craft fair, so I went in there to buy a few things.
I was SUPPOSED to be staying the night at a hotel in Cumberland Falls, TN, but a few days ahead of time, they called to say they had a hot water problem. Hotels.com rebooked me at a nearby hotel, for no additional cost to me, even tho the cost of the room was twice as much as the original hotel. The nearby hotel ended up being at a Golf Resort & Club - it was nice, not ridiculously so, but nice. It was in the middle of pretty much nowhere, and was a bit cold for golf (55 degrees), so in the evening, I went for a walk on the front 9. There were homes built on the course, so of course, I looked them up on realtor.com - the most expensive one, which would have easily been 1.3M in SE Wisconsin was going for $550,000. Condos on the course were $165,000. Nice deal if you are ok with living in the rural setting.