Day 6- Bears, Whiskey and Rain

Mom had bought herself, Angela and me matching shirts while in Greenville.  We thought it would look great if we took our pictures  in them at the cabin in Gatlinburg.  We took these pictures in the morning, before our visitors came. The back says, "Country girl, wearing camo, packing ammo."  That's us!
We were wondering why a lot of the store knick knacks, carvings and especially our cabin decor was of bears, black bears to be specific.  Well we met our resident bear family this morning.  The pictures tell it all.  It was exciting and scary at the same time.  Only the sliding glass door was between us and this mama bear and her three cubs.
Angela first thought that a dog had come onto our deck, but shortly discovered that they were black bears.  They were so cute, but we knew better than to think we can make friends with them. They were just looking for food.  It appears that we are on their food hunting route.  Mama bear knew exactly what to do. She climbed onto the deck picked up the ice chest, overturned it and then let the babies eat whatever was in the ice chest.  We just had water, so they licked it up. 

Can you see the bananas?

After the morning excitement we went into Gatlinburg to eat lunch and shop.  It is hard to describe Gatlinburg.  There are many shops and touristy type places.  Two things I would like to highlight during our lunch and shopping experience.  One was the food some of us tried.  At the Pancake Pantry, which was recommended to us by a local, Big John and Angela shared a hamburger that was called the All American.  Regular hamburger stuff except it had a sliced banana in it.  The waitress said it is amazing.  They loved it!  

Second was the moonshine tasting.  You could try regular old White Lightening or their many flavors of White Lightening.   The lady asked for Mom and my ID!  No kidding!  Mom says, "I am 72 years old and you want to check my ID?"  I said, "Yea my mom is 72 years old and you know that makes me way over 21 and you want to check my ID?" Anyway, we got to taste the moonshine without our ID's.  Maybe people age fast in Tennessee, so you could be under 21 and look 72?  I was not impressed.  Mom couldn't finish her taste of White Lightening.  She said it was too strong.  I thought my peach flavored moonshine tasted like sweet rubbing alcohol.

I want to end this blog to talk about the rain.  It was warm and sunny when we got to the restaurant to each lunch, but by the time we were done, it was pouring rain.  It poured for more than an hour.  We got some ponchos so we can continue shopping.  Jade and Cole thought it was cool. Cole thought it was cool for about 1 minute and then he took it off.  After the rain, steam started coming off the mountains around us, hence the name Smokey Mountains.  It does look like smoke lingering over the mountains.
What a fun day.  We ended the day playing poker.  Big John won all the money.  JR and Angela decided to go into the jacuzzi before retiring to bed, but knocked on our door wet and shaky.  The bears had returned while they were outside.  JR wanted his dad to help him put the jacuzzi cover back on.  Never a dull moment.









Tomorrow:  Dollywood