OUR TIME IN THE GREAT SMOKIES

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News:

By: Jaycie Lillie

10/12/22 – Great Smoky Mountain National Park: We rode through the park! And of course had to take a picture by the sign.

The park was very beautiful at fall time. The yellow birch trees were my favorite.

There were also quite a few Magnolia trees. Jett and I finished our Jr. Ranger booklets in the car as we drove around. The creek was so pretty! Once we were ready to turn in our books and earn our badges, the visitor center said they didn’t have badges!! We did catch a park Ranger on their way out. After that, we hit the road again!

Here's a pretty church we saw in Cade's Cove:

I also made a YouTube video of our time in the Great Smokies. You can check it out by clicking the link: https://youtu.be/rp1NhDVfFCs

10/14/22 - Dollywood: Dollywood is very much like Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. I like Silver Dollar City better. Dollywood was still fun, though! We shopped and watched some shows.

I didn’t ride any rides but I did all the other things. Jett, Mommy, and Daddy all rode the rides. We did all ride the train together!

We rented Great Gram a scooter. You had to be careful! She would run you over if you didn’t get out the way!

The map was very confusing; the app was too! We did make it around eventually. The pumpkins were fun and there were so many mums!

Fall is here! IT’S FALL Y’ALL!

Jett’s Wild Flight:

By: Jett Lillie

10/13/22 - Gatlinburg: My mom, Dad, Grandmar, Grandad and I played mini golf at Gatlin’s Minigolf.

On the first two holes my dad got a hole-in-one! As we went through the course we learned about Gatlinburg’s past. At the end we added our score up and Daddy won. Then we split up. My mom, Dad, and I rode a skylift up to Anakeesta which is basically like a theme park up high in the sky! I rode on the mountain coaster there and did a big sky walk!

10/14/22 - Dollywood: Dollywood is a big theme park with roller coasters and shops and all kinds of things.

I rode 3 big roller coasters that were awesome!

We shopped some and saw 12 bald eagles and lots of huge pumpkins!

I had lots of fun with my grandparents in Dollywood!

Jules’ Journal:

By: Julianne Lillie

10/11/22 - Travel to Gatlinburg & an Unexpected Visitor: Travel day was a bit different since we were kidless! We pulled out by 9am. I decided to use the time start calling around in Florida to see what we’ll need rebook due to Hurricane Ian’s destruction. Luckily all in Key West is still a go and the same with Tampa Bay! (Whew!) It’s just the 2 nights stay in Ft. Myers that we’ll need to find a different place to call home. I tried a few places in Naples but many of those RV campgrounds don’t allow children or are booked up. I will have to find more time later to call around to some more places after our company leaves. We had lunch on the road and pulled into Gatlinburg’s Adventure Bound Camping RV Resort and set up camp a few sites away from Great Gram’s and Ron & Marla’s two cabins. Both cabins were nice and fairly close to our RV spot which was nice!

Marla was making roast, carrots, and potatoes for dinner. Jason was troubleshooting the heater with Ron (which stopped working all of the sudden this morning.) It seems to be above their paygrade so they called a mobile RV tech to come look at it. While the girls visited, the boys checked out different fishing spots for tomorrow morning & got their licenses. And they saw a huge black bear on the side of the road! Jason snapped this picture.

I was so jealous to hear this as I’ve never seen a bear in the wild before and was really hoping this was my trip! When they returned we ate a delicious dinner & had yummy s’mores by the campfire! We enjoyed the cooler crisp mountain air and had fun conversation with everyone.

When it was time for bed, the kids headed to shower in our RV. Once they were done, Jason and I walked the squeaky clean kids to Great Gram’s cabin. Jett and I were just about a dozen steps in front of Jason & Jaycie. When we were about to turn to go up her cabin’s stairs we heard rustling in the campground next to her… but no lights were on. Jett and I stopped dead in our tracks and strained our eyes to see what was making all of that ruckus. Then we saw paws up on the tree and 2 eyes staring back at us. It was a black bear not but 10 feet from us!!!!! Jett and I did exactly what we were NOT suppose to do. We turned and ran straight past Jason and Jaycie yelling “BEAR!” and ran straight to Ron & Marla’s cabin across the road. We started banging on their front door and like 5 minutes later they were dressed and at the door. We filled them in on the situation and Ron got his spotlight. We then spotlighted the bear & just watched him. Meanwhile, I called Great Gram and told her she was trapped! But she wanted to see the bear so she carefully ventured out onto her patio which he was right next to! She was probably only 4 feet from the bear which was much closer than I would have! With the spotlight’s help I was able to snap a photo and get some videos. Here's what I captured:

At first we couldn’t tell the size of the bear because it was semi hiding behind the tree. But it finally turned to walk… it looked like a big sow that might have been pregnant. She was BIG! When she reached the edge of the campground the kids hurried to join Great Gram in her cabin for a sleepover. I’m not really sure any of us got good sleep that night! What a crazy and unexpected encounter!!!

10/12/22 – Great Smoky Mountain National Park: Boys woke up super early to hit the stream to try and catch some trout for dinner. Unfortunately, they came home without any. Apparently the water level is really low and Jett said, “We don’t have home field advantage” which is true as they aren’t use to these streams.

When they got back & cleaned up we headed into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The Grandparent’s Crew went into the Sugarland’s visitor center with the kiddos while Jason drove me back out of the park in search of cell service for me to take a work conference call. While we were doing that, the kids were able to show their grandparents how we do things: stamp passport, get JR Ranger booklets, look at the exhibits, etc. By the time I was done, they were ready to explore!

So we started the drive to a nice picnic area. And the drive was just breathtaking with the mountain views, rocky streams, and fall foliage. Everywhere we looked was picturesque! The pics just do not do it justice!

We all 7 had a lovely picnic right next to a stream.

When we finished up we hit the scenic road to Cade’s Cove in hopes to see some wildlife. More beautiful views!

And tried to get us all to fit into a selfie... LOL!

On Cades Cove loop it was stop’n’go… there were so many people! Jaycie was in Ron & Marla’s car with her head poking out of the sunroof taking it all in! So of course not to be outdone, Jett decided to do the same thing in our truck! Pretty funny!

We did spot several deer and lots of wild turkeys! Here was a HUGE turkey we saw:

At Cades Cove Visitor Center the kids earned their JR Ranger badge and Great Gram was right there to witness it all!

After that, we finished the loop & split up. Boys back to the stream & girls back to camp! But unfortunately still no fish were caught… so instead of trout for dinner we had refrigerator round up! Then Jaycie & Great Gram made her famous Forgotten Cookies which were so good!

Said goodnight to Ron & Marla and then walked Great Gram back to her cabin. No bear tonight! So we played a few rounds of Rummikub before bedtime.

10/13/22 – Gatlinburg Day & Another Visitor?: We decided to sleep in a bit as we’ve all been going hard together! And Jason, Jett, and I went to play mini golf with Marla & Ron.

We played 18 holes at Gatlin Golf on the side of a hill and learned about the history of Gatlinburg with each hole.

Jett and I each got a hole-in-one. And then Jason got 2 back to back holes in one on the first two holes! He started off a with a BANG! He was the score keeper and “ironically” ended up winning… yeah whatever! It was fun, though!

Meanwhile, back at camp Great Gram and Jaycie stayed behind to sketch and paint. And they were able to save the Forgotten Cookies that unfortunately didn’t work in our little camper oven. Check out their masterpieces after the day!

After mini golf, Ron and Marla left us in Gatlinburg and headed back to camp for lunch with Great Gram & Jaycie and get the pot of stew on for dinner. They later ventured to town for some fun shopping together.

Jett, Jason, and I (the 3 thrill seekers!) decided to visit Anakeesta – A theme park on top of Anakeesta Mountain. To get there, we rode a Chair lift up to the top. I would describe it like a Smaller Silver Dollar City on top of a mountain but instead of rides it’s got ropes courses, bridges, ziplines, a mountain coaster, etc. with gorgeous mountain views! By the time we reached the top it was 2pm and we were starving! So we headed to the Clifftop Restaurant to put our name on the list.

While we were waiting, we headed to up to the beautiful Garden area to the AnnaVista Tower – the tallest point in Gatlinburg.

Amazing 360 degree views!

And the gardens were planted with fall flowers and pumpkins. Everywhere we looked it was so beautiful!

By the time we made it back to Clifftop Restaurant they were ready for us. We even had gorgeous views while we ate a late lunch!

After lunch, we did the ropes course at Bear Venture…

Followed by the Skywalk which was a series of connecting treetop rope suspension bridges.

And lastly, Jett and I rode the Mountain coaster. It was really neat! It was a one car roller coaster that uses gravity as it’s decent force. You are able to control your speed as you go down the coaster by yourself. Jett was too big for tandem… so he got to drive himself down which he was pretty pumped about!

After we satisfied our adrenaline appetite, we rode the chairlift back down the mountain & headed back to camp. Again... we had amazing views on our decent!

We all ate Marla’s delicious stew by the campfire and had s’mores and forgotten cookies for desert!

While we were having campfire conversations, we had another visit from our bear friend. (Not sure it was the same one… but probably was!) She was in a tree, climbed down, rummaged around some RV campsites (we think our RV site as we were down at the Cabin sites at the time), and then out into the street of the park. We of course watched her from a distance as she was clearly trying to scrounge up some food from our campsites. Here’s a video I captured of her wandering around the entrance of our RV park. (And gosh... please pardon the mouth of one of our hillbilly neighbor’s from who knows where that blabbed during my video!)

Unfortunately, just about 15 minutes after I took the video, we heard squealing brakes and a big crash. Some men confirmed that the bear was hit and laying on the side of the road in front of our RV campgrounds office. They said the car wasn’t damaged and just drove off?? (Weird!) So we were hoping the bear was just stunned and would be okay. Jett went to sleep pretty upset about it all. And the next morning we confirmed a big lump or black fur was still on the side of the rode… so unfortunately the Bear died. No other sightings the next 2 nights. So unfortunately we experienced a sad ending to our bear sightings.