Smokey Mountains June 15 - 18, 2017

Day 5       Thursday June 15, 2017 Today we went back to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to tour the old Homestead they have just inside the entrance near Cherokee. They have several old buildings behind the Visitor's Center. There is an old cabin, smokehouse, very large barn, spring house and other buildings. There is also several old heirloom apple trees, some chicken running around and two pigs. After touring everything we drove up the road to the Mingus Gristmill. The mill was built in 1886 and was in operation for 50 years grinding corn into meal for local people. The mill is still operational and the ground meal is available for sale.

Two pigs sleeping

Mingus Mill

Mingus Mill

Then we drove back into Cherokee and toured the Cherokee Indian Museum Then we stopped at the local DQ for lunch before returning to the campground. Later in the day we drove back to Cherokee to listen to some story telling by some Cherokee Indians. When we arrived we discovered that the Thursday night story telling had been canceled. We set beside the river stream that runs through Cherokee and watched some geese. There was one pair of geese that had three babies. When we first started watching them the babies were up under the mommies wing but later they got out and went to the water for a cool drink.

We drove back to the park to see if the Elk were out feeding. We saw three before returning to the campground.

Day 6        Friday June 16, 2017 Today was a day for relaxing around the campground. The boys played some board games that the campground provides in a open room near the office and rode their bicycles around the campground roads. Then about 6:30PM we drove back to Cherokee to attend the story telling that was canceled last night. One of the Cherokees told several stories about the history of the Cherokees and the other one did a couple of dances and explained their articles of clothing. The one telling the stories said they were really not Cherokees. That was a name that had been adopted from a mispronunciation of their name. They don't even have the letter R in their vocabulary. He said they also didn't really like the word Indian. The Cherokee, like all the other Indian Nations has their own language. They had a campfire burning so midway of their show they passed out marsh mellows to the kids so they could roast them over the fire.

Day 7 Saturday June 17, 2017 We packed up and departed Cherokee area about 9AM and drove to Tanglewood Campground in Clemmons for the night. We arrived at 1PM and set up in site 8. 

Day 8 Sunday June 18, 2017 After breakfast and packing we departed about 9AM for home. We stopped in Dunn NC for lunch at our normal stop at Smithfield Chicken and BBQ. Then continued on home and arrived safely about 2:30PM. We had a great trip with the grandsons.