Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee...

    A couple weeks ago, my husband, Chris, and I went on our first vacation together (not counting our honeymoon). It was fantastic! We drove down through the Smoky Mountains to Florida and stayed with my aunt. I thought I would share a few pictures of the beautiful scenery we saw along the way. We also took a friend with us.


    Everything went off without a hitch. As a matter of fact, the only time we got lost was in downtown Detroit. Two friendly looking gentlemen kept a watchful eye on us from behind their tinted car windows as we turned around in their parking lot at 3AM.  And people say the ghettos aren't friendly. Pssh.

    One of our motivations for driving instead of flying was that Chris had never seen the mountains. In Kentucky he start taking pictures of the rock walls convinced we were in the mountains already. Every ten feet was a sign warning us to "Watch for fallen rock." Maybe I'm alone in this, but my greater concern was falling rock...

   

    The first night we stayed Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Our hotel sat right on the bank of a river chock full of ducks and geese.

    The next morning we drove through Smoky Mountain National Park. I have to give kudos to the pioneers who crossed these mountains on foot and horseback. At the first foothill I probably would have gone home to sit in my living room and watch The Walking Dead.

We spent the next few days in Florida. The Rainbow Springs Park had a beautiful walkway with waterfalls and a platform out over the springs.

Turtle Beach, Florida.

Storm-head rolling in.

Sunset

Myakka River State Park. Alligator capitol of the world.

    We drove home again a few days later. We made great time if you overlook Atlanta's rush hour. A bit of change from our neck of the woods where a good traffic jam consists of seven cars behind a tractor. And throwing a snow plow in that bad boy could make the evening news.

Oh. And we got the best souvenir ever.