Eating Our Way Home

Oh, yeah!

The rest of our trip home was concentrated on nature, food, music, food, relatives, friends and (you guessed it!) food.

First Stop: Georgia

Tim and family

After time in the Smokies, we headed down to Atlanta to visit Scott’s nephew, Tim Stevens, his wife, Lisa, and their youngest daughter, Maddie. 

That's Tim's photo, left. We forgot to take many while visiting.

We had hoped to see Scott’s niece, Julie, as well, but she was busy *she is the busiest person on Earth, so that was no surprise). 

We stopped briefly along the way a Tallulah Falls near Georgia’s northern border. 

Years ago, you could stop and see the falls from a touristy place with an overlook and a store. I think it cost about $3.00 for a look. 

RIP Tallulah Point 1912-2020; Photo: GAB News Online

It closed in 2020, so we went to the very pretty Tallulah Gorge State Park to see the falls.  

Above the falls

The Park surrounds Tallulah Gorge, a 1,000-foot-deep canyon formed by the Tallulah River. The six-section Tallulah Falls drops 500 feet over one mile. 

There is a lovely Visitor Center and a number of overlooks.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, the time of day was not optimum for seeing the falls, which were shadowed by the deep gorge, for any of the overlooks. 

Oh, well! 

We ate at both of Tim’s and Lisa’s restaurants in Roswell, a suburb north of Atlanta. 

Bask opened this year. It is a fabulous upscale steakhouse is designed with a 1920’s club atmosphere. Its hallmark is a farm-to-table sustainable approach to food. 

A beautiful restaurant; Photos: Bask

Tim has carefully curated his relationships with farms, wineries and meat providers to provide seasonal, locally sourced southern cuisine paired with a one-of-a kind wine list, barrel-aged beers and prohibition-style cocktails. 

 

We forgot to photograph the food. Photos: Bask

Damn!

It is beautiful, the wine is incredible, and the food is delicious. What a treat! 

The second night, we ate at From the Earth, a classy farm-to-table eatery and brewpub. 

Photo: FTE

It has won many awards including 2nd place in USA Today’s 2023 Best Brewpub in the U.S. The food is more casual, but tasty. 

My favorites were the carrot hummus and shrimp scampi appetizers

Dinner at FTE

From the Earth kicked off its sixth anniversary celebration with live music the night we visited. 

Tim and Lisa have created two wonderful establishments with great ambiance and delicious food. 

If you’re traveling in the area, check them out. 

During the day (between evening feasts), Scott and I drove north to Cloudland Canyon State Park in Rising Fawn. 

Just a hint of fall

It’s one of those well-equipped State Park Resorts you find in the southeast with campgrounds, super nice cabins, yurts and trails. 

Cliff face

The overlooks were pretty, but we didn’t have time to hike to the waterfalls and the trees weren’t bright enough yet.

Nice facilities

We lunched at the a the “best restaurant in town” just south of the Park. It was a food truck with picnic tables and gas pumps.  

I had a slaw dog and Scott had a fried bologna sandwich

We entertained ourselves by eavesdropping on two hunters discussing dogs and deer and some construction workers who had perfected the art of indistinguishable mumbling. 

NOLA

Our next stop as we started for home was New Orleans, where we spent our honeymoon in 1974. 

Almost 50 years between these visits to Pat O'Briens

Back then, before actually going to New Orleans, I had had a Disneyesque image of pristine balconies and limitless southern charm. 

The balcony part was right

I remember being shocked at how seedy and raunchy it was then.

Well, it’s ten times that now. I’ve been a few times since my initial trip and I always say, “never again.”

Lots happening 

Don’t get me wrong, the city has its pluses.

The food is fabulous, so that is a legitimate draw. But, you can keep the loud, drunken crowds thronging Bourbon Street. 

An hour or so is enough for me

That’s just not my thing.

Although rundown, there is charming architecture

Good music; Photo: Scott Stevens

A very open attitude about life

And, some amusing quirkiness

We stayed at the Bon Maison Guesthouse right on Bourbon Street. It was a lovely room with a comfy bed and a small kitchenette (handy for inevitable leftovers). Hidden behind a locked corridor to the street, the hotel has a private courtyard and an abundance of charm.

Lovely and convenient

The first night was surprisingly quiet considering location. But loud fellow residents and a trio of homeless men (who were actively consuming and injecting a variety of illegal substances) parked IN FRONT OF the entrance kept Scott up all night the second night. Worse yet, they did not move as we were loading our car to depart, so we had to gingerly step around them with our luggage.

I bravely took photos from the car

I was convinced they were going to mug Scott as he struggled to return our key to the lockbox, but it all worked out.

Location!

Despite the noise, it was nice to be able to walk out the door to everywhere we wanted to go without needed a car (a good thing, too, because Bon Maison has no parking and we had to leave the car in a public lot several blocks and $128 away).

We had dinner at the Palm Court, which is a couple of blocks off Bourbon on Decatur Street. It was a delight, with the very entertaining house jazz band and the eccentric owner Nina Buck, who had clad her impossibly thin legs in leopard-skin leggings and dancing through the restaurant.

Nina watching the band; Photo: Scott Stevens

She's 87 years old.

Scott and Nina hit it off

The music was good ...

Kevin Louis and the Palm Court Jazz Band

... the food was good (best bread pudding I’ve had) ...

Waiting for our food

... and the ambiance was extremely refined compared to the raucousness of just a few blocks away.

Bubbles!

The first morning we were there, we walked down to Jackson square ...

Celebrating Battle of New Orleans hero Andrew Jackson

... and had breakfast at Café Du Monde, a must-stop when visiting NOLA.

Serving chicory-laced coffee and beignets since 1862

The menu has hardly changed since the Civil War: coffee, beignets, hot chocolate, milk, fresh-squeezed orange juice and more recent additions of iced coffee and sodas. The beignets (the only food they serve) are hot, soft and pillowy. 

A limited, sugar-laden, menu

But, they are coated with so much powdered sugar that eating is a challenge. I was pretty meticulous and did a good job of containing the sticky white powder. 

Is that much sugar necessary?

Well, at least I was neater than everyone else we saw eating there. I left with no sugar powder on my clothes and just slightly sticky fingers.

I think the tabletops are two-inches taller by the end of each day just because of accumulated sugar paste.

I snuck around back to look into the kitchen and could barely see through the sugar-frosted windows. The cooks wear masks, most likely to prevent whatever disease one gets from inhaling sucrose on a regular basis.

Hot oil and sugar: breakfast of champions

More casual meals included a muffuletta that we noshed on for two days (the kitchenette came in handy) and a roast beef po’ boy and Caesar salad that we split for one dinner.

N’awlins food is wonderful. No question about dat.

We breakfasted the final morning a Brennan’s, where we had also eaten on our honeymoon. Despite its age, it looks crisp and clean, with lovely dining rooms and an outdoor courtyard.

Brennan's has been serving since 1946 (a youngster!)

The food was stellar: I had the eggs Sardou minus the eggs (fried artichoke hearts on a bed of creamed spinach with a tomato/herb hollandaise) and Scott had eggs Benedict made with crispy-fried Sheepshead fish. 

Mine and Scott's. Delish!

And, of course, we had bananas Foster. 

You can watch the full process of cooking the bananas in brown sugar and flambéing them in banana liqueur and rum here.

You get a treat and a cooking lesson

The only disappointment was with our fellow diners. Brennan’s has relaxed its dress code since the days when men had to wear jackets, but it’s the kind of place that requires a bit of respect. We dressed nicely as did some other people we saw. But, most were in shorts, tee shirts, jeans and hoodies.

I dressed up; Photo: Scott Stevens

There was a Saints/Bears game that day and it appeared many diners were headed to the game, so maybe that’s an excuse. 

Still!

While there, we noticed something interesting. The walls are decorated with numerous oyster plates (plus Audubon prints). But, the oysters are not served on oyster plates. Go figure!

The other thing we planned to do was photograph the Bayou Bacchanal Caribbean Parade. Scott had found out about it online and had the parade route and times mapped out. It was slated to start near the river, travel up Canal Street, then turn on Rampart and end at Louis Armstrong Park.

Louis Armstrong Park celebrates jazz musicians and Mardi Gras

We got to the Park early, so we decided to walk the route in reverse and intercept the parade. As we walked uncrowded Rampart and crowded Canal, we saw no evidence that a parade was coming – nothing blocked off, no people waiting. Long after if should have made its way to where we were, we still saw nothing and heard nothing. So, we decided to give up.

As we were walking several blocks aways, we thought we saw something on Canal, so we headed back to the Park, where we encountered several other people as confused as we were. Where was the parade?

Well, it wasn't Mardi Gras!

We checked another website that said the parade would come up Basin Street beside the Park, but regardless of where it was going to arrive, it was well past the scheduled noon arrival.

As a few other confused tourists started to mill about, we found a local who had a friend in the parade. He told us they were running late, but were coming. When they finally showed up, an hour and a half late, it was pretty disappointing.

Some nice costumes, but a small, tired group that was mainly just walking and sipping bottled water. 

Not exactly Carnivale!

Scott got some nice shots (he is good at this). I did not.

Mine left; Scott's right

So much for New Orleans. 

Not my favorite, but fun

Texas

Then, the long drive home with a stop in DFW to see friends. We had dinner at the very old school (I mean, you can get steak and spaghetti! together!) Candlelight Inn.

An interesting spot

We didn't go for the food. We went because Buddy Whittington, a fabulous guitarist who toured for 15 years with John Mayall, performed. Scott is a big Buddy fan. So, that was a treat.

It was a good show

And, I took a brief walk at a favorite spot: the Colleyville Nature Center.

This time my best sighting was a Brown Thrasher

All in all, a pleasant, but not awe-inspiring trip.

But, we got some color!

Trip date: October 27 - November 5, 2023

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Fall in Cade's Cove

Before I arrived, Scott had already spent two days in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and had had glorious weather, with blue skies and leaves not quite at their peak. 

Cade's Cove; Photo: Scott Stevens

We weren’t quite as lucky on the return. The weather degraded significantly, with gray skies and occasional rain, but still surprisingly warm temperatures for late October. 

The Park

Rising along the Tennessee/North Carolina border, the Great Smoky Mountains are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains that contain 292 square miles of old growth forest, constituting the largest such stand east of the Mississippi River. 

Beautiful forest

The name comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and looks like large smoke plumes from a distance. This fog is caused by vegetation emitting organic compounds that form vapors at normal temperature and pressure.

Perpetual "fog"

Several rivers originate in the Smokies, including the Little Pigeon, Oconaluftee and Little Rivers.

Oconaluftee River

The highest point in GSMNP is Clingmans Dome, the tallest mountain in Tennessee, which rises to an elevation of 6,643 feet.

Clingman's Dome

My brother and I stayed at the summit in 2016

Mount Le Conte is the tallest from immediate base to summit, rising 5,301 feet from its base in Gatlinburg to 6,593 feet. 

While, for a Coloradan, these elevations seem low (indeed, my house is equal with Clingman’s Dome), they rise from a much lower base and are significant.

The Smokies receive about 50 to 80 inches of precipitation a year, which is why the crappy weather wasn’t a surprise.

Fog and drizzle

Winter snowfall can be heavy, especially on the higher slopes. Flash flooding often occurs after heavy rain.

Only moderate flow at The Sinks

The oldest rocks in the Smokies formed over a billion years ago from the accumulation of marine sediments and igneous rock in a primordial ocean. More recent rocks formed from accumulations of the eroding land mass onto the ocean's continental shelf. The ancient ocean deposited a thick layer of marine sediments that left behind sedimentary rocks such as limestone. Then, when the North American and African plates collided, the Appalachian range uplifted. Erosion of softer sedimentary rocks eventually re-exposed the older rocks.

Boulders in a stream

Around 20,000 years ago, glaciers advanced southward across North America and, although they never reached the Smokies, they led to colder temperatures and more precipitation. Trees at higher elevations were replaced by tundra. Spruce-fir forests occupied the valleys and slopes below 5,000 feet. Persistent freezing and thawing created large blockfields at the base of many mountain slopes.

Between 16,500 and 12,500 years ago, the glaciers retreated and temperatures rose. Tundra disappeared, spruce-fir forests moved up to the highest elevations and hardwood trees moved in from the coastal plains in the lower elevations. Temperatures continued warming until around 6,000 years ago, when they began to gradually grow cooler. 

Now, the trend is reversing and temperatures are warming again

Heavy logging in the late 19th century and early 20th century devastated much of the original forests.

Now, most is mature second-growth hardwood

Flora and Fauna

The range's 1,600 species of flowering plants include more than 100 each of trees and shrubs. The Smokies are also home to over 450 species of mosses and similar plants and 2,000 species of fungi.

Colorful plants

The forests of the Smokies are typically divided into three zones: cove hardwood in the stream valleys and lower slopes; northern hardwood on the higher slopes; and spruce-fir at the highest elevations.

Cove hardwood forests are among the most diverse forest types in North America, with more than 130 species including birch, basswood, buckeye, tulip poplar, maple, magnolia, hickory and hemlock. The American chestnut, which was the most beloved tree of the range's pre-park inhabitants, was killed off by Chestnut blight in the 1920s. 

American chestnut, 1910; Photo: USA Today

The understories contain dozens of species of shrubs and vines, including redbud, dogwood, rhododendron, mountain laurel and hydrangea.

Hardwood forest

Cooler temperatures in higher elevations support plants more commonly found in the north, including northern species of birch, beech, basswood, maple and buckeye. The understory is home to coneflower, goldenrod, ragwort, bloodroot, hydrangea, grasses and ferns.

Spruce-fir forest – also called the "boreal" or "Canadian" forest – is a relic of the Ice Ages when temperatures were too cold to support hardwoods. After hardwoods returned, spruce-fir forest survived on the harsh mountain tops, typically above 5,500 feet.

Spruce-fir forest

There are primarily two conifer species: Fraser fir and red spruce. Fraser firs once dominated above 6,200 feet, but most were killed by an infestation of the Balsam Wooly Adelgid, which arrived in the Smokies in the early 1960s. Large stands of dead trees remain atop Clingmans Dome. 

Many red spruce, which can be 100 feet tall, were logged during World War I, but they are still common and some are believed to be 300 years old.

Southern Appalachia ‘s spruce-fir forests differ from those in northern latitudes because they have dense broad-leaved understories of rhododendron, mountain ash, pin cherry, thornless blackberry and hobblebush. 

Fall colors

Poorly lit lower areas are dominated by ferns and more than 280 species of mosses.

Appalachian balds – patches of land where trees are unexpectedly absent or sparse – are interspersed through the mid-to-upper elevations. Grassy balds are meadows of thick grasses and heath balds are dense thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel typically on narrow ridges.

Grazing Elk bull

GSMNP is home to 66 species of mammals, more than 240 species of birds, 43 species of amphibians, 60 species of fish and 40 species of reptiles.

Previously, it was home to Eastern Elk, which are now extinct. The Park now hosts introduced Manitoban Elk. 

It has the densest Black Bear population east of the Mississippi River. Scott had two close encounters with a mama and three cubs in Cades Cove.

Bear family; Photos: Scott Stevens

I had to make do with two different Black Bears in trees …

 One was sleeping

One was actively moving about

As for birds, we saw very few ... 

Most seen: Common Crows and Wild Turkeys

History

Abundant water and game attracted settlers

Based on found artifacts, Native Americans have likely been hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains for at least 14,000 years. The Pisgah Phase of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture eventually became the Cherokee.

Increasing reliance on agriculture around 900 to 1600 lured them away from the game-rich forests and into the fertile river valleys on the outer fringe of the Smokies, where they built villages. 

Most were part of a chiefdom based on an island that was submerged in 1943 when Douglas Dam created Douglas Lake.

Two Spanish expeditions – Hernando de Soto in 1540 and Juan Pardo in 1567 – passed through the French Broad River valley north of the Smokies. Although they spent a considerable amount of time there, they left little mark in a cultural sense.

By the time the first English explorers arrived in Southern Appalachia in the late 17th century, the Cherokee controlled much of the region with the Great Smoky Mountains at the center of their territory. Most Cherokee settlements were in the river valleys on the outer fringe of the range. The tribe, one of the most culturally advanced on the continent, had towns, cultivated croplands, sophisticated political systems and extensive networks of trails.

The Cherokee lived here first

The village of Oconaluftee, which was situated along the Oconaluftee River near today’s Visitor Center, was the only known permanent Cherokee village located within the National Park's boundaries. 

Oconaluftee Visitor Center

Sporadic or seasonal settlements were located in Cades Cove and the Hazel Creek valley.

Europeans began arriving in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee in the mid-18th century at the end of the French and Indian War, creating conflict with the Cherokee, who held legal title to much of the land. When the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British at the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1776, American forces launched an invasion of their territory. By 1805, the Cherokee had ceded control of the Great Smokies to the U.S.

Cherokee signs are bilingual

Although much of the tribe was forced west along the Trail of Tears in 1838, a few retained their land on the Qualla Boundary and today comprise the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, headquartered in the town of Cherokee.

In the 1780s, several frontier outposts were established along the outskirts of the Smokies. Permanent settlers began arriving in the 1790s, creating communities in White Oak Flats (which eventually became Gatlinburg), what is now the Greenbrier section of the Park, Cosby, Sugarlands, Roaring Fork, Cades Cove, Hazel Creek and Cataloochee.

Early Cade's Cove buildings

The National Park Service preserves and maintains 78 structures within the Park that were once part of these small Appalachian communities scattered throughout river valleys and coves.

Touring an old farm house

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has five distinct historic districts and nine individual listings on the National Register of Historic Places. When you visit, there are ample opportunities to learn about the settlers and their descendants.

Like most of Southern Appalachia, the early 19th-century economy of the Smokies relied on subsistence agriculture. The average farm consisted of roughly 50 acres, part of which was cultivated and part of which was woodland. 

Early settlers lived in 16 x 20-foot log cabins

Cabins were often replaced by more elaborate log houses or modern frame houses

Most farms had at least one barn.

A substantial barn

They also usually had a springhouse for refrigeration, a smokehouse for curing meat, a coop to protect chickens from predators and a crib to keep corn dry and protected from rodents.

Springhouse and smithy

Some more industrious farmers operated gristmills, general stores and sorghum presses.

The Cade's Cove grist mill still grinds

Community life was typically centered on church, especially Primitive Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian.

I photographed this historic church in 2014

While both Tennessee and North Carolina joined the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the communities on the Tennessee side of the Smokies tended to support the Union while communities on the North Carolina side supported the Confederacy. 

No major engagements took place in the Smokies, but minor skirmishes were fairly common. Cherokee Chief William Holland Thomas’ Confederate legion occupied Gatlinburg for several months to protect saltpeter mines atop Mount Le Conte. Residents of predominantly Union Cades Cove and predominantly Confederate Hazel Creek routinely stole one another's livestock, as did residents of Cosby and Cataloochee. 

For the most part, however, the people just lived their lives as the war raged

Only minor selective logging occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains throughout the 19th century because the region was so hard to reach. When demand for lumber skyrocketed after the Civil War, loggers started using splash dams and booms to float logs down rivers to lumber mills in nearby cities. Lumber companies sprang up on Little River, Hazel Creek and the Pigeon River. All three failed within their first few years when dams and booms were destroyed by floods. Innovations in railroads and band saw technology in the late 19th century brought large-scale logging to the Smokies.

Originally, everything was small scale

The Little River Lumber Company logged the Little River watershed between 1901 and 1939 and established company towns at Townsend, Elkmont and Tremont. Other companies logged the Hazel Creek watershed and the Oconaluftee watershed.

By the time operations ceased in the 1930s, about 80 percent of the virgin forests had been clear cut. Little River Lumber owner Wilson Townsend began advertising Elkmont as a tourist destination in 1909 and, within a few years, the Wonderland Hotel and the Appalachian Club had been established to cater to elite Knoxvillians seeking summer mountain getaways.

The Wonderland Hotel in its heyday; Photo: Historical Marker Database

The last time I saw it in 2014

In the early 1920s, Appalachian Club members including Knoxville businessman Colonel David Chapman began a movement to establish a National Park. Establishing Great Smoky Mountains National Park was more complex than creating its predecessors Yellowstone and Yosemite because that land had already been federally owned. 

Along with convincing logging firms to sell lucrative lumber rights, the Great Smoky Mountain Park Commission (GSMPC) headed by Chapman had to negotiate purchase of thousands of small farms, remove communities and deal with the Tennessee and North Carolina legislatures, which at times were opposed to spending taxpayer money on Park efforts.

Small towns all had their own services, such as blacksmiths

The GSMPC completed most major land purchases by 1932 and the National Park officially opened in 1934, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt presiding over the opening ceremony at Newfound Gap.

Our Visit

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the country, with about 13 million visitors a year. Its popularity stems from its beauty and its proximity to major metropolitan areas all along the east coast.

One of 13 million

Because the Park is bisected by a through-highway, GSMNP does not charge admission or require entry reservations.

Our pass

To better manage the Park's considerable crowds, however, GSMNP began requiring visitors to buy parking passes, which can be purchased for a day ($5), a week ($15) or the year ($40). You can get them up to six months in advance from recreation.gov.

The tags are assigned to specific vehicles and cannot be used for multiple cars. Not location-specific, they can be used anywhere within the Park’s boundaries. Tags are not required for motorists who drive through or park for less than 15 minutes.

We stayed in Gatlinburg at the Quality Inn Creekside. The hotel, which is tucked into a cliffside by a small creek has seen better days and is a bit dark and damp. But, it has covered parking and is about as close to the Park entrance as you can get.

Exploring the quiet woods

So, we were spared the agony of driving through the super-crowded, super touristy town. A good trade-off. 

While in the Smokies, we just drove around, looking for pretty trees to photograph and hoping to see wildlife.

We also took a short drive along the southern part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the 469-mile-long mountain road that links GSMNP to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. It was pretty, but the weather didn’t cooperate. 

Appropriate for our Halloween-day drive

There were some lovely vistas ...

Foggy, but colorful

... and a few cooperative birds ...

Common Crows and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet

... but, it was too cold and gray to justify driving very far ...

Trying to get an uncooperative bird

We drove the Cades Cove Loop Road twice ...

Cades Cove showcases farming; the last residents left in 1999

Cade's Cove has some lovely historical displays ...

This Ranger is training to be a blacksmith, too

... and is the best place to see Black Bears ...

You have to look up

It also has a campground, stables (we did a hayride when the girls were small), bike rentals and a small store where we got sandwiches and ice cream ...

Not a restaurant, per se, but it will do

Plus, we drove the quiet Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail once ... 

A pleasant drive I highly recommend

We ate lunch one day in Cherokee. The Indian Tacos were OK, but the corn fritters were to die for.

Hot lunch on a cold day

We also had a really delicious Italian dinner (we split an enormous eggplant Parmesan) at Best Italian Cafe and Pizzeria and a pleasant meal (I just had a salad so it's not fair to compare) at the Cherokee Grill.

That's half an order on the left; the right was on Halloween (the server is a pumpkin)

On our final morning, we went up to Clingman’s Dome, which had received some overnight snow and a heavy frosting of rime ice. 

Frosted trees

It was only 12°F and fairly windy at the top, so we did most of our photography from a sheltered pull-out below the summit. 

Brrrrrrr

Scott made a cool time-lapse video of the waves of fog drifting over the peaks. See it HERE.

We looked in several stores in Pigeon Forge, Cherokee and along the Parkway, hoping to find pottery similar to pieces we bought decades ago. Times have changed and the rustic glazes we prefer are hard to come by. We ended up just buying one small casserole (to add to three pieces that used to be Scott’s parents’ that was he was bringing home from his sister, wonderyoutPatti).

More beautiful pottery

And I bought some small Halloween decorations ...

The little ghosts and skull dish go with things I already had

It was lovely, if a bit gray.

Just like us

Trip date: October 27 - November 5, 2023