Smoky Mountains Camping Trip

Memorial Day weekend we drove down to camp in the Tennessee Smokies with our good friends Davy and Nena and their dog Alex.

On the way there, we stopped at Waffle House for some midnight shenanigans. Davy and Ben impressed us with their familiarity with the menu and ordering expertise. It's good to have some natives with you when you're in a foreign land.

At first our campsite felt really foreign to me too. The family next to us used the big screen tv in their tent until past 5 AM. To make matters worse, they argued loudly and consistently enough that I couldn't quite make out the dialogue of the Law & Order SVU episode they were watching.

But the next morning, I discovered that I had more in common with our neighbors than I might have thought. A kid abruptly opened his trailer door around 7 AM and yelled, 'Momma, are you gettin' me ice cream?' To which, she naturally replied, 'In a few minutes - just eat another pop-tart for now!' The native Tennessee diet more closely resembles mine than any other I've ever observed. Ever since that moment I felt a kinship with the golf-cart riding, steak-on-a-fire cooking campers around me.

We met up with other friends on Saturday afternoon, Whitney and Austin, and their two dogs, Ernie and Moe. We were now a party that was 1/3 dogs and 2/3 humans.

We spent most of our time either hiking or eating. The Smokies are beautiful, and we saw waterfalls, mountains, and some wildlife.

For future reference, we need this photographic evidence that Ben and I successfully made a Dutch-oven breakfast casserole. It was delicious and looked surprisingly fancy considering that all of the ingredients came from a Dollar General. We will attempt to recreate this in the future, but there is a part of me that already knows something this beautiful can only happen once.

We also went white water rafting, but we didn't take any pictures (classic). We had a really fun time, and our raft guide told us that we were very advanced. And yes, we did tip him to say that.

Most of all we really enjoyed our time around the campfire with friends!