FALL, BEER, AND PIZZA

Ron and I made the Cades Cove, Parson Branch Road, Highway 129, and Foothills Parkway loop Monday. You have to go into Cades Cove, pass the settlement rest stop area, and turn off on the Parson Branch Road to make the trek we made. The road had been closed for a long time, but now looks really good. The park has spent a large amount of money on repairing the washed out sections and the large rock they hauled in might prevent the damage from ever occurring again.

It was about four miles in, or about half way, that we pulled over at the Gregory Bald and Hannah Mountain Trail heads to stretch our legs. This area seems to be the high point of the road trip and the colors there were better than expected. Here are a few shots, but you can see more on my Flickr page.

The eight mile road ends at Highway 129, about halfway down the famous “Tail of the Dragon”, where motorcyclist and sports car enthusiast come to test their skills on 318 curves in a short 11 miles! It has gotten so bad there of late that the Tennessee Highway Patrol has threatened to close it down! Here is just one reason why!

We made a quick stop at the Calderwood Dam overlook, before winding our way down to the Foothills Parkway.

From there, we made our way back through Townsend and on into Maryville, where we stopped at Uno’s Chicago Grill to take on food and beer! Look at this Shroom® Deep Dish with chicken and spinach! And, the Uno Amber Ale®, which is brewed especially for Uno by Samuel Adams, is wonderful!

It was our first outing since Ron returned from a visit with his brother in California and since I had been sick. It was good to get out and stretch my taste buds again!