Camping in the Smokies and Birdie comes home

So the discussion about what to do for Spring Break came up early this year. What to do? Where to go?



We talked about skiing in Colorado, Utah or Montana. We talked about going to Big Sky and Yellowstone (closed in late March for plowing). We talked about going to the beach, New York or the Caribbean. Friends were going to places as unexotic as Litchifield Beach and as exotic as France. The pressure was on.



After hours of research and multiple trips to the AAA office for tourbooks ...we jokingly suggested going camping. The joke grew legs and after lots of talk we decided to rent an RV and go to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Plans were to first camp in Cades Cove, then maybe move to Elkmont and finally finish the week in town and take the kids to Dollywood.



We grew excited talking about black bears, hiking, roasting marshmallows and seeing the butterflies at Dollywood. I was excited about cooking in a dutch oven over the fire. Did you know you can cook anything that you can cook in an oven over some coals?!?!?



Plans changed pretty quickly when we found out that for the first three nights of our trip it was going to be below freezing with snow predicted on Monday.