| Phalpal,
Gatlinburg is definitely NOT the really cool place it used to be, but I guess no place is. It has been completely devoured by tourism. The area is still drop-dead gorgeous but the town itself is shoulder-to-shoulder tourists and tourist traps, motels, clip joints and con artists. Most every other place in that part of the Smokeys is probably about what you remember, though. My place is about half way up a mountain and looks down into the park. In the fall it's one of the most beautiful areas in the country. You really have to be country folk, though - Bryson City, for example, has a year round population of 2000. I could blather on seemingly forever but I think I've already 'jacked this thread. Take a ride through there sometime when you have a lot of time - Charles Kuralt called the Blue Ridge Parkway the most beautiful road in the United States.
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E-Jag |