Visiting East Tennessee

A piece of our hearts recently moved to Maryville, TN to attend college and play football at Maryville College.

We’ve made two visits recently to visit and watch the football game with him. The first game we attended in September it was so HOT!! We were sweating and trying to find a way to stay cool and out of the sun. The second game we attended in October it was so cold we were bundled up and trying to stay warm. Neither was a comfortable fall football day. But nonetheless we had fun and enjoyed our visits.

Maryville College has a pretty campus in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

The view from his dorm room is of the beautiful mountains.

On our first visit we had lunch at Hot Rod’s 50’s Diner in Alcoa/Maryville. Hot Rod’s has over 80 burgers on their menu!!! On the second visit it was homecoming and they had a variety of food trucks to choose from.

On the way home after our first weekend traffic was extremely heavy and we had to come to a stop a few miles after we got on the interstate. So we got off and took the scenic routed on highway 11. We got to see parts of Tennessee that you don’t see from the interstate.

Our second trip traffic was a breeze and we took the time to visit one of our favorite places….Gatlinburg!! We drove up thru Townsend and in spots it was very foggy and in spots completely clear. We started with breakfast at our most favorite place Pancake Pantry in downtown. The food is always delicious! I had chocolate chip pancakes and Jeff had the french toast. We then went to Kilwin’s chocolates so that I could get a chocolate covered caramel apple. I ate it later in the week and it was so good!! Then we were going to ride up the mountain to capture some pictures of the beautiful fall colors, but EVERYONE else had the same idea. Traffic was so heavy going up the mountain and we were on a tight schedule since we still had to drive home and be back at work on Monday. We made it to the first pull off where you can see down the valley towards downtown and we stopped and took some pictures. The colors were mostly green and yellow, there was a little red sprinkled in here and there. There were still some places that you could see remnants of the forest fire. We saw some turkeys on the side of the road on the way up, but I didn’t have the camera ready.

Then we had to head back down the mountain to stay on schedule. On the way back down we stopped at one of the quiet walkways to take a quick leisurely stroll.