We decided we did not want to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas at home and we still can’t go to Australia so we decided to “Get Away” by renting a cabin for each of the holidays. For Thanksgiving we rented, through Airbnb a two bedroom cabin in Hayesville, North Carolina. We have never spent much time in the Smokies so we decided to give it a try.
It turned out really nice and while it was a long drive it was not really a trip. It was just getting there and back. Hayesville is about six hundred miles from where we live so we decided to drive it in one day. The drive was uneventful even though it went through Atlanta. The heaviest traffic was in the suburbs to the Northeast of Atlanta. Fortunately we made it with no problems and just a few colorful words by Bill regarding other “drivers”.
The cabin turned out to be really nice, quite remote and private … and nice and quiet. It had plenty of room for the two of us. Was very nicely furnished and provisioned. Nancy brought everything she would need to prepare one of her wonderful Thanksgiving dinners so we were all set. Interestingly enough the cabin did not have a TV and only a slow Satellite Internet link. We don’t really watch all that much TV and usually only use the internet for our email so that was no problem. The owners had left a number of board games, we brought a deck of cards and a cribbage board, and I brought an old laptop I had that still had a DVD player so we each picked out a couple movies from our library that we could watch in the evenings. We were never bored, enjoyed several old movies we had not seen in a long time, Nancy abused me at Yatzee, and I squeaked out a victory or two on the cribbage board.
Here are some pictures of the cabin.
The Dining Room & Table 
The Living Room 
The Kitchen 
The Loft 
The View Out The Back 
The Front of The Cabin 
Ice in the Birdbath 
The Back Side of the Cabin at Sunset 
The Kitchen from the Other Side 
The Master Bedroom 
Looking Down from The Master Bedroom/Loft 
A Cute Knick Knack 
The Fireplace 
We “Borrowed” a Couple Gourds the owners had outside and combined them with
some decorations Nancy brought from Home for the table
Getting ready! 
Wine we brought back from germany 
Ready to Eat 
On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we decided to drive up and see Great Smokey Mountain National park. We originally had a couple ways to get there but found that one way had been blocked by a landslide. We took a route that was west of where we were and it turned out to be quite a day. Part of the drive included a famous piece of road call “Tail of the Dragon” which features 380 curves in eleven miles. It is a favorite Summertime drive for Bikers and sports cars. We did it in our Subaru and it was still a ot of fun. I saw my tail lights a couple times. Great Smokey Mountain National Park is great but it was packed. The holiday weekend was clear and sunny so everyone took one last drive to the park. The park is just south of Gatlinburg and Knoxville so all the tourists from there came by. Sorry but no pictures. On the way home we stopped in Hayesville and had dinner at the Nocturnal Brew Pub. It was a great day. Saturday we just veged out. Played some cards, relaxed, packed a bit, and had leftover turkey for dinner. Sunday we drove home. Great trip.
For Christmas we have rented a Cabin in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee which is a little father north from where we spent Thanksgiving. My Christmas Holiday post will include things we do at home, ouir time at Pigeon Forge, and our trip to Key West for New Years.
