Our sweet neighbors Pat and Bruce gave us a great send-off this morning. We also stood on our driveway with Pat with our arms around each other and she prayed us safely on our way.   We ran into a chilly afternoon before we reached Asheville.  Got out of the car at the rest area and temp had dropped to 55 degrees with strong winds.  We had chill bumps as we took a brisk walk to stretch our legs.   We made it safely through the "Falling Rocks" zone of the Great Smoking Mountains with many wire coverings over the rocks to keep them from falling on our heads.  The mountains, with their different shades of green, were absolutely beautiful!  Later we ran into pea-sized hail and held our breath that no damage was being done to Rita's new car... all is well!  Mapquest sent us on a little detour to the hotel which we didn't understand but we don't mind since we came upon a Costco and got gas for $3.26!! Spending the night outside Knoxville Tennessee.  Our brand new Fairfield Inn is great and sits on Snyder Rd. (no joke).  Hotel recommended a great restaurant and brewery that the locals love and it was great.  One of our goals for this journey is to avoid making this trip a pig-fest.
If we don't mention this goal again, then you will know that we are not reaching our goal...Yum!
Having trouble downloading pics for today but maybe can add later.