Well if follow us on social media you’ve seen “her”. A tribute to Amanda’s donor, our photo prop turned travel companion. It’s a framed wood base with a metal heart and wings with “Becasue of an Organ Donor on it” and Amanda’s transplant date. We’ve toted her everywhere snapping pictures as we go. It’s been decided that we’ll take her on every heartiversary trip, lugging her wherever we go.
We got up way to early Friday but it was all to possibly see bears! We most definitely aren’t wasting any daylight we were out the door around 4:30am. To early for Starbucks it was an hour and a half before Amanda got her fix. We both got 2 and had our yetis cued up ready to hold them hot till we needed round 2 deep in the Smokies. We’re still using our points gathered from hospital stays, so all 4 we’re free. We started the trip with over 3000 points which will enabled to get us coffee each day till we get home.
I did a little over planning like I always do. I watched YouTube and documentaries on the Smokies so I knew what we could get into in the Cades Cove area. Bear jam, a traffic jam due to people stopping and blocking the road to see or take photos of bears. We experienced 2 of them, first we only caught a glimpse of one in the brush after a ton of people scarred it away. On the way around the 11 mile loop which takes a couple hours the scenery is gorgeous. It’s an area that was once kept clear by Indians burning the cove. It was some of my favorite grassy rolling flats that go up into the mountains. The smoke was pretty perfect over the cove, it was a true smoky mountain experience.
We took a few roads off the path to get away from the traffic, finding an almost 200 year old primitive Baptist church. Another road was a short cut across the end of the loop we took it all the way to the other side and turned around so we could still make the full loop. Glad we did, about half way down there was a truck parked right in the entrance to a one lane bridge. I was already having my fill of the typical rude tourists so I was perturbed to say the least. He was taking a picture and we waited a bit then he came by smiling and didn’t say a word. He had been taking a picture of a bear cub, we both flipped out! He was just doing his thing munching on some nuts not even paying attention to us. We took a million pictures and videos then his mama emerged out and just chilled too, we get even more excited and take more picture. As we were paying attention to the one side I didn’t even notice another cub until the wide angle camera lens caught it first, then another cub came out! We spent almost 10 minutes uninterrupted with them until another car came along, it was such a great experience better than we ever expected, Amanda was so giddy!
We continued the loop and about half way through got into another bear jam. These were in a tree we heard from a walker passing by. The jam wasn’t moving much until a ranger came to move people away, they were literally surrounding the mama bear as she was keeping her 2-3 babies in the tree with papa bear. These people were all obviously not supposed to be on that side of the road they were on and your not supposed to be within 50 yards of wildlife especially bears and elk, they’re the ones that will hurt you. American tourist can be such idiots, I hope in all the world travels we’ll start in the years to come we never come across like them!
It was a perfect morning to celebrate Amanda’s official 1st heartiversary. We’d seen the iconic smoky mountains and lush green fields, saw not one but ten bears, and got to spend solo time with a family of them! All of this by 9:30 in the morning!
We weren’t pressed for time but needed to be back for our spa day with an appointment for our couples massage and a nice dinner that night. We grabbed some cheap Costco gas then I needed a back adjustment after all the driving so I cheated on my local Chiro and got a quick adjustment from the chain place I’d used a good bit before. I had to wait a while so that put us getting back just in time for the massage. We had lunch on the road, a green goddess type pasta salad with penne leftover from our eggplant dinner, more dovetailing!
We made it just in time for it appointment. It was great I’d never had a massage before can’t believe I waiting this long!
All the nail places were either closed or you needed reservations. We found one but it would be an hour before they would have time so we went to town and visited a local winery that has a gift shop. They had a band playing that night they drew the younger crowd. The girl that was helping us was younger and seemed happy to talk to some other younger people. The crowd where we’re staying is on the older side, I’ve only seen two other younger couples!
We went back to get our nails done Amanda had a pedicure and I got a manicure. It was a horrible experience for Amanda, she said the worst pedicure she’s ever had. If you know Amanda you know how particular she is but I even noticed how crooked her toenails were. She was livid, her pedicure was done before my manicure. The guy that did my tried to straighten them out but it didn’t suit Amanda, she was filing on them the minute she got in the car. We were running a bit late so it was get all cleaned up for our night on the town in a hurry.
Dinner was in Knoxville about 50 minutes away. I questioned it because it was in a nice strip mall type building but it turned out to be a great fine dining place, having a menu that changed with the seasons. Our waiter was the best we’d had in a very long time. I laid the whole meal out for him and asked him to stage everything out, we were there for a dining experience not a meal. We had 6 course in total and he got them out just in the perfect time. We started with fried artichokes dusted in a cornmeal batter, then on to the seared scallops buffalo mozzarella on pumpkin stone ground grits with a blackberry compote. Yes not plant based but we cheat every once in a while, scallops are Amanda’s fav! Superbly roasted brussels with a a garlic aioli followed, then a fall harvest beat salad. Entrée was a grilled vegetables consisting of marinated zucchini and yellow squash, portobello, mushrooms, seared artichokes, blistered tomatoes, roasted red peppers, grilled broccolini served with creamy cheese grits. We also had a side of pumpkin butternut squash ravioli as well. I’d already asked the waiter to make a heart on whatever dessert we got, telling him the occasion. We had a chocolate torte with a raspberry sauce heart outline. As I said we like to dine and not eat, it’s kinda our thing!
The service was just about perfect, Amanda and I both commented that he must have had other fine dining experience under his belt. He was interested in the transpant, asking question. He told us the story of his dads own open heart surgery. It ended with how his dad died of lung disease but they all thought he’d keel over from heart disease. This is not uncommon people love to tell you stories of people they know who died of something when talking about health conditions. We both get it all the time, like thanks for comparing our story to your dead friend/relative! It turned out he’d lived in Del Rio as a kid in the 90s only a few years older than me. It’s crazy how small the world is!
It was back to the house for some much needed rest for the day to come. We’d be headed close to the Kentucky border to visit two huge natural rock arches. I’d brought it up that we had points to stay one more night to Amanda. We decided to make the decision in the morning.