Wes turned 45 on a Tuesday this year, which is a terrible day for a birthday when you work four tens. So we moved it up to the weekend before. Friday, November 14, at 5:30 in the morning we were on the road west with a cooler, two heavy coats and an envelope I had labeled "the splurge."
We honeymooned in Gatlinburg in 2011, and last October we rented a cabin over there that cost more than I like to remember. This time I wanted the mountains without the pancake-house traffic, so we stayed on the quieter Townsend side of the park. Bare trees, cold mornings and not much of a crowd. Exactly what we wanted.
Getting there over Newfound Gap
The drive is long, about 330 miles each way. We went up through Asheville and then west to Cherokee, and from there Wes drove us over Newfound Gap Road through the middle of the park. That road is closed in bad winter weather, so I checked the park's road status Friday morning before we left Maxton. It was open and dry. I didn't look at a single map on that stretch, and I still needed a stop at the top. The view at the gap was worth feeling green for a minute.
Parking in the Smokies isn't free anymore. Any car parked in the park for more than fifteen minutes needs a parking tag. You can get a daily one or a weekly one, and the weekly tag was $15, so we bought that and hung it in the window. It's still a bargain for three days in a national park.
Cades Cove, quiet trails and a birthday supper
Our motel in Townsend was a small place with rooms facing the river, $139 a night plus tax, $314 for both nights. That's the most we've paid for a room this year by a lot, and I knew it going in.
Saturday morning we drove the Cades Cove loop early. In November the fields are brown and gold and you can see clear through the woods to the ridges. We saw deer by the dozen and a flock of wild turkeys crossing the road like they owned it. The loop is slow, one-way and about eleven miles, and we took almost three hours with stops at the old churches and cabins.
Saturday was also the day Wes's sinuses decided to stage a revolt. He'd been stuffy since Thursday and by noon he had a fever and a headache. We spent part of that afternoon at an urgent care in Tennessee. He's fine now. That bill is a separate story and I'm keeping it out of the trip total until our insurance finishes deciding what it thinks about a Tennessee clinic.
He felt better by evening, so we kept the birthday supper: a sit-down place with trout and a steak and a slice of apple pie with a candle in it that the waitress brought out without me asking twice. $86 with tip. Sunday morning we walked the short, flat trail along the river near Townsend before checking out, and then drove the long way home through the park again.
I bought Wes a warm fleece at an outfitter in Townsend for $38 as his present, and a jar of apple butter for Mr. Earl, $9. Breakfasts out on Saturday and Sunday mornings were $46, and the cooler covered lunches and snacks with $34 of groceries.
Every dollar of the birthday trip
The whole drive came to about 690 miles. Mountain driving pulls our mileage down to around 29, so call it 24 gallons, and we paid about $2.89 most of the way. Gas came to $70.
- Gas: $70
- Motel in Townsend, two nights with tax: $314
- Weekly parking tag: $15
- Birthday supper: $86
- Two breakfasts out: $46
- Cooler groceries: $34
- Wes's fleece: $38
- Apple butter for Mr. Earl: $9
- Total: $612
That's double what we try to spend on a weekend. We planned it that way. The trip account had built up from a few cheaper months, and a 45th birthday gets the splurge. I'd also say the week before Thanksgiving is the cheapest the Smokies get, short of the dead of winter. The leaves are down, so the crowds are too.
On the way home, somewhere around Asheville, Wes said he'd rather have this birthday than the cabin we rented last year. I said the cabin cost three times as much. He said, "That's what I mean."
