Sometime after dinner last night, my aunt's boyfriend was on the phone with his daughter. She told him there was a tornado warning for his area. They went into emergency mode: lighting candles, filling jugs and the tub with water, making waffles. (I don't get the waffle thing.) But alas, no tornado. We just had the hurricane. Wind and rain whipped around all night and into today. Of course today was our chosen day to leave. My husband packed the car with the pelting rain and the wind whipping at him. As we left we saw leaves and branches strewn about.

But we were on our way. Of course the nasty weather was not done with us, oh no. Our chosen route was to take the Blue Ridge Parkway into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Let's see. Oh yeah, we couldn't. There was fog and mist on the Parkway. Not much of a view. Well, there were some places where we could see out across the mountains and valleys. Then, we reached a high point, atop a mountain. No view. Not even across the parking lot of the visitor center. We decided to eat lunch here. Almost two hours later, we were back on the road. The other side of the mountain was clear and even a little sunny. The complete opposite. Although we could now see the beautiful views, the wind was still very strong.

We made it to Great Smoky Mountains NP. But guess what? Those strong winds knocked down trees and branches on the very road we wanted to take. Yep, the only road through the park was closed. So, back to the maps we go. This is only the hundredth time we have consulted the maps. We ended up taking state routes to I-81. We did drive into the park a short way and checked out a campground, so we could be in the park.

The rest of our drive was rather uneventful.