Blue Ridge Pkwy

falconbrother wrote:
Decent restaurants in Cherokee are bloody hard to come by. I like Cherokee but, don't over expect. Your kids will love it. For a good meal you can drive over the mountain to Maggie Valley. Better restaurants. There's a pizza joint in Maggie called Brick House. We ate there last weekend, twice. It was good. Snappys for dinner, it's Italian. Waynesville is close by and they have a super Walmart should you need it. We used to take motorcycle trips and stay in Cherokee then spend the week riding the mountains. Good times.

The only grocery store on the Cherokee reservation is the IGA. Not bad but, small. It's about a block away from the casino. The KOA in Cherokee is pretty good. It's beautiful mountains up there. Make sure to take the kids tubing on the river. That's a hoot and a half. For an evening show the play about the Trail of Tears is great. It's called: "Unto These Hills".

Cades Cove is gorgeous. If you ease over into Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge get ready for heavy traffic. The Joyce Kilmer forest is great for some day hikes.

I've been to Gatlinburg a few times in the fall and hated the traffic even then. I can't imagine it in a few weeks. The grocery situation is one I've anticipated all along. I like to crash hard at night so we will prefer eating in most of the time and will have plenty of eats on board. I'll enjoy some craft beers and want no part of traveling once each day is over. If we go to Gatlinburg to shop/eat it will be during the day when we go to Cade's cove. I'll look into the forest and the evening play...I assume that is at the KOA?...oh and I saw the tubing on the KOA home page...kind of what sold me :-)