In Part 1, we made our way to Fontana Village for MINIs on the Dragon.

Monday

As mentioned in Part 1, I was trying to ruck every day for a gym competition. So Monday started off with a quick ruck. Fontana Village is VERY close to the Appalachian Trail and has trails that weave around the village itself. I threw on my pack and one block from my cabin was a trail.

I started off on the Squatter Trail (not sure I want to know why it’s called that). It seemed like eventually these trails would link up with the Appalachian Trail, so that was my hope. However, this trail is not one of them. It seemed very rarely used. Very overgrown and I wasn’t sure if there was poison ivy, so after a short while, I turned around to head to another trail. This was only more slightly used. However, I had a nice view over the village. Dead center of the bottom right photo, you can see a little flash of blue. That’s Ariel, parked in front of our cabin.

It was Monday and the event wouldn’t officially begin until Wednesday, so we set off on an adventure. As I mentioned in Part 1, we met up with friends at Fontana. They’ve been going to this event for years (like nearly 20 years), so they know all the great spots to go to. The group of us went to the Nantahala National Forest and Bridal Veil Falls. I laughed because I’ve been to Bridal Veil Falls in Oregon AND New Hampshire. There are two in North Carolina! And more than 20 in the United States. This Bridal Veil Falls was lovely and you can walk behind them!

The smaller inset photo that looks like a repeat of the first photo has people in it, so you can see the scale of the falls.

We drove around a bit more, and stopped for lunch at Highlands Smokehouse. Very yummy, with fantastic margaritas. Then we drove a bit more (that is after all, the theme of the vacation). And ended up popping out at a town my friends had never seen before. It was bougie compared to most of the towns in the area, but it was a great spot to stop for a coffee (and some fudge).

Back to Fontana Village. I think we had dinner at the resort’s “pub”. After we went to the arcade (that at least one of my friends who have been here for years didn’t know existed). David was in heaven. As I told someone else, there are two things David loves: Touch Tunes and basketball arcade games. (Punchline, you’ll note I’m not on that list. David assured me I’m top five.) The arcade had both Touch Tunes and a basketball arcade game. AND the Touch Tunes speaker was Guinness book of records loud. The arcade would be a daily/nightly occurrence for us. Did I mention we were the only people in there? Maybe because of this sign?

Every night ended at the fire pit. Either the one in front of our friends’ cabin or the big one up the hill. Friends, snacks, beverages, laughs. Perfection.

Tuesday

Tuesday we slept in. Well I slept in, anyway. I wandered over to our friends’ cabin midmorning and breakfast and coffee magically appeared. It’s good to be me. It was sprinkling, so I wore the poncho I bought at Long Trail Brewery in Vermont during MINIs Take Vermont.

Tuesday was going to be a bit of a lazy day. It was sprinkling on and off, and the event started Wednesday night. We drove to the Tail of the Dragon/Deals Gap where we bought some merch and took some pics.

That’s the tree of shame on the right. You don’t want any of your car parts to make their way there.

I think we went to Robbinsville for some grocery shopping? We took some fun roads, that aren’t as crazy as the dragon, but good for a rainy day. We stopped for lunch at the Tapoco Tavern.

When we got back the rain had cleared, and been clear for a bit, so I decided it was time for me to drive the dragon! I took our friend Steve with me as passenger, since he’s driven it for years, I thought he’d be a great navigator. He could warn me of upcoming bad spots, or tell me good places to pull off if I needed them. It was perfect timing. The roads were dry, and mostly empty. No one was in front of me, and more importantly, no one was impatiently behind me. Great time, glad to have done it. Down and back. Then it was David’s turn while I went for my ruck.

The whole resort is one giant hill, so I walked up to the highest street. I saw a spur/dead end road, so decided to walk up that. No cabins on it, and looked like some construction. But I got this cool view.

Another fire pit night, this time at the big one. We also discovered Annie’s cheese puffs make great fire starters.

Wednesday

Wednesday we were off to Gatlinburg, which is roughly two hours from Fontana, and through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

On the drive, I saw a motel marquee sign that read “Back off bumper humper”. Thinking that was funny, I texted it to the group chat (we were in separate cars). I later learned no one else saw the sign and just thought I was saying that randomly.

Not long after entering the national park, we saw lots of elk crossing. Appropriately right next to a sign about elk crossing.

Some fun driving and beautiful scenery on the way (that we stopped to take pics of on the way back, so more of that in a moment).

And then Gatlinburg! What a cheesy, weird, fun town.

We went to Ole Smoky Moonshine and did a moonshine tasting. Had to buy the moonshine pickles and a few others. Of course, there was an arcade, so you know where David went. Also they had a beer pong arcade game. So that’s a thing.

We grabbed lunch at Tennessee Jed’s. And WTF is this grate cover?!

Next, Steve wanted to go to this ghost town in Smoky Mountain National Park. It was a lovely drive from Gatlinburg.

However, once we arrived, we realized you needed parking tags. But you can’t buy the parking tags AT the ghost town, you have to go to the visitors center. So David and I hopped in the car to go back and get parking tags, however we went to the nearby campground, which does not have parking tags. Anyway, after some driving around, we finally were able to explore the ghost town.

The short version of Elkmont, is that it was a town that became a vacation destination thanks to a nearby logging train. The Great Smoky National Park was created in 1934 and the residents of Elkmont could sell their homes for full value and move, or sell to the park and lease it for a discount. The park was unable to maintain the roughly 70 buildings and they began to deteriorate over time, leading to calling it the Elkmont Ghost Town. 19 buildings were selected by the National Park Service to preserve and the rest were demolished. So there is a little street lined with the cabins that you can walk in and around.

After exploring the cabins, I decided to go for my ruck in the area. The area had once been aptly named Little River. I came upon some cabin remnants. I also found this somewhat threatening cemetery sign (and cemetery that I did NOT explore for obvious reasons). And a little butterfly dance party.

We went back through the park and stopped for some photo opps. Also on the way over we saw the circle sign and had no idea what it meant until we were on it. It was hilarious and weird and felt like a parking garage circling through several floors. And we saw more elk!

That night Steve cooked dinner and we hung out by the fire.

Thursday

I was really looking forward to Thursday and taking a hike on the Appalachian Trail! Since that’s a hike though, that’s a separate post! David, Steve, and Emily rented a pontoon boat and had a fantastic time on the lake.

Thursday night was the MOTD cabin crawl. Several cabins participate and host everyone. They have a theme and serve a drink and a snack, preferably in theme. This was a lot of fun as you walk cabin to cabin, snack, drink, chat with people, and generally have a good time.

I should have taken more photos, but this was my favorite cabin theme. I was handed a peppermint patty by Peppermint Patty! One of the other cabins had these super cute “smores” cocktails.

The evening may or may not have included me reading aloud the lyrics to Wild Thing by Tone Loc and Bust A Move by Young MC by the fire. Yes “may or may not” for real, I don’t remember which night this happened, but it was hilarious.

Friday

Friday I hung out with Emily a bit at the vendor area, while the boys went to get Hawaiian ice and drive the dragon again.

Here are some random photos from around the resort

The resort had mini golf, so we played half a round. I’m PRETTY sure I won, but somehow our score card disappeared.

The event hosts a bingo night, with proceeds going to the local food bank. Great fun was had!

After bingo, we headed to the arcade (as usual at this point), and lots of people were in there, too. But GASP! SADNESS! The basketball game was broken! So what happens when something is broken and you’re around technical/mechanical people? You all fix it yourselves. And then celebrate with some pool.

Saturday

Knowing we had a long drive ahead of us, we decided to start home on Saturday. Unfortunately, Saturday and Sunday meant driving home in two straight days of rain. We saw several new Waze alerts including “Bad weather” and “Fog”.

We decided to call it a day and stop in Winchester, VA. The good news is that we hit a Mexican restaurant near the hotel and it was really good.

Sunday

Not much to say about Sunday.

First, I’m a 15 year old boy who thinks this sign is hilarious. Second photo, was a bridge I posted as part of the “Where am I?”. Answer, Newburgh Beacon bridge. Of course, we had to stop in at the Charlton rest area, again posted with “Where am I?”. This was east bound, not west bound. And lastly, back home.

Home

We had a great time, I would definitely do this again. We drove through 11 states (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland. And for the second time, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire.)

Somewhere around 2,500 miles driven. So many MINIs. Great friends, great times!