Gatlinburg

Made another unplanned stop and stayed in Gatlinburg last night.....yes I'm still here and will be hitting the trail with everyone extremely shortly.
Back tracking a few days, white water rafting at the NOC was awesome. it was nice to get off the trail and do something else besides hiking for a day. i even got to be the raft guide for alittle bit. but because of my zero day the group i was hiking with ended up being a day ahead of me. so i pulled an 18 mile day to catch up with them and caught them at Fontana Dam. but i was exhausted after that. but it was a good confidence builder to know i can pull off big mile days.
After Fontana we headed into the Smoky Mountains. So far the weather has been fabulous....a bit hot on some days but fabulous. Two nights ago it was nice enough that i "cowboy camped" and slept out under the stars.
Yesterday morning we got up around 4am and caught the sunrise from Clingmon's Dome. it was totally worth the early wake up and bit of night hiking.
we arrived in Gatlinburg around 2pm yesterday. g-burg is about half way through the Smokys. it an extremely tracky place......pretty much the Los Vegas for red necks. but it was a really good time last night just walking up and down the main strip last night with everybody. i'm defiantly having a blast. i should be out of the Smokys in another 3 days and heading into Hot Springs in another 3 after that.
Also i'm sending a piece of gear home today but what it is is a secret :-p hehehehe
Hope everyone is well! Only 1,973 miles to go! :-D