Well, that was certainly an optimistic post.  We never made it to the Maritimes.  Shortly before we planned to leave a small fitting on a pipe leading to the water heater burst in our attic.  We stopped the leak within 20 minutes but it managed to cause quite a bit of damage. Three months and many thousands of dollars later everything was repaired.  We sighed with relief and then, the next day, Breland woke up with a case of shingles.   Six weeks, two trips to the doctor and a long emergency room visit later he has recovered, with just a lingering itch and a slight weakness of the muscles on the right side of his abdomen.

We decided a short trip to the Smokies would be the farthest we could manage this year.  Our first stop on this trip was Lake Lurleen State Park near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Lake Lurleen is about twenty miles off of the interstate highway but it is a very nice campground.  All of the sites are wooded, along the lake, and are level.  


We have always wanted to explore the area west of the Smokies so we spent the next five nights along Watts Bar Lake at the Hornsby Hollow campground.  The sites are inexpensive and each is on the water.  We had a site with excellent views of the water and changing fall colors.  The campground is a very well managed family campground and we would like to return for a longer time.


























Frozen Head State Park is an hour north of Hornsby Hollow.  I hiked up to the waterfalls while Breland concentrated on perfecting his photos of the creek. I love his photos.