Merry Christmas from the Smokey Moutains!

GrillMeister

<p />Smoking in the Smokies! The in-laws are enjoying a Christmas gift a few days earlier. We selected Maple Glazed Salmon as the initial cook and they are hooked. Pictured here, with the Smokey Mountains in the background, the egg is working on Burton, Texas sausage.[p]ABT's with Texas Jalapenos are on the menu for later today followed by a Texas Brisket tomorrow.[p]Beers!

tn slagamater

GrillMeister, Wow !! Looking good, Ed!

GrillMeister

LAD,[p]You know your mountains! The in-laws have a heck of a view. It was all white up here on Saturday. Perhaps we'll get some snow this week and I'll experience some cold weather egging before we head back to Texas.[p]It's time for beers & ABT's!

GrillMeister

Thanks Jim! It was fun hauling it up on this deck, putting it together, but the reward was lighting it up and getting this picture. I've got a few more days of training for the in-laws. They'll be down to Atlanta for the next Eggtoberfest for sure now.[p]Best wishes to you and the family![p]Ed

Jethro

GrillMeister,[p]Come on now they don't really have cold weather that far south. Sides it doesn't count as cold weather unless it lasts for a LEAST a week solid.[p]It looks nice there, do your in laws rent their cabin out?[p]Keep em Smokin,
Jethro

Nature Boy

GrillMeister,
Are you on the southeast side of the mountains? I have been along that entire ridge, so your picture brings back memories. That is a pretty serious view they have, and I expect you are havin' a blast. Appreciate the holiday wishes, and I wish the same for you and yours!
Have fun down there!
Chris

Nature Boy

<p />Jethro,
Back in college we spent 10 days every christmas break backpacking the Smokies. It get plenty cold up there...at least up top where the climate is like upstate NY. Even down there in the foothills you can get pounded purty good with snow.[p]This shot is somewhere along that ridge in 'miester's picture right around new years. Sure wish I was down there with meister.[p]:-((
Cheers mang!
Chris

Unknown

Nature Boy,[p]May know that mountain but I don't know my directions. My parents have a cabin in the smokies that has that exact same view. Out of Pigeon Forge there is a road that leads to Dollywood. After you pass Dollywood their cabin is about three miles on the left. [p]Marty

Nature Boy

LAD,
Pigeon Forge is just north of the smokies. We used to stay there in between excursions. Gatlingburg was too expensive.....and crowded. What a silly place. You CAN see a wax statue of Elvis there though....and even Jimmy Carter. Plus REAL indians are there making pottery. LOL.[p]Nice area though. Did you know the Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited NP in the country (at least it was a few years ago)....and one of the smallest? Gorgeous though.[p]'appy 'olidays!
Chris

bbqbeth

Nature Boy,
Highlands, N.C. is my place of choice..
and ALL your cooking recipes and spices will be my choice!!
Happy Day's to you and your's, and the twins!!!!!

Unknown

Nature Boy,[p]Chris, I'm 47 years old and as a kid my parents drove from Florida to Gatlinburg at least once every year (usually in October). In the old old days when I was a young boy (early 60's) Gatlinburg was a neat town. Not full of tourist and as a little boy it used to just amaze me watching those guys whittling on a piece of wood making bears etc. Now they have little Chinese men doing that and it is shipped in.[p]Sometime during the 80's my parents bought some land long before Dollywood and moved my great-grandfathers 1800's log cabin from West Tennessee up there and rebuilt it in the mountains. They numbered the logs as they took it apart and put it back together just as it originally was with dog trot and all. Really a neat place.[p]Marty

GrillMeister

LAD,[p]This view is from the West off of Wears Valley Rd. near Pigeon Forge. I probably passed your folks house today as my father-in-law took the back roads from the post office in Sevierville. We went right by Dollywood. Unbelievable scenery, but unbelieveable traffic to go with it.

GrillMeister

LAD,[p]That's just too cool about your great-grandfather's cabin! I know all about the tourists! What traffic!

RRP

LAD,
So you're 47, well I'm 59 and I can remember visiting beautiful Gatlinburg the first time in 1967 when it was just as quaint as you said, but in the night time that "dry" town (at least then) was anything but dry and gambling establishments were here and there and you didn't get a tourist map to find them.
While working as an auditor for Price Waterhouse we audited a Fortune 500 client which had furniture plants on both sides of the Smokies. We traveled back and forth on a regular basis during the fall months. I fell in love with the Smokies and have since revisited there clear down from Illinois many, many times. That is such a beautiful area of the country...you just need to get away from all the commercial influence.

QBabe

Nature Boy,[p]Very nice![p]Happy Holidays,
Tonia
:~)

Nature Boy

<p />Tonia, thanks. It was spectacular. All day I looked around and said "wow" softly, over and over. One side was a sea of clouds...and the ridge stuck out of the clouds like a jewel. That bald area 2 humps down the Appalachian Trail is "Rocky Top"...ya mighta heard the song bein down south and all.[p]This was in the morning, and we left our camp and hiked up to Rocky Top where we hung out all day. The clouds in the valley slowly rose until they were spilling through the gaps in the Smokies ridge. It was like ultra slow motion waves. It was so beautiful we did not start hiking back down to camp til it was almost dark. [p]And people wonder why I like to go camping in the cold weather.[p]Gonna fire up the egg and git some more Boccies almonds a-smokin. Gonna try skipping (or shortening) the soak this time. The first batch came out a little squishy.[p]Yall have a good one! And a Merry Christmas!
Chris

QBabe

Nature Boy,[p]Yep, I've got a couple of batches of almonds in the plans today myself, along with a couple of different sauces (working on some final Christmas gifts) and then prepping some tenderloins for dinner tonight.[p]I know what you mean about "wow"...it's pretty amazing the places you can enjoy if you just do a little hiking...and while I'm horribly out of shape for it, it's something that draws me back time and time again...[p]Cheers,
Tonia
:~)[p]

mad max beyond eggdome

QBabe,
hey tonia, i figure you should be in great shape climbing the mountains in florida!! . . .LOL

QBabe

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]Oh, ha, ha, ha! Aren't you quick and witty this morning! We actually have a state park here that has honest to goodness hills and will make you think you're in the foothills further north. [p]But nothing beats the mountains...[p]Tonia
:~)

mad max beyond eggdome

QBabe,
you know me!. . .i have skied for almost 40 years, but when people as why i don't cross-country ski, i answer that i prefer to let modern technology (chair lifts) take me up the mountain, and good old gravity to take me down the mountain. . .hheeeee but in a state where the highest elevation is only 346 feet, i can't imagine them hills are too hilly. .. although they'd probably give a fat fart like me a coronary. . .