Destination: Cades Cove Is How Far?

Someday we will realize that a camping/hiking weekend requires more than ten minutes of preparation, but apparently we need a few more painful lessons. Jim had to work a full day on Thursday and I also had work to finish, then buy food, pack clothes, pack camping supplies, pack hiking supplies, pick up my car from a maintenance check, go to the bank, lose my mind a few times...so we were both in excellent frame of mind when I picked Jim up at the train station. But on the road we soon could see the mountains of western North Carolina in front of us and the day behind us disappeared. Our destination was Cades Cove, on the "quiet" Tennessee side of the Smokies. We have visited Cades Cove once in the past for a day and remembered it as crowded and congested. We expected it to be the same this time, but since we were staying a few days we hoped to get into the flow and enjoy the family atmosphere (which we did when we weren't in the car stuck behind truckloads of people in lawn chairs in the middle of the one-lane loop road looking at the wild turkey across the field...but I digress). As the navigator and family map reader, I chose the longer way to Cades Cove, not because I wanted to drive farther in the dark but because I was more familiar with the route. We drove through Maggie Valley, then across the Park on Newfound Gap Road, then over to Cades Cove and the campground, a total of 5 hours from Charlotte. Arriving at our reserved campsite at 10:30 PM, we quietly set up our tent and it was lights out. Hike preparations would have to wait until morning.