Driving into Gatlinburg, TN is like entering a real-world amusement park. You're not sure if the buildings are real or just fake fronts like on a movie set. The lamp posts have carefully tended baskets of bright pink, red and yellow flowers hanging from them. Some of the attractions literally reach out onto the sidewalk to draw you inside. One has to wonder if a team of gardeners, street cleaners and polishers descend on the city during the witching hour to spruce up the place while unsuspecting visitors sleep off their zombie-esque dazes.
There is another side to Gatlinburg, though. First, there is the traffic. Mini-vans, cars and trucks filled with those zombie tourists trying to take it all in while hunting for their hotel. Every time I come to Gatlinburg it seems the traffic gets worse...or am I just getting older...and less patient? Once the zombies get settled and make their way on foot to the Parkway then one enters a whole other world of sudden stops, sidewalk blocks and slowpokes.
Despite all of the traffic - both auto and foot - Gatlinburg is a wonderful place, and one does not need to spend of his or her time on the main strip. You see, this little mountain hamlet has its secrets; back road loops that, if you can find them, let you bypass the Parkway; craft shops, restaurants and lodging to the east and less-crowded part of town; and different routes into the mountains that serve as alternatives to the main roads into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
I'll continue to visit Gatlinburg for its charm, its history and its traditions. Hopefully, I will never get too old or too impatient to appreciate both its upsides as well as downsides.
