Apples, Oranges, and 5K's

We hope everyone had a chance to get out this weekend to enjoy the perfect fall weather. It was perfect for most of us out in the east here, but I did see where there was some snow out west. Yikes! Snow in October?! I know that's not totally unheard of here but it would be unusual. Anyway, the leaves are turning color more and more each day. We are nearing peak around here in the East Tennessee Valley. From Cumberland Gap to Cherokee National Forest and down to Knoxville, the colors are magnificent. It won't be long before "Old Man Winter" is knocking on our doors. So if you haven't yet, you better get out and enjoy this weather before it gets too cold.

That's exactly what we did this past weekend, and look forward to doing just that over the next few weekends. We started the weekend by heading out to Coalfield, TN for the Coalfield 5K supporting the Coalfield Cross Country team. The race started at 8:00am and ran through a subdivision next to the school then through the cross country trail on the school grounds, back in front the school and down another road before turning around and heading back to the school for the finish. It was a pretty fast course with a nice little uphill just after the start. Then there was a nice 1.5 miles or so on the trail the cross country team uses to practice on. It's a graveled trail with a couple of foot bridges and two covered bridges. After the trail, it's back to the road and a slight up hill just before heading back to the finish at the school.

Autumn Activities in East Tennessee

October is such a great month. It's almost as good as September. You start to feel a little nip in the night air. The leaves start to change colors, and harvest festivals are available to all who look for them. Football season is already well underway, but hiking and festival season is just getting cranked up.

Last weekend was the Newport Harvest Street Festival. We went, walked around the town center, and quickly left. I hope this doesn't set a precedence for the other festivals we plan on attending for the next few weekends. Honestly though, we went last year and this time around, it really seemed to be more of a junk sale or there were too many booths for those who wanted to make a small buck selling by their gold, and not near as many crafters as we remembered from last year. Anyway, we decided people-watching in Gatlinburg would be more fun and I had an itch to check out NOC's new Great Outpost in Gatlinburg, located on the main drag just before you enter the Great Smoky Mountains. That place is huge and has all the outdoor gear you could possibly want, albeit at a much higher price than you can normally find online for most things.

A Hauntingly Good Time

Courtesy of BSFNRRA

As most of you know, and if not then you should read this blog more often (hehe), this past weekend was the "Haunting in the Hills" Storytelling Festival at Big South Fork NRRA. It should also be a no-brainer that we went as usual as it has become sort of a tradition for us. This is one festival we make a point to clear the calendar and attend.

This year was no different. We made sure our day was clear to head out to Big South Fork for the festivities. It didn't matter that UT was playing against Flordia. Besides, UT loses to Florida more often than not so it really didn't matter much to me. After all, I was able to keep tabs on the game while enjoying the festivities. Anyway, we had planned to arrive early this year so that we could really take in all there was to offer. In years past, we usually would arrive just as most of the crafters were packing it up and heading out.

Friday's Giveaway Roundup (FGR) 9/16/11

Courtesy of BSFNRRA

Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is here or will be very soon. Does anyone have anything exciting planned for the weekend? We'd love to hear what plans y'all have. We are planning on attending "The Haunting in the Hills" story telling festival in The Big South Fork this weekend, and maybe even get in a hike. Regardless of what you're doing get outside and enjoy what mother nature has to offer. And with that, who's ready for some giveaways?

This week we have a couple good ones to mention and a recap of current giveaways going on out there. Shoes, watches, hammocks, first aid kits, GPSs, and shirts. What more could one ask for? If anyone has any outdoor gear related giveaways going on they'd like for us to promote on our FGR, shoot us an email at appalachiaandbeyond (at) gmail (dot) com. We'll be sure to get them posted. Now onto the giveaways.

A Haunting In The Hills Is Coming

We hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. We celebrated it in grand fashion: we scrubbed the outside of our house before the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee decided to dump over six inches of liquid sunshine on us. It's was Labor Day right? That means we work right? Honestly, we really had to get that done.

Anyway, enough about that stuff. With September having arrived, the weather cooling off a bit, and our favorite time of year (Autumn) being right around the corner, that can only mean one thing. It's time to get outside for some hiking and festival attending. All the autumn time festivals are getting ready to ramp up. Next weekend, there's a real treat of an event going on at The Big South Fork NRRA. It's the 19th Annual Haunting in the Hills Story Telling Festival on September 17th.

Dogwood Arts Festival

Knoxville is renowned for its annual Dogwood Arts Festival. The festival officially kicked off last Wednesday with tons of events being scheduled throughout the month of April.

The festival showcases a number of gardens and breathtaking home landscapes by way of the Dogwood Trails and Byways. There are seven trails in all, and five byways. Each offer a spectacular botanical experience. 

Yesterday, given a 70% chance for thunderstorms and Tim on call, we decided to visit the Sequoyah Hills trail: one of Knoxville's most prestigious neighborhoods. The houses there are gorgeous, each it's own, and most of them have awe-inspiring gardens.

The trail offers numerous places to stop (if by car or bike) and take photos, but I couldn't help snapping every time something caught my eye.


The last part of this trail parallels the shore of Fort Loudon Lake, and offers plenty of entrances to the waterfront park. Clover really enjoyed getting out to sniff where every other dog had been while we enjoyed the sunset on the water.

Storytelling Event - Sat, April 9th

photo courtesy of Marble Springs Historic Site

The Smoky Mountain Storytellers Association is teaming up with
Marble Springs Historic Site to host the
2nd Annual Storytelling Festival
on Saturday, April 9th starting at 1 pm EDT. 

This event sounds like great fun! We love storytelling events. Located at the Marble Springs Historic Site (that's the home of Gov. John Sevier), there will be free parking and festival seating (in other words - bring your chairs and blankets). The stories will be spread across three stages, and storytellers from the SMSA will be performing stories of humor, history, stories by and for children, tales of Appalachia and the Smoky Mountains, and Native American stories. At 6 pm, they'll be a gathering by the bonfire for slightly scary ghost stories, and at 7 pm they'll perform ghost stories for the brave.
The event ends at 8 pm. 

Admission cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children (under age 6 are Free). 

Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more, but they ask that you make your group reservations prior to April 4th. Contact information is
865-429-1783 or cuznjan (!at) juno (!dot) com.

Address is 1220 W Gov. John Sevier Hwy Knoxville, TN 37920
Click here for to get directions.

Newport's 25th Annual Harvest Street Festival and Carver's Apple Orchard and Restaurant

It was the last day of our annual unplugging, of course we had plugged back in to a certain extent when we got back from camping. With it being the last day of the holiday, and the kiddo was out of our hair, Wifey and I decided that we would head over to Newport, Tennessee for their 25th Annual Harvest Street Festival. The weather was beautiful and after the drive up to Erwin the day before we knew we would see some sites regardless. Besides, downtown Newport is a nice little town tucked away in the Smoky Mountains and right next to Cosby, where we rent a cabin for a weekend getaway every year.

So it was off to the festival to check out the crafts and goods, as well as look for good shots with the camera. I don't know if you know this or not however if you read the blog, or at least look at the pictures, then you can possibly ascertain that wifey is a bit of an amateur photog. I swear, if she wanted to, she could be pro in a heartbeat. I'm sure it's more the pictures than my writing that keeps everyone coming back.


Anyway, we spent a good hour or so at the festival walking around, taking in the sites. We even spent 2 dollars on some wonderful necklaces. That's right, we got 6 necklaces for two bucks. That's a bargain, a deal, maybe even possibly a steal. Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without checking out the main act that was performing this year. Mountain Edge, a bluegrass foursome, that apparently has quite the following. To be quite honest, they played exceptionally well. I can see why they have the following they do. By their last song, they had a few ladies up and out of their seat, clogging and dancing away. It was definitely worth the ride all the way out there just to see that.

With the festivities rapidly winding down, we decided to skip the festival food and look for something a little more appetizing, after all we were at a festival the day before and had funnel cake then. So we headed in the direction of Cosby, hoping to find something suitable to fill our bellies with, when we found ourselves in a familiar area. It was minutes later that we happened upon an apple orchard that we've passed several times in the past in our travels through Cosby, but were never able to stop before because it was either too late or off season. Today was different though. It was our lucky day. We happened to come across the Carver's Applehouse Restaurant and Orchard with a few hours of the business day left and a bit of money we felt we could part with, not to mention some hungry bellies.

Upon pulling in, we were amazed to see a little candy store, a produce market, and the restaurant. In addition, they had some really nice photo opportunities. Tons of interesting items around the orchard not to mention the orchard itself, right there with the Great Smoky Mountains as its backdrop. So we stopped in the candy store and there was a nice selection including Dolly Parton Choco pops. While we didn't indulge ourselves with those, we did grab a little bag of choco covered peanuts and a nice assortment of taffy. The nice lady at the counter even threw in a sample of cookies and cream fudge, which I might say was to die for.

Quite a few pictures later and we were headed to the produce market to check the different varieties of apples and gourds they grew at the orchard. If I remember correctly, the orchard has over 40,000 hand grafted apple trees and grow well over 40 types of apples almost year round. That's a lot of apples. After a bit of browsing, we decided on a 1/2 peck of Mount York apples and a 1/2 peck of Jonathan Apples, both of which are really good, and I'm still waiting for that apple pie wifey is planning on making.

Satisfied with our candy and apple purchases, it was time for some dinner. Into the restaurant we went, and the atmosphere couldn't have been more pleasant. The table we got was next to a window with a wonderful view of the orchard and a wonderful sunset playing out over and behind the mountains. The restaurant was very clean and the staff quite friendly. We placed our order and instead of bread or something like most restaurants bring out, they served us some hot apple fritters, apple butter, and a small cup of apple cider, all of which was absolutely scrumptious.

For supper, wifey ordered the veggie plate complete with mashed taters, pinto beans, green beans, and cinnamon apples. I ordered the BBQ sandwich with french fries. Of course we shared our meals with each other and between the two plates we had ourselves one fine meal and at a reasonable price.


With our bellies full, and our bounty in the trunk it was time to head back to the homestead and rest before rejoining society and the daily grind. I must say that it was truly a wonderful vacation/unplugging. It was definitely needed and we had an absolute blast spending time together as a family. I hope you enjoyed reading and seeing our adventure through words and pictures.

Don't worry there will plenty more out of doors adventures to come. You forget, Autumn is our most favorite time of year. However, I may throw you all for a loop with the next blog entry and start sharing some of our experiences in turning our homestead into a farm. At the moment we are in full swing of a small project to build a wood shed out of used wood pallets. I plan on posting our progress here. After all, it is an out of doors adventure/project. Oh and there will be other adventures coming soon as well. I can promise you that. Until then...

Happy Trails and God Bless,
Tim and Robin

A few more pics to delight the soul...

Dolly Choco Pop

Wifey in the orchard

It's Corn!!!

Mmmmm... Apples.

A nice little cabin on the farm.

Old Farm Equipment

More candy

Me in the orchard

One of the sunset views at the orchard

Another view from the table.

Look at all the apples.

Erwin Apple Festival - 2010

Last Saturday, October 2, 2010, which also happened to be the last weekend of our annual unplugging aka vacation, we headed up to Erwin, TN for their Annual Apple Festival. We had went last year and had an absolute blast so we knew we would go back this year.


It's this time of year that the quaint little towns in East Tennessee, and well I'd imagine everywhere else, are having their harvest/autumn festivals. All the artisan, crafters, farmers, food vendors, and the like show off their talents in beautiful, elegant displays. People from all around flock to see what goodies they can buy to decorate their abodes with, or what stocking stuffers they can find to check off one more person on their gift list.

Aside from the foods, crafts, and art, there are also musicians that play at these wonderful events too. Around here, the musical delights range from gospel to bluegrass, or jazz to school bands.Yes even musicians sometimes make instruments to sell at the festivals.

One of the greatest things about is always the food, particularly the fried with powdered sugar variety. Yes, every once in a while, we must allow small indulgences. Otherwise we might kill ourselves in an angry sugar craving lunatic fit if we don't allow ourselves to have a funnel cake. Especially if it's been 6 months or more since our last funnel cake.

Of course while you are in the midst of the festivities and crowds of people, sometimes you find the oddest little things, and sometimes you find the occasional treasure to take home for yourselves like the cute coffee mugs we picked up from Kim Ross. Heck, sometimes you just might have a grand ol' time and make some really fond memories. So if you haven't yet, make plans to get out to a festival really soon, maybe there's one near you this upcoming weekend. For the East Tennessee area, here is a site that keeps a very fresh, up-to-date list of happenings in our area, http://www.tnvacation.com. So if you happen to be in our neck of the woods or are planning to be soon check it out and plan some fun.

I can tell you this, you won't be disappointed with any of the festivals around here. Like I've said before, there's always a little something for everyone. The whole family should have a blast, get their bellies full, and wish they didn't have to leave. Anyway, enjoy the rest of the pics below and once you have the chance, get outdoors and explore the world around you. There is so much to see and experience. You'll be glad you did. Until next time...

Happy Trails and God Bless,
Tim and Robin

P.S. Sometimes the journey is just as good if not better than the destination.