Nothing, uh, stinks like a big orange.

Huh. Well, the weekend in Tennessee was lovely. It's a beautiful state, at least the eastern part is . . . full fall colors all over. The drive there was just stunning (central and western Virginia are really pretty now too) and we stayed at a lovely house in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg region. If you're familiar with the area, it may interest you to know that it was near - no kidding - Boogertown Road. Seriously. I can't make this stuff up.

So we took a drive through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the Cade's Cove area and saw lots of scenery and lots of cars. Apparently it's their busiest time of year. We also saw some real, live bears in the wild! A mother and at least two cubs . . . even though there were plenty of people between me and them, I didn't want to get too close. Also took a stroll through the wonderfully tacky Gatlinburg, which always makes me feel like a paragon of taste and class.

The game was not as bad as possible. The score was pretty close most of the time, and it was a beautiful day. And the river is very nice. On the other hand, the seats were tiny and we were shoehorned in like so many cattle. (Have you ever wondered how they fit so many people in that stadium they're so proud of? Make the seats about twelve inches wide. It ain't pretty, folks.) Obviously the less said about the fans the better. They aren't pretty either.

And to top it all off, two solid hours of the drive back to Virginia were spent just getting through Pigeon Forge along with everyone else in creation. I figured we were entitled to speed through the rest of the state to make up for lost time, but the driver didn't agree with my logic there for some reason.