Gatlinburg Day 1

On the campus at Arrowmont

In the movie The Ref (one of my two favorite movies of all time), Dennis Leary looks at Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis and says, "I'm in hell. Connecticut is the fifth circle of hell." Clearly he has never been to Gatlinburg. But Gatlinburg is not the fifth circle of hell (anger). Gatlinburg is an unnamed later-stage circle. I looked up the top ten favorite activities for visitors here and five of them take place in distilleries or wineries. I'm not sure what people who come here for vacation do other than drink and shop. And eat. Moonshine and candy are the staple comestibles. Pancakes are also big, going by the line outside the Pancake Pantry. In the rain.

But there is another side of Gatlinburg: a thriving arts community driven by Arrowmont School of the Arts, which was founded in 1912 by the national women's organization Pi Beta Phi as the first public school in the area. It is a nationally renowned arts and crafts school which hosts week-long workshops March through November. The beautiful campus is tucked into lush woods--we were warned to keep a lock-out for bears on the grounds--which nonetheless is right in the middle of Gatlinburg! There is a rich history of cottage crafts in the area--especially pottery which holds two of the top-ten spots of things to do in Gatlinburg. The juxtaposition of beautiful handcrafts and whiskey distilleries is jarring, and unfortunately it looks like the distilleries are getting the lion's share of the tourist dollars.

Fall here is incredibly beautiful--maybe even more so today in the rain where the colors are shiny and vibrant. The mist in the Smokey Mountains and the rain make me want to settle in front of a fire with my spinning wheel (even though it's 72 degrees out). Were it not for the very commercial, touristy downtown and the people who flock to it, this place would be paradise. But it takes all kinds, and I need to be more tolerant. So what if most of the people I passed on the street today probably voted for Trump and still think that was a good idea.