We started our first day on the Piney Knob trail system, and crushed a mountain bike loop called Rhodo Coaster. Afterward, we drove to a small butcher shop nearby—to my surprise it turned out to be an actual farm. Meeting the cows and the farmers was such a sweet, unexpected experience, and the prices? Half of what we’d pay in Atlanta.

We didnt go out to eat on the trip which kept us healthy, and grilling out at our cabin. When we weren’t building a fire or cooking, we were lucky and had a hot tub overlooking the woods!

We also hiked Panther Top, it was perfect hike distance with lil man—gave us a full 360 view at the top.

Our last full day we headed north, further into the mountains. A quick 45 minutes north landed us in Nanatahala, where the smokey mt train, was arriving! We don’t have any particular interest in doing the 3/4 hr train ride, but the 1945, steam blowing 1702 train model was actually pretty epic!

We also went to Darryl's Pumpkin Patch where John convinced me there wasn't a rush to get the perfect pumpkin I wanted… someone else bought it 3 mins later... never let your hubs hold you back!!

Darryl's is a little touristy but with country flair. They host various festivals year round and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone traveling around that area.

This was my first time going to a LIVE patch and I LOVED IT! Never going back to the fake ones.

After we picked out our pumpkin -still no comparison to my OG pick- (see below) we danced to local bluegrass, bought too many apples and headed home.