Smokey Mountains

Sorry for the silence, I’ve been away for the last 12 days or so. We took a trip to see Steph’s family who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. We also spent a few days in the Smokey Mountains on the border of North Carolina, where we met up with a friend. While there is certainly some pollution in the area, most of the ‘smoke’ you see in the picture above forms from the plants giving off moisture.

I would have warned everyone in advance, but somehow I thought I would have more access to the Internet traveling to a country like the US. In the places I was, I didn’t see a single Internet cafe, and I only had brief access to personal computers or an Internet kiosk at our hotel. This is really different compared to other places I’ve travelled recently, or to Amsterdam where I live.

Yes the mountains were very pretty in places, but what really stood out for me were the traffic jams that filled all the roads in the park, and the ugly strip malls along the park’s perimeter. There were also really a lot of people, and I was told it wasn’t even a particularly busy time.

Nashville stood out as one of the friendliest cities I have ever visited. There are really a lot of wonderful people living there, and the quality of life is high. Of course it was also great to see family.

Anyway, I’m sorry to all the people I owe an email to. I’m slowly working my way through the backlog. I can’t believe what’s happened to my plants while I was gone, they are all huge! Together with the plants, there are many other things to post about too, and I’ll get to this when I can. I’m also behind on reading other people’s blogs, and I’ll try to catch up in the coming days together with leaving some comments.