One of our favorite rides on our trip south is the trip over Newfound Gap across the Smoky Mountains. It is different each time we do it.  This trip the ride was punctuated by the damage left by the November fire. It was above freezing when we left Riveredge Campground in Pigeon Forge, but the temperature dropped quickly as we climbed towards the peaks and it started to snow.

I had dressed for the ride, not the mountain tops, and certainly not for the 20 degree temps and 30-knot winds at the top of the gap.  As I waited for Bruce to make his way back from the outhouse, a friendly fellow tourists laughed at me and the dogs freezing to death and offered to take a photograph of us for posterity.

The pups marked the summit, which is right on the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina.

Coming dow the Smokies in the south side, we crossed this:

Ya think?