Trip to North Carolina and the Great Smokies

WEll the trip so far has been great. We started off a little slow with a flat tire and dead battery about 18 miles east of Denton, after Bob picked me up from work. Some really wonderful men stopped over a period of about 2 1/2 hours trying to help get the tire to roll down on the spare rack --- if you have a Ford pick up be sure you check periodically if it will roll down to access the spare. Ours would not. I had the door open to let in the cool breezes and when we did get the tire to come down from under the bed, got the tires switched, we found we had a dead battery from sitting so long with the doors open and the flashers on. Hmmmm daaaaaa------
Anyway, we were off again and stopped in McKinney to check the battery by turning off the ignition and then back on the road again. So we got into Little Rock at 2 in the morning instead of the expected 10:30 to 11. The La Quinta we had reservations was at was old and the bathroom was NOT clean. Otherwise it was ok for a one night lay over. Off again the next day and enjoyed the trip to Joliet Tennesses for another stop over. Then on to Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinbury to the Ramada Inn Skyland. Rooms were not as represented in the on line advertisement.