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Comment by Terri on March 6, 2010 at 7:40am

Yes, you are indeed blessed! Have heard how beautiful it is in the Smokey Mountains. My parents who have traveled extensively around this country many times have told me the Smokey Mts. are very beautiful. A lake too??! Very lucky indeed!

Comment by Milt on March 6, 2010 at 12:35am

Yes, I'm blessed. I may not have a lot to show for all my years of living, but I do have a spectacular view. That view follows me around all day, pretty much where ever I go. I drink it in with my morning coffee, daily, as I make my way to work. It constantly changes in perspective depending on time of day, time of year, and weather conditions; where I am viewing it from at any given moment; whether I'm moving toward it, or moving away; standing beneath it, or climbing to the top of it. The most beautiful times are during early morning and late afternoon hours when the angle of the sun casts ever deepening shadows contrasting the peaks and ridges with the valleys and ravines. This chain of mountains, the Appalachians, is in my southern horizon and runs to the east and to the west of me. In fact, this very ancient band of mountains stretches in a southwestern arc from the Canadian province of Newfoundland over a distance of more than 1500 miles to central Alabama with its foothills in northeastern Mississippi. They are some of the oldest mountains on the planet whose birth began more than 480 million years ago as a series of collisions and separations of the tectonic plates that lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Sea shells and other marine fossils have been found embedded within layers of rock at even some of the highest elevations.

The birthing of the Appalachians was a lengthy and violent labor continuing for many millions of years through both the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras. These same majestic peaks once stood as the backbone of the super continent Pangaea and were an extension of the Caledonian mountains, a mountain chain that is today in Scotland and Scandinavia.

The area in which I live is most commonly referred to as the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. For more in depth information about this wonder of nature visit the Great Smoky Mountain National Park website at http://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.

But wait! There is more. The national park is what is out my back door. I have a front door, too. It opens onto a 43 mile long, 28,000 acre lake, and, I have a sailboat! Who says you can't have your too and eat your cake?

Comment by Liv on March 3, 2010 at 6:57pm

Oh my God.. what beauty ! Mother nature often leaves us speechless and if this is your view, you're very lucky.

Comment by Terri on March 3, 2010 at 6:44pm

Wow...what a view...beautiful