Son John $pencer and Rose drove about 15 minutes to hike in the park close to us. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most popular park in the United States, having 10 million visitors, according to several sources. The Grand Canyon, second in popularity, gets 5 million. I thought $ and Rose were going to the top of Purchase Knob, so I took a photo of it as we came home from our walk. Our house is the tan blob under the tree.

As it turned out, they hiked to the top of Hemphill Bald, which is slightly behind and to the left of Purchase Knob. It was still exciting to me, though, because Rose took a photo that shows buildings that we pass on our morning walk. With his monocular, $ could identify the service station and the church. With a little imagination, I can see them in this picture, too.

I asked Rose for her favorite photo of the day. She had two, and I chose this one. She has an artist’s eye and composes her photos carefully.

Now if people come to visit us and want to hike, we know where to tell them to go. Note, I am not going with them. The trails are well-marked and will provide great exercise with beautiful views.