A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a half day off from work and head up to Cades Cove in the morning.  The colors had been fantastic around the house and I was guessing they would be in Cades Cove as well.  I managed to get up there about an hour and a half before first light… and as I expected, there was a substantial line of cars already waiting at the gate.  I drove past them all and parked… hopped on my bike and proceeded on.  These are the joys of living close by; I’ll be taking pictures of stars, fog, and the morning sky while they’re all still waiting in their car for the ranger to open the gate.  🙂

    As I was waiting for “something to happen” I was struck by a few things: how awesome it is to live so close to such a beautiful National Park, how awesome it is that I have a job that allows me to do stuff like this, what a gorgeous morning it was, how much fun I was having, how much God has blessed me, and the list went on and on.  After running through a long list of things I was thankful for I got the idea for this picture.

This sums up the kind of morning I was having that day.

–Dan Thompson