The hood and roof looked like they had been attacked by a maniac with a ball peen hammer. The passenger side of the car was also severely damaged.

Magnificent hardwood trees reflected in the dented hood made wonderful patterns.

Every turn of the road brought a new vista of waterfalls and wildflowers.

Coming from dry southern California, it was a real treat to see all of the water.

We managed to find a few flowers that hadn't been beaten down by the storm. Here is a trillium.

Trillium also comes in yellow.

A penstemon.

Beautiful red flowers.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park is an ecosystem I'm not familiar with, so I can't identify many of the plants, like this flowering tree.

Flowering dogwood is a tree that I recognized.

Cades Cove was my favorite place in the park, and we visited every day.

Cable House and many other historic structures have been preserved so visitors can get a feel for what life was like in the 1800s in this part of the Appalacian Mountains.

Cable Mill still grinds corn and wheat, and visitors can purchase stone-ground cornmeal and whole wheat flour there.

Vic was frustrated by all of the strange bird calls. The birds were well hidden in the trees, so they had to be identified by sound.

This yellow-throated warbler was amazingly cooperative about being seen (and photographed).

It's only a robin, but it held still long enough to be photographed.

Canada geese were fairly common on Little River.

Wild turkeys were common sightings. These three toms were strutting their stuff, trying to impress a hen.

Squirrels were fairly common on the lovely grounds of the Highland Manor Inn, where we stayed. Very nice motel, beautifully landscaped.

Vic got this great shot of a deer in Cade's Cove.

He also got this photo of a mama bear resting in a gum tree swamp.

Her cub was up a tree, resting in a crotch.

Wildlife also comes in small sizes, like this bumblebee.

One of the most fantastic sights was swarms of black swallowtail butterflies, hundreds of them, engaging in a behavior called puddling. They require sodium, and get it from salts at the edge of puddles. They will sit quite still for photographs.

Butterflies on wildflowers made for great photographs.

We got up before dawn every morning to photograph sunrises.

Sunrise in the Smokies was a sight to behold, when the fog in the valleys was washed with pink.

I snapped this shot of photographers waiting for the perfect sunrise moment.

Vic was fascinated by these decks and patios on Little River. No houses at most of them, just a deck on a tiny strip of land next to the road for enjoying a cookout by the river.

I liked this suspension footbridge over Little River.

The food was fantastic. Here Vic is eating a cornmeal-breaded, deep-fat-fried dill pickle spear. They were delicious. We had bbq ribs, pulled pork, sweet potato fries, pecan cobbler, hush puppies, chicken and dumplings, turnip greens, grits, ham with red-eye gravy, biscuits, etc. Oh my, so much good food.

We returned on the day that Osama bin Laden was killed. I wonder if the airports were on heightened security because both Wendy and I were subjected to extra scrutiny at the airport in Nashville.