I am half Scot through my father. My grandparents came from Scotland and Dad was first born here in the US. It’s not really a factor in my life but every now and then I do like to attend a Highland Games. I really like the sound of bagpipes and it is one of the few places to hear them live. Boone has never been to one but he was game to check it out so we took off to the Smoky Mountain Highland Games in Maryville, TN this past weekend.
We loaded up Little Bill the camper, and took off down the back roads. I have been wanting to get comfortable towing so I drove the majority of the trip. Little Bill is really light and being a small fifth-wheel camper, he sticks right with you (no fish tailing) so the towing was pretty easy. The hardest part was getting the electric brake set just right in the truck and getting used to braking with it.
Being on the back roads was great as we just took our time and enjoyed the drive down on US 127. Sometimes the interstate is the way to travel when we are in a time crunch but the two-lanes are my favorite. We stopped at a general store along the way to get drinks to go along with the sandwiches we had packed. As with some of the small stores around our area, it appeared to be a local hangout as there were some local older gentlemen sitting out on the front porch passing the time chatting and whittling.
Yarberry campground lays between Lenoir City and Maryville off of Hwy 321. We rolled in around 3 o’clock and got set up pretty quickly.
The Knoxville Flea Market was going on so we decided to drive over and check it out. It turned out to be quite the disappointment. There were only folks selling stuff you could buy anywhere; socks, lotions, CD’s, etc.
We had planned on eating out the first night and for some reason I had pecan waffles on my mind so off to the local Waffle House we went. The food was great and nicely stuffed we rolled back to the campground. Boone bought a TN fishing license on the way down so he was ready to do some fishing.
The next morning, we strolled around the campground. It is really nice and sits on a peninsula. Along with the campground, boat rental is available. The roads are gravel and our site was very spacious and pretty level with lots of trees. The rates were reasonable, only around $76.00 total for the two nights. There were only a couple of things lacking. One was that while the bathrooms were extremely clean, there were only two stalls and one shower in the bathhouse near us. The campground had around 70 sites so that seems pretty small for so many people. The men’s side was the same. There was another bathhouse that we did not go in but it looked to be the same size. The majority of sites were for RV’s so maybe that accounted for the small bathhouses as there are not that many tent sites. The other thing was I never did see a play area for children. The campground is growing; adding in new sites – a beach, a pier, and more so maybe the playground is in the future plan.
When I made the reservation over the phone (the only way to make it) I did not receive any type of confirmation via email or otherwise which would have been nice and is pretty standard these days. I had asked if they had internet at the campground which they did not so maybe that was the reason. Hopefully, they will get access at some point. All in all, we had a great time and would recommend camping there. The host was also very nice as we met her at the gatehouse when we first got there. Our site was #69. We also liked sites 17-21, 25, 31, 33, 67 (our favorite), and 71.
P.S. The fishing was great! Boone caught 8 good sized cats.
