I snuck away to the mountains over the weekend with my boyfriend, and it was the most wonderful escape I could have asked for.
Earlier in the pandemic, around May, I was craving a trip to the mountains. This may not seem unusual, but I am such a beach girl since I grew up in Florida, so craving a trip to the mountains was odd for me. I was worried about taking a trip during a pandemic, but I figured the mountains would be the perfect getaway since the point is to minimize interaction with other humans anyway.
I settled on a cabin in Tellico Plains — a small town about three hours from Nashville. It was honestly so much better than I expected.
It was a quick trip — Friday night to Sunday morning. While I wish we had one more day to do some of the more outdoorsy adventures (there’s lots of hiking in Tellico Plains), I still had the best time.
Friday night was reserved exclusively for checking-in to the Air B&B and staying up late talking about life.
On Saturday, we slept in, but once we made it out of bed, we ventured into downtown Tellico Plains which was absolutely wonderful. As I said, it’s a tiny town, but boy, do they pack in some amazing treats.
First, we hit the thrift store/food pantry. The people who run the thrift store, take the profits from the store to buy food for the food pantry. Boyfriend and I picked up some mugs we fell in love with, and we donated to the food pantry to support the community.
Next, we stopped in at the used book store! You can imagine how truly thrilled I was to find a used book store in this town. I picked out a collection from Dashell Hammet and The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I think my boyfriend, who knows how much I love books, was a little disappointed I didn’t pick out ten more books, but I like to get real treasures when I shop locally and used.
We ate a late lunch at Tellico Grains. We got two pastries — the cinnamon roll and the cheesecake brownie — which were delicious, and then, we split a wood-fire pizza. 10/10 on all fronts. So delicious, and I highly recommend to anyone going to Tellico Plains.
We closed out our day in town with some coffee at the shop across the street. They made me a delicious salted caramel cold brew with the most amazing cream on top. Truly delicious, and I hope I can go back just for that drink.
We stopped in at the Charles Hall Museum, which was on every “What to do in Tellico Plains” list I found. It was basically just a bunch of old stuff from around the town — telephones, bank vaults, guns, money, trinkets, photographs, etc. — and gift shops, but it was fun to walk around! They had this exhibit where you called telephones across the room from each other and saw how the call went through the wires. Very cool, and I learned how to dial a rotary phone! This delighted my boyfriend who always jokes about our age difference (he’s six years older). At the visitor’s center, we ran into some wildlife!
We spent the evening back at our Air B&B, and I was mesmerized by how starry the night sky was away from the city. There really is nothing like it.
On Sunday, we packed up and drove back to Nashville.
If you live close enough to take a weekend trip, I can’t recommend Tellico Plains enough. It’s the perfect location for one weekend — one day in the city and one day in the mountains.
Happy adventuring,
Kimberly
