Laura has a birthday coming up, but finding a time to celebrate has been problematic. We had decided to go a getaway the weekend before her birthday, but nature dealt us a blow. Our original plans were to head to Charleston and visit the ACE Basin, then head up to Beidler Forest. Obviously, with all of the flooding in the lower part of the state, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, we decided to head north. I got us tickets for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. Turned out to be a peak fall color weekend, and a great getaway, even though it wasn’t Charleston.