Winter in Tennessee plus Donut Shop Breakfasts

As winter winds down here in Tennessee, I thought that this would be a good time to recap and to provide examples of the contrasting weather where we live.  There are basically 3 weather zones here in East Tennessee, the Cumberland Plateau, the Tennessee River Valley and the Smoky Mountains.

The plateau acts as a buffer for most severe weather approaching the valley from the west and to some degree, also from the north.  In addition, the Smoky Mountains screen us from the worst of the weather rolling north up the Atlantic coast.

These photos show the ‘terrible’ snowfall that we who inhabit the valley suffered through early this year.  Other than this, we had about 2.5 inches of snow for Christmas, an unusual occurrence, and that’s it so far for our 2020 – 2021 winter season.  We would be surprised if we had another bout of snow that actually stuck to the ground…

As for the plateau, at Fairfield Glade, the average annual snowfall is about 13 inches.  In Loudon Tennessee, near where we live, the average is 6 inches but we’ve only seen that much about 3 times in the last 10 years. 

We have a neighbor who loves to hike!  She is much younger than we are and she’s in much better shape too… Actually, Debbie is just a year older than our son.  In any case, she posted these photos as well as the next 2 on Facebook, after hiking up to the Mount Le Conte Lodge in the Smoky Mountains following a series of snowstorms.  Did I mention that Mount Le Conte Lodge is situated at an altitude of 6,400 feet?  Where we live the altitude is about 990 feet above sea level.

Mount Le Conte Lodge is located in Sevier County Tennessee.  Depending on the altitude you’re at on the mountain, snowfall averages between 40 inches and 60 inches every winter.  Mount Le Conte itself is 6,584 above sea level. 

The hiking trail Debbie took up Mount Le Conte is 10.6 miles long and it’s rated as difficult in decent weather.  I can’t imagine what a challenge it is when hiking through all that snow!  Debbie’s round trip from the viewpoint was almost 22 miles long… Her photos and her views, especially as shown in the last photo were amazing.  She did chat with the Mount Le Conte Lodge winter caretaker but that was about it for human contact on this hike!  The lodge is about 70 miles from our home. 

FYI, Mount Le Conte Lodge is the highest guest lodge in the eastern United States.  It can only be reached by hiking…there aren’t any roads to the Lodge.  All supplies are delivered via Llama caravan.  In season, visitors can sleep overnight in log cabins with propane heat, kerosene lanterns, clean linens and Hudson Bay wool blankets.  Meals are served family style in the dining room.  For more information, go to http://www.lecontelodge.com/.

So much for winter where we live in East Tennessee… Today is 2/27/21 and its 65 F with no freezing temperatures forecast for the next 10 days.  I hope that I haven’t jinxed us!

Moving on to food…my usual pandemic topic…this was an assortment of mostly breakfast items that we’d picked up from our favorite donut shop, Master Donuts in Lenoir City Tennessee.  We’ve been there many times for donuts, Danish and apple fritters but this time we decided to check out their other products.  As per Nextdoor.com, lots of folks really enjoy these other items…

For me this is a breakfast item but most folks would probably wait at least until lunch.  This is Master Donut’s Jalapeno Pig…a hot dog in a blanket with jalapeno bits added in.  The jalapenos are indicated by the green dot.  They also offer a Cheese Pig.  We enjoyed our pigs…far superior to the typical pigs in a blanket.

This was my breakfast burrito.  I’d frozen it, thawed it, put a little shredded cheese on top and zapped it in the microwave.  It was filled with egg, sausage and cheese.  It was a bit bland for me so I dipped it in my Mexican Valentia Hot Sauce and I was happy...and full too!

The Breakfast Egg Rolls are probably the crowd favorite at Master Donuts.  These deep fried gems are packed with sausage, egg and cheese.  We liked them a lot!

Breakfast Bagels and Biscuits are also on the menu.  In either case, customers have a choice of egg and cheese with either ham, bacon or sausage.

The Breakfast Croissants were probably our favorites.  We both had the sausage, egg and cheese version although ham and bacon are other available alternatives.  These were far superior to others offered by the fast food chains.  Dessert croissants are also on the menu…

Master Donuts is located at 507 East Broadway (US Hwy. 11) in Lenoir City Tennessee.  Phone: 865-816-6058.  They are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Masterdonutstn/.

That’s all for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave