My sister lives near Knoxville so we always go through that area when we drive back and forth from Florida to Indiana and Cades Cove is such a gorgeous area, see black bear almost everytime we make that loop its well worth the stop.
We always stay at a cabin in Maggie Valley NC as our pit stop between trips its nothing overly special just far enough up a mountain we dont even get cell service and kind of enjoy the unplugging for awhile