Thank you Michael for your concerns! Appreciate that :)

Let me have more information that could help!

We are a bunch of 9 people! I thought I had written it, but I see that I missed out!

To answer your other concern! We all are working, and that is the reason we plan on travelling over night. I however would be rested and would train myself to staying awake at night 2-3 days prior to the trip.

Also, we plan to reach Smoky early and sleep/ rest and make up for the lost sleep, so that we enjoy the rest of our stay-- that is sunday through tuesday morning when we plan to drive back during the day.

Also, I believe that we probably would be able to make it in 12 hours as there would be fewer stops.

I guess that helps!