more Memories...

Smokey Mountain Memories

Dolly has them and now so do we. Here are a few....

Our Last Day At the Campground

We survived dinner last night but just barely. We went to a restaurant called the Brick Oven, across from the Alamo Steak House just before downtown Gatlinburg. The selling point was a waitress named Hope, we missed her by minutes but stayed anyway. And there you have our biggest error in judgement. There was no Hope. The food was expensive and it came out of a can. Our waitress had to be coaxed from her seat at the bar to come take our order and the cook beside her huffed his way back to the kitchen like we were bothering him.

That was last night this is today. We are off to a local breakfast place/gas station. The food here was cheap and tasty. I was a little nervous when the "gravy" over my breakfast was so thick you could cut it like pudding but it was good and filling. After breakfast we headed back to the campground. We made a few trips down the waterslide, stayed by the pool for a little while and then we got the equipment to play shuffleboard and horseshoes. Thankfully, this was just across from our campsite so it was easy to replenish the cocktails. The more cocktails we had the more fun it was. After this we had dinner and decided to breakdown the campsite so in the morning we could just hook up and go. We had a great week here in the Smokey Mountains, we are all still friends, but we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own houses in our own beds.

Great Smokey Mountains National Park

It's overcast and drizzling today so we decided to take a drive through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. With our road guide in hand we chose to take the Newfound Gap Road from Gatlinburg to Cherokee, NC. We made a few stops at the pull offs to enjoy some beautiful scenery when there were breaks in the clouds, we also took a small detour and headed up Clingman's Dome Road, which takes you to, yep, you guessed it Clingman's Dome. Depending on what you are reading it is either the highest point in the state of Tennessee or the third highest point in the state of North Carolina. I'll let them fight it out, all I'm saying is, it's high. There is a half mile trail from the parking lot to the Dome but I think most of it was straight up. It killed my calves going up and me knees coming down. They say that from the top you can see seven states but today we were lucky to see seven trees. But we did it, we were there, there weren't any t-shirts to purchase so we moved on. Our next stop was Mingus Mill. It's still a working mill, it was built in 1886, they grind corn and wheat and sell the flour there. No electricity meant no credit card machine, this is the distraction I needed to keep me from shopping. From there it was into tourist trap, I mean Cherokee, North Carolina. There were signs directing us to a casino and Indian Village, we chose to take a bathroom break and head back through the park. The Great Smokey Mountains have some beautiful sights to see. They were breathtaking on this rainy day so I'm sure on a clear day they would be awe inspiring. It was a great drive but it's good to be back at the campground cocktail in hand. We'll be heading out to a local place for dinner before we turn in.

It Rained All Night and All morning

Nothing floated away our little screened in area stayed dry and we had no problems with water at all. We pondered on what we should do to get out for a little while since the pool was out of the question. We decided to take the Arts and Crafts Loop Road. Eight miles of artisan shops. Yes, more shopping. There were some cute ones and ones full of junk and some full of wish I was a handy craft but some chinese six year old in a sweat shop cranks out about 200 a day with every city name in the USA etched into them. For the most part it was a fun time there were some neat crafts and you know we bought more. Brian has banned anymore shopping through the end of the trip. We'll see if it holds but I'm here and I bet it doesn't. There will need to be some good distractions to keep me from a souvenir shop. We've had a great week so far with only a few days more. I think it'll be a shame to see it all come to an end.

Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and the Dixie Stampede

We had reservations for Dolly's Dixie Stampede so we decided to have an easy morning and then head out. First on the agenda find the statue of Dolly Parton at the Seviervelle City Hall. We had to Google it for directions but we found it. There sits a young Dolly on a rock playing her guitar. After that stop we headed back into Pigeon Forge. If it's touristy junk or food it is on the main road in Pigeon Forge. So we stopped at the TJ Max and the Dollar General, the back of the car is getting fuller and fuller. The dogs may end up riding home in our laps. As we headed down the road there was a cute little winery with free samples, you know we stopped. We opened the door walked in and knew right away we were not going to be tasting because it smelled like grape juice. There was some women behind the counter with the biggest hillbilly accent who said "Y'all wanna try our Mountin Beer-ry whyne, it tastes just like grape Nehi." Little miss thing talked the entire time we were in there sometimes not to anyone around she just talked and talked. We found some cute wine stoppers and I found a wine bottle holder that's a black lab laying on his back holding the bottle in his mouth with his paws. It looked just like Hunk and so you know that's coming home with me. After a quick stop for a beer because the Dixie Stampede doesn't serve it and they don't sell liquor by the drink in Pigeon Forge anywhere, we headed down for our dinner show. It was kind of cute and oh my goodness they feed you. We got a whole small chicken, a slice of pork loin, a corn on the cob, a cheese biscuit, a bowl of soup and an apple turnover. It was all fun and games until some of the dancers hopped up out of the arena and started dancing on a platform, the dancer by us had dirt on the bottom of his boots that came flying across my plate and in my lap. I picked it off and kept on eating. The show was fun and we were home by nine.

Pause for Drama

And you knew we'd have something. But first let me digress a bit. This is actually our second outing with the trailer. The four of us and the two dogs did a weekend in Harper's Ferry WVA. We decided that even though this trailer comes with a shower/toilet, we would not be using it because the campgrounds we were going to would have them and it's one less thing to empty and clean. So trip one we pull in we hook up the water and electric and proceed to unpack and set up the food. We're using the bathroom for storage of our towels and toiletries, on one of the trips into the trailer to grab something else Brian stopped and said "What's that noise?" It sounded like a pipe burst. We looked under the trailer and finally we had the genius idea to look in the bathroom. Open door see the shower head soaking towels. We forgot to make sure the shower was off.

Now to this trip. Before water is turned on we checked the shower, no wet towels this time right? Not so fast. We hooked up our drain but never pulled the plug to let it empty. Do you know what happens when tank that holds the dishwater drainage is full. RIGHT it backs up in the shower which is where the clean dry towels are being kept. Needless to say we had a mess and some stinky towels. We learn new things every trip unfortunately at the expense of our towels everytime.

DOLLYWOOD!!!

What a great day to do Dollywood. The weather was sunny the temp was warm but not too hot and it wasn't too crowded. We rode all the major rides. We started at the Daredevil Falls, went over to see the Bald Eagles (an amazing sight to see), through the Blazing Fury over to the Tennessee Tornado (I lost count of the loops), over to the River Battle (we got soaked). There was some guy on the outside squirting us as we went by and as we were getting off we noticed he was getting on needless to say by the time he got to the end of the ride he was dripping wet because we follow his boat all the way around. Next was the Mystery Mine, this ride is amazing it takes you straight up and drops you face first straight down it's a roller coaster that is half outside and half inside in the dark. We had us some lunch and took the train ride. Next it was River Rampage again, we got soaked again. We finished the day on the wooden coaster Thunderhead. Now we are back at the campsite, Brian is putting together the dinner he dreamed about last night, my underwear is still wet from those water rides, our feet hurt, we're tired and as soon as we are done eating we'll all be asleep. It was a perfect day!

Walmart and Gatlinburg

Sunday morning coming down. We decided that instead of toting all the food down with us we would go to the grocery store here. Well surprise, the grocery store is a Super Walmart. We went up and down every aisle. Grocery and not grocery by the time we left out we were taking bets on the total. All of us were guessing in the upper $200 or low $300 well we were $100 off, it was only in the low $200 and we filled the back of the car and now have enough food for dinner every night and leftovers for lunch. Brian has every menu worked out and he dreams every night how to take it to another level, and he does. After unpacking the car we decided to go into downtown Gatlinburg for the afternoon. Everything is down one road. The redlights are numbered and if you ask for directions they say go to traffic light #??? and it's right there. We stopped in the Hard Rock Cafe for my t-shirts and teddy bear and decided that we needed a few cocktails to get us home. A big shout out to Tina the bartender, she makes them good and strong and kept us laughing the whole time. The picture of the day is from our walk back to the car. Over the bridge on the edge of the river we looked down to see a copperhead snake trying to swallow an entire fish.

It's Happening All Over Again

It took us two years and we lost one of the dogs but we are back on the road. This time we have a smaller travel trailer and we've added two more friends and their dog. Less space, more people I hope we're all still talking at the end of the trip. We started out at 6 on Saturday morning for the drive straight through to Gatlinburg Tennesee. With Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn on the iPod down the road we went. Once we got out of the safety zone of Maryland and Northern Virginia we entered tobacco land. They grow it and they proudly smoke it. In line at the Taco Bell, ashtrays at the urinals in the bathroom, no place is sacred. We had the great good fortune of heading down Hwy 81 on the VT opening home game. We all have one question. What the hell is a Hoakie? Who on earth would have a cartoon turkey as a mascot and how on earth does a Hoakie fan justify Thanksgiving. There were more people with turkey trots, or was the tracks magneted to the back of their cars. Thankfully VT is in Blacksburg and we were finally free of the crowded road. We followed the directions and turned a Laughing Larry's Fireworks Emporium and into the campground we came. With the help of the woman in charge at the campground we backed in. Out came the screenroom and more importantly the cocktails. We had an enjoyable evening and an early night.