It took us about 10 hours but we finally made it! When we got to Pigeon Forge, traffic was awful! They were having a "Rod Run" (car show) and I think everyone & their mamas were there! We got the keys to our cabin & made our way to find it. It was high up the mountain. We thought we weren't gonna make it for a minute. There was this steep curve that was not fun going up when it was raining! The view from our cabin was beautiful! Those 2 lines in the pic are where the tram went across.
We went back into town to get something to eat. After we ate, we did a little exploring through town to see what we might want to do the rest of the weekend. We went back to the cabin and got settled in. Friday morning, first thing we did was Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. Here are a few pics of the different fish & sharks.
Natalee loved the jellyfish!
Look! It's Nemo!
I thought this was a really cool pic of a shark!
Gotta love the sea turtle!
We did the Ripley's Mirror Maze. A bit of advice...don't waste your money. We only did it because Natalee loves mirrors. Well...she hated it! She started crying! When we finished that, we went to find a place to sign up for a time share tour so we could get free Dixie Stampede tickets. Mrs. Delma & I did that while the guys went to get the truck. It started raining on us, so we decided to ride out to Cade's Cove. It's an 11 mile scenic one way route. If you're lucky, you may end up seeing one of these:
We were really close to it and it was the first time I had ever seen a black bear! The park ranger said he was probably between 2-4 years of age. He eventually jumped down & ran off into the woods. We also saw a buck that was in full velvet bedding down & several flocks of turkeys. On our way back into town, we stopped by to get this picture. It was a beautiful sight!
We decided to do Ripley's Believe It or Not before we headed back to the cabin. It had some really neat stuff in there. And some stuff I don't care to ever see again...although I'm sure I will.
Saturday, we did our 3.5 hours at the timeshare tour & finally got our Dixie Stampede tickets. We decided to ride into Pigeon Forge. It took us 1.5-2 hours to go 3 miles! We ate lunch at Cracker Barrell then went to the go-kart place. Terry & Mr. Roger rode the go-karts. The ladies just watched. We all played about 6 holes of mini golf before we headed back to the cabin to change & get ready for Dixie Stampede. On the way back to the cabin, Natalee started screaming. We couldn't figure out what was wrong. I happened to feel down in her car seat. It was covered with ants! We pulled over, stripped her & stripped her car seat. We still don't know where they came from. Luckily, she only got bit 3 times & it wasn't serious! We finally got ready & went back toward Pigeon Forge. We found an alternate route & luckily the traffic wasn't as crazy. Dixie Stampede was the best! Unfortunately, they didn't have any seats on the South side, so we had to be Yankees. :( It was still fun though! We were served cream of vegetable soup & biscuit. Then we got a whole rotisserie chicken, a slice of pork loin, a half a herbed potato & an ear of corn. For dessert, we had an apple turnover. The best part...no utensils! We had to eat it all with our hands! Sadly, we were not able to take pictures, so I don't have any to show how much fun we had. Sunday morning we got up & got everything packed. We went to Applebarn to eat breakfast. It was really good. We shopped at the country store in Applewood Village. Here are a few pics of the go-karts & one of Natalee.
We finally made our way home. There were a couple of wrecks on the interstate. It took us about 2 hours to move about 3-5 miles. It was awful! All in all, we had a great time! It was nice to take a break from the reality. But I am glad to be home!
2 comments:
It looks like you guys had a great time! what a fun vacation.
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