We spent 5 nights in the Pigeon Forge area, hanging out with Dave (Randy’s oldest brother) and Gay Lynn. Unfortunately, since it was kind of last minute, we weren’t able to get a site in the same campground as them; but I found one at Pigeon Forge Landing RV Resort, about 15 minutes away. Randy and I went over to their campground the first evening and ate dinner with them.
Then we met the next morning at the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant for breakfast. The restaurant was part of The Apple Barn and Cider Mill, which was only about a half mile from our campground. They’ve got a good video on their home page that talks about their shops and yummy apple treats. It’s quite the tourist attraction, with tour buses dropping people off and a huge parking lot that seemed to stay full during the day. Randy and I bought our first of many items for the new house at their winery — a set of funny coasters. The creamery and apple pies looked good but we were too full from breakfast, so we stopped by on a different day to try them. (they were indeed good!)
We spent about four hours at the Alcatraz East museum, which was pretty interesting. It wasn’t just about Alcatraz, but had exhibits on crimes through the years, including the Old West, mobsters, terrorists, serial killers, cyber crimes, etc. Then also had info about crime fighting, including forensics, prisons, court systems, police officers, etc. We paid an extra $5 each for the audio tour, which made it even a bit more interesting, with about 40 stories to listen to instead of having to read it all.
The next day, we drove to Gatlinburg’s Convention Center and walked around the Craftsmen’s Fair. I was impressed with the high caliber of items for sale. Lots of unique and creative things to look at and taste. We walked around for a few hours looking at everything and bought a new knife, some flavored maple syrup and a bottle of bar-b-q sauce.
After going back to our RVs for a couple of hours, we met at the Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show later that evening. It was a good show and the typical fried chicken dinner. Out of the three shows Dolly has at Pigeon Forge (The Stampede, Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud and Pirates Voyage), I enjoyed this Pirates one the best. The show had a lot of acrobatic action in it, which was fun to watch. And a cute sea lion made an appearance, too.
The next day, we went on a Smoky Mountain Jeep Tour. After driving up and down a mountain in the Smoky Mountain National Park to get a super scenic view of the area, we drove to an area known to have bears roaming around. We got stuck in traffic for quite a while, with people just stopping in the road to watch, but eventually made it up to where the bears were. We saw three different ones roaming around, which was exciting. Our jeep guide was pretty good, telling us some interesting facts and history, but I prefer guides who are funny. I expected to get off the beaten path on the tour, but we just stayed on one of the main roads going through the park. It was nice for Dave to be able to look around instead of having to drive, but for the rest of us, it was just an expensive “taxi” ride with a little bit of narration. I enjoyed the audio tours we’ve done in our own car just as much, if not more; especially the cost of them!
We had a few hours back at the RVs to rest and eat before meeting at the Country Tonite Show. I enjoyed this even more than I thought I would (and I thought I would). They sang a nice variety of songs, with a few different medleys from different eras. Plus some Christian and Patriotic songs. They had a lot of costume changes and a variety of dancing, too, which kept things interesting. Plus, Jeff Foxworthy came out and did a couple of comedy sets, which were really funny. We were surprised to see him there and questioned whether or not it was really him. I probably should’ve guessed it wasn’t, since we didn’t pay enough for our tickets to see him on stage, haha. But the guy looked and sounded so much like Jeff, that I was fooled. I just thought maybe he was getting over a cold, perhaps. Randy said he never really believed it was Jeff, but I’m not sure I totally believe Randy, haha! In any case, the impersonator was just as entertaining as Jeff, which is what matters most, right?
Since the weather was so nice on the day Dave and Gay Lynn were going to Dollywood, Randy and I decided to join them. I’m so glad we did! The lines for the roller coasters were almost nonexistent, so Randy and I were able to ride most of them in less than 2 hours. Then we met up with D & GL for lunch and stayed together for the rest of the day, going to most of the shows and walking through the park after dark to see the pumpkin lights. After getting used to the park not being crowded all day, I was surprised at how packed it got in the evening, with people coming into the park just to see the pumpkin displays. It was cool and worth doing/seeing, especially on such a nice day!
It was an action packed few days, but super fun to get to spend so much time with Dave and Gay Lynn!!
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