Tennessee Trip
I never updated about Tennessee. April 19th my mom and I left at 5:45 am for Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We were expected a very long drive, around 14 hours. But somehow it was only 11 1/2 hours which was a lot better. We pulled into our hotel around 4:30. We stayed at this cool hotel on the river. We had a balcony room that overlooked the little river. We unpacked and were pretty much settled in when our lobby clerk came and knocked on our door. She said if we moved down the hall to another room, our electronic lock would work and we wouldn't have to change rooms throughout the weekend. I orginally booked each day individually, which meant we were gonna have to switch rooms every night. So once we switched rooms, we unpacked again, then walked down to the center of Gatlinburg.
Gatlinburg is the southern version of Clifton Hill. It's got all the tacky stuff you could want, arcades, junk stores, bars, Ripley's attractions, just plain fun stuff. I was surprised that unlike the constantly evolving Clifton Hill, Gatlinburg was same as always. We ate at this crappy restaurant. I bought a purse. It's funny b/c the last time I was in Gatlinburg I bought a purse, my Dooney and Bourke knockoff, and this time I bought another knockoff. Yeah, so my mom and I were wearing our Nascar redneck jackets to fit in. We went into this one store and the sales clerk freaked out. She asked where I got my jacket and how much ect.. I was wearing Dale Ernhert(?) AKA Goodwrench Dead Guy. My jacket was a ladies jacket so it fit me nicely. She just made a big deal about it. So I conspired with my mom and we offered to sell it to the girl. We charged her 50bucks. We bought it for 40 so we made a little bit of money. I was almost sad to give up that jacket. Isn't funny how you can never care about something, but then once you're about to get rid of it you really want it back. Strange. That was Thursday.
Friday morning we woke up early and met our friends Rick, Al, and Christine for breakfast across the street. Then we wandered around town for a bit. Then we decided to rent a cab to take us to Pigeon Forge (next town over). The reason we didn't want to drive was b/c there was a HUGE classic car show going on in Pigeon Forge and the traffic was terrible. We didn't want to lose our spot at the hotel too. So we all pitched in for a cab, I think it was 18 bucks plus tip. They dropped us off at a random traffic light and we ventured around. My mom was in heaven. A lot of the cars were for sale so I know she was fighting off the urge to take one home. We found this ride called Jurrasic, total Jurasic Park copy, and decided to do that. It was 12 bucks a person, ripoff! It was a fun ride though. You rode on a boat through this river. There were crappy dinosaur animatronics. The ending was really cool. The boat actually rose up out of the water. Almost worth 12 bucks. We walked around more. I saw a lot of cool pickup/mini monster truck contraptions. TN is funny. People will put chairs in the bed of their pickups and drive around while people chill in the back. And they'll do this all day! My mom was so amused she took photos of the random hillbillies. Later in the day the group wanted to go back to Gatlinburg, but i wanted to stay in Pigeon Forge. So we all broke up. My mom and I ventured onward to look for food. We found this cute place called Calhoun's. Excellent southern food. I had biscuits, catfish, mashed potatoes, and coleslaw. It all tasted home made. I love catfish, especially in the south. After dinner was started walking back towards Gatlinburg. Instead of taking a taxi, I told my mom we should take the trolly. It was much cheaper and more fun. We wandered to Patriot Park and hitched a trolly for 75cents to Gatlinburg Welcome Center. Then we took the Welcome Center Trolly for 50 cents back to our hotel. They dropped us off right in front b/c we're such VIPS. That night we met our dark ride and fun house people at the Mystery Mansion. We walked through that twice. And my mom didn't even get claustrophobic. I was proud of her. Then we got funnel cakes and lemonade. Not good for a late night snack. By that point it was probably midnight, so we went back to the hotel to sleep.
Saturday morning we woke up extremely early b/c we had to be at Dollywood by 7am. Got to the park and hung around out front. Then we went to the side entrance and realized we could get in that way. Then off to Mystery Mine, AKA the new coaster. That ride is the coolest little coaster. Once I got on, I stayed on it until they kicked me off. The lift hills are 90 degrees. It's themed like an abandoned mine shaft. There's special effects like fire and video screens. It has it's own theme music. I love that ride. So I got 8 rides in, then we had a behind the scenes tour of it. We got to walk around by the lift hills and underneath the track ect. Heaven for coaster nerds. I learned that the ride is based on 3 superstitions: never take your boots off in a mine, never whistle in a mine, the only good bird to have in a mine is a canary. So once the tour was over, the park was open. I rode my first Topple Tower (by Huss). It's a giant flat ride that "topples" back and forth. It's a snooze, but cool to watch. We rode Thunderhead a few times. That ride still kicks. We didn't really do much after that. The park got very crowded. So crowded that they stayed open an extra hour. I think I took a nap in a rockin chair at one point. I really wanted to ride Mystery Mine again but the wait was over an hour long. I don't think it's worth an hour. Nighttime ERT was on Blazing Fury. It's a coaster/dark ride that's themed. You go through a town that's on fire. And the final drop drops you down into water, so you get a little wet. It's very unique. After ERT was over we slowly walked out. There was no traffic in the parking lot, but on the street it was bumper to bumper. It took us about 45 minutes to drive 6 miles to our hotel. That's how bad it was.
Sunday was our last day. We woke up late, and wandered to town. We met our gang at this mirror maze. I'm not normally a fan, but this was great. It had dance music playing and a light show. We had to wear gloves to avoid smudges. My mom couldn't handle it though. It was hard to get out, but the dance music and lights made it really fun. Next was Hauntings, this strange haunt show/theater. You sit in this room and the ghost talks to you. Stuff starts happened like the door shuts by itself, a candle floats across the room, a gun on the wall moves. Corny stuff. Then the lights went out. Lots of loud noises. There were ghosts in the mirrors. There was this cool part where the walls lit up and there were skeleton animatronics behind it. Then this huge face came flying from behind the fireplace. It was an odd attraction. The final was Earthquake, this horrible tourist trap my mom and I did a few years ago. I was so excited to see everyones face when they got off. It's still corny, but I think they improved it a little. Then we had to start driving home. It was probably like 2:00 when we finally left Gatlinburg. We stopped at this spectacular bridge in West Virginia called the New River Gorge Bridge. That bridge is so high that they close it off once a year so people can sky dive off of it. You can fit 2 Top Thrill Dragsters underneath it and still have room. We drove to Summersville, West Virginia and stayed over night. Monday we finished the drive home.
It was a great way to start off the summer season. I love Tennessee.