Day 2. Thursday. Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Smokies, Asheville.

Tourist traps. Kids (and Jason) would love it!

 

We stopped at this one. It was a replica of the Titanic with a museum inside of things from the ship. It was quite interesting. Only opened up about 6 weeks ago and had already had 60,000+ visitors.

 

 

 

Ober Gatlinburg. A tram that takes you up to the ski resort and play area. We rode the Alpine slide. They also had a carousel, shops, ice rink, water slide, kiddie rides and another gondola to take you even higher up the mountain. Of course your dad wants to buy a cabin and live here now! See those cabins in the trees...yea, he wants one. I'm not as enamored as he is with the area. Too touristy for me.

 

Smokey mountains always have this haze on them. Hence the name I guess. It was very pretty but for me, all of Tennessee looks like this. Lots and lots of trees everywhere!!!

 

 

 

 

It's always funny to me to see signs of the elevation and know we live higher than this!

 

Walked the appalachian trail at the top of the summit. All I could think of was that poor girl who had been murdered while hiking the trail a few years ago so it wasn't too fun for me.

 

Those steps would be crazy walking too far on that trail!

 

 

Mingus Mill was in the Smokies. There use to be little settlements in the area and this was the place where corn was ground into meal. Grandpa picked up a couple of rocks for Tyson from this river.

 

A living farm from the 1800's in the Smokies.

 

Yes...gardens are growing out here and back home, mine isn't even planted!

 

Thought this was clever. Horseshoes as hinges on the door.

 

 

Have yet to see a LDS Church on our trip except the one in Paducah that we attended yesterday but we did find this street sign in Cherokee, NC. It is on the other end of the Smokies from Gatlinburg. The indians were moved out of the Smokies years ago and came back and took some of the land that was theirs back and settled here. Huge casino going up in this town but didn't get a picture.

Day 1 on our Nashville trip. Wednesday.

Waiting to board the airplane in SLC so dad did some work while I played with my ipod. So nice to have internet features on that thing! Dad is smiling here but he sure wasn't while he was talking on that phone of his!

 

We had a layover in Denver. I noticed the plane had not departed from the gate where our plane was suppose to taxi up to...then we heard sirens and then an announcment to head to shelters in the airport. That plane out on the runway had people in it and a tornado had been spotted on the ground near the airport so everyone was to wait in the shelter area. Thank goodness a tornado didn't come any closer....that is our plane out there!

 

Dad and I were rebels. We didn't go in the shelters...which are the bathrooms but sat outside of them. We did stay away from windows though.

 

Flying in Nashville, we saw this beautiful rain storm. Had to fly around it. Up in the air, it was pretty spectacular seeing it.

 

Only sign I saw in the airport telling us we had arrived! Piddly, I know.

 

Our rental car was destined to be ours....Anderson is a county in TN.

 

Drove to Kingston, TN for the night before heading to the Smokies the next day.

Wish you were here!!!!!

Oh yeahhhhh! This is at Patti's! It was even better than I dreamed! So good that we went back there for lunch today. Oh my! Worth every extra calorie!

Patti's is in Kentucky near Paducah.

Half a pinapple, strawberries, cantalope, melon, grapes with chicken on top. So so so good!

 

Bread in a pot. Oh yummmmmmmmmy! With strawberry butter.......yes, we ate it. :)

 

Dad's meal. He opted for the 1" pork chop instead of the famous 2" one. Melt in your mouth.

 

Sawdust pie. Pecans and coconut is the base with bananas and whipped cream. This was so yummy! Wasn't sure I would like pecan pie, but it was really good! I can see why Jason and Grandma Merrick love it!