May 4, 2013 - Hello Dolly....welcome to Pigeon Forge y'all...

Take a left at stoplight #8 - Dollywood Lane... After a short 2 1/2 hour trip into the Smokies, our arrival in Pigeon Forge certainly was an eye opener after our first visit 25 years ago. Talk about changing scenery. Not much that isn't new, but entertainment and eateries are plentiful. If you can't find it you're not looking! Family friendly to the max! Spent our first day re-exploring Gatlinburg and it's hundreds of craft shops and tourist "adventures". Decided to check out Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, which had some pretty good...

Mar 5, 2013 - Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge

Well, it has been a while since I posted a trip on here !! Mainly because two of the last three years I have spent in the middle east doing my duty for God and Country. I got back to the states from Afghanistan in December and am just now taking a little vacation. Sauncee and I headed out to Gatlinburg on January 25th and took our time getting there. We geocached on the way so we could log a find in Alabama, Georgia, Tennnessee and North Carolina on this one trip. If you are not familiar with Geocaching, it is a game of hide and seek using...

Oct 9, 2012 - Gatlinburg, TN and the Smokey Mountains

After an uneventful 313 mile tow, we arrived in the Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg area of Tennessee. Our base was the River Plantation RV Resort (there was a river nearby, but fell a little short on the plantation and resort fronts) was fine for our short stay here. Gatlinburg is the main gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, which we were excited to see and explore, and we are just silly enough to spend a day at Dollywood, Dolly Parton's country-themed version of Disneyland. Unfortunately, the unpredictable fall mountain...

Aug 10, 2012 - 2012 Gatlinburg August

I woke up around 3:30 am so we started north again. Everyone was asleep until Candy got up around 4:30 am and joined me in the front of the motorhome. It was raining quite hard for the next couple of hours and at times I thought about pulling over and waiting it out, but it would let up a little so I kept going. The trip home was uneventful and we got home at 9:00 am. Stephanie and John drove straight home and arrived at 2:00 am. We traveled 1044 total miles in the motorhome, wish I would have kept track of the miles in the jeep, that must...

Aug 9, 2012 - 2012 Gatlinburg August

As we awoke today Candy made the decision that we should start for home. Stephanie and John were going to leave late afternoon and start for home anyway. They like to drive late in the day and stop along the way for some rest to break up the trip. I prepared the outside of the motorhome for departure as Candy got the inside ready for travel. Stephanie got their tent put away for the trip home also. It was decided that we would make some stops in Pigeon Forge on the way out to see some last places of interest. Stephanie wanted to take the...

Aug 8, 2012 - 2012 Gatlinburg August

Another beautiful day in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. As we awake from a night that had some rain, which we thought everyone would end up in the motorhome but they made it thru the night in the tent, to another day. As the sun arises over the peaks of the Smokey Mountains with the birds chirping, the rays of sunlight shinning thru the trees giving light to another great day on the road. I think, it was cloudy so we couldn't see the sun. Breakfast was served by the in-house cooks as we started to ram up for the day of festivities of...

Aug 7, 2012 - 2012 Gatlinburg August

This day started out slow because the kids were going whitewater rafting but that wasn't until 1:45 pm, so everyone was just hanging out. Candy and I were going to take Zander and Zyler because they were to young for the rafting trip. We decided to take the boys to the Ober Gatlinburg, which starts out with a ride up the mountain aerial tramway, what a spectacular ride up the mountain. We pasted the other tram going down on our way up. When you arrive at the top it is quite a sight with all the activities that were happening. There is...

Aug 6, 2012 - 2012 Gatlinburg August

Tubing was on the agenda for today in Townsend Tennessee for the Zientek family. Reservations were made with River Rat Tubing which was about one and half hours from the campground. As we were driving to River Rat we passed several tubing places that would have been a lot closer. When you are planning activities from the internet distance does not appear that far. The office was probably 4 miles as the crow flies, but the roads in the mountains do not follow as the crow flies. We arrived and I was impressed with the place. It wasn't a...

Aug 5, 2012 - 2012 Gatlinburg August

The dawn of a new morning crossed over the Smokey Mountains this morning with the Sun rising from the east. We all must guess on that because I got up at 8:00 am and was the first up. Everyone was very tired form the trip down yesterday and some of the youngsters had sit up most of the night around the campfire. Everyone started getting up after that, John and Zyler were over building a campfire on their site and I rode around the park on the scooter, not many people stirring at that time. The kids were waiting for the water slide to open...

Jun 17, 2012 - Ober Gatlinburg

This morning Ralph and his brother, Rusty, went to Cracker Barrel while I went to church. Then we headed over to Ober Gatlinburg. My expectations were not high but I was thrilled with our day. We headed first to the sky tram. Each car holds about 120 people but it wasn't too crowded. The views were outstanding. At the top there are shops, restaurants, a wildlife encounter, and a carousel! The bears are the main feature of the wildlife encounter; there are 2 cubs there that are very playful. Our next ride was the chair lift which took...

Oct 19, 2011 - Smokey Mountains

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - From Crazy Horse Campground, Gatlinburg, TN - We awoke to rain again today and it's cold here in Gatlinburg; I was hoping for sunny weather, but we really can't complain, we've had beautiful weather for most of our trip. After breakfast, we drove the twelve miles into Gatlinburg and on into Pigeon Forge and it continued to rain even harder. I would have loved to have parked and walked through the downtown areas of both these tourist traps but didn't feel like getting soaked, so we just drove through the...

Oct 18, 2011 - Rain, rain ... go to Texas!

Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 - We drove in to Southport, NC for a little sightseeing before we left this area. I had read about three lighthouses in the area, but was disappointed to find that we couldn't tour any of them and couldn't even get close to them either. I love lighthouses, but had to settle for seeing at least two of them from a distance. It was a beautiful day, so we parked the car and walked along the waterfront, enjoying the view, stopped for an iced tea and took a few photos. It didn't take long to drive through the little...