Our Tennesse Trip

I do not have as many pictures uploaded as I would like but it was just so slow. Plus, I didn't take that many either. I was too busy enjoying. None of my videos would upload so no bear video. :-(

Day 1
We left here around 7:30 and headed to Ruston, LA to see my brother Christopher at LA Tech. We met him at Starbucks then took a quick tour of his campus. Oh, how I do not miss the dorms! We talked to him for about an hour then got back on the road. We made a stop in Vicksburg, MS and toured the battlegrounds. I use the term toured loosely. We only got out maybe once and just drove through and pointed out things that were interesting. We didn't want to be on the road forever!
Here are the kids with their treasures from Vicksburg. Andrew wore his Union hat EVERYWHERE and Abi loved her little homemade doll. She did proclaim that meme needed to sew eyes on it cuz she looked weird.

After Vicksburg we headed to Birmingham, AL. This by far was the most boring part of the drive. But we made it!

We checked in to the hotel around 8:00 and basically went straight to bed.

Day 2
We got up fairly early and had breakfast at the hotel. By the way, they did not have waffles at this La Quinta! Shocking, I know! But we lived. We made it to TN around 1:00.

We forgot that we lost an hour. The drive was just beautiful. We stopped in Chattanooga and toured an underground cave. It was so neat to see God's beauty that was all underground. We even met another couple from Longview! Weird, huh?

We decided to bypass the $50 chance to stand in 5 states so we could get back on the road. I was panicking a bit because we were not going to get into Pigeon Forge until about 5:30. I need to learn to relax. Once we got there, wow, we were amazed by our condo! Raegan's parents certainly blessed us! We had 2 bedrooms, a jacuzzi bathtub in our bathroom, the kids had a bathroom, a kitchen, and living room. It was great! I set out to cook our lasagna we brought while Eric and the kids swam. We just lazed around that evening so that we could be ready for the next day.


Day 3
We decided to head straight to the Alpine Slide! That is the entire reason Andrew wanted to go to TN. An alpine slide is a slide down a mountain. Where this particular one was located had a ski lift that also went all the way to the top. The slide was halfway up the mountain. Abi opted to stay on for the entire ride. She thought she could slide from the top! That little daredevil! They both loved the slide! The view was breath taking. This is the only picture I have because you could not have your camera on the slide. Instead of leaving it with someone, we just left it in the car.

After that we headed into Gaitlinburg to explore the town. We did some shopping, ate, visited the Guinness Book of World Record Museum, visited a Hollywood Car Museum, and ate chicken and ribs! We even saw an Elvis impersonator. LOVE HIM! Well, his music.
Here is the biggest fish in the World Records book. Abi spent a lot of time crying because she saw an E.T figure. Hmm..sounds like someone I know!

The Hollywood Car Museum was great! I think Eric and I liked it because we recognized all the cars. They had the General Lee, Knight Rider, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hillbillies, and so much more. Here are the kids in the Flintstones car.


Day 4
We decided we wanted to get off the beaten (tourist) trap and see the Rocky Mountains. When I told Eric this, I meant visiting this old homestead. Well, he found a hiking trail to some waterfalls and we decided that would be fun for the kids. It was only 2.7 miles and we could do that and still have time to visit the homestead. Right? Wrong! 2.7 miles up a mountain is a lot different than 2.7 miles flat. I walk 3 miles every day and I wanted to just pass out. I think it was not knowing where it was going to end. You would go around a bend and it just continued to look the same. Andrew had about 3 meltdowns ( I wanted to join him) but 2 hours later, it paid off. We made it!


It did make us feel better that every one we passed on the trail told us that it took them 2 hours. Even the men were asking how much further when we passed them on the way down. On the way down, well this is where it got fun! Most know this story, but I want this for our scrapbook. We had heard that many people had seen bears up in the trees but so far we hadn't seen one. (funny little insert here. While walking up the mt. Andrew and I smelled something. We were both sniffing away and thinking, Yep! There's a bear around here. We were trying to follow the scent until Eric clued me in that that smell was a human (icky) smell. Oops!) We rounded a bend and there were 2 women standing there with their (mute) dog. They told us to look ahead and there he was! The bear was walking away from us so it was pretty neat. Well, he decided to turn around. A man who had somehow gotten around the bear was yelling at us that this bear had no intention of turning around so we were going to have to really get off the beaten path. He kept getting closer and closer and I kept getting a bit more scared. Ok, I panicked. Andrew just sat there and stared. Abi was crying hysterically about not liking the bear. I was saying a not so nice word over and over and Eric was telling us to move it through the woods. (thank God my citified hubby brought his GPS!) When we both turned to see where the bear was, he was 10 ft. from us! I am dead serious. I kept repeating to myself, "don't run faster than the kids!" I have never been that scared! When we came walking fast out of those woods, all I could say was "bear, bear, bear!" A couple coming up the trail decided to just turn around there. Luckily Yogi decided to stay back where we left him, so all was good. Being the great outdoors man that we are, we were carrying food! Stars alive!
We made a mad dash down the mountain because we had reservations for a dinner show that night. We made it just in time. The show, "hoot n holler" was great! We laughed until our sides hurt! We had a great Italian meal (because like they said, everyone serves chicken and ribs! Be different!) and chuckled all the way back to the condo.

Day 5
After trying to erase bear images from my mind all night, we slept in a bit the next morning then went to Wonderworks.

That is where we had been the night before for the show but we didn't tour the entire place. This place was awesome! It was a jam packed science museum that was just incredible. I will never look at Sci-Port the same again. We laid on a bed of nails, climbed a rock wall, (well everyone got up but me!) sat in a cafe and experienced an earthquake, and stood up during hurricane force winds. We spent about 3 hours in there and also played lazer tag. It was so fun! After that we had lunch then we back to the room so I could start packing. The kids and Eric went and swam while I did that. We went to another show that night at the Comedy Barn. We didn't eat at this one but the humor was just as good as the night before. We were so impressed with Pigeon Forge and the surrounding areas because it was so family oriented. We could do everything together and never worry about the kids ears or hearts being affected. We ate at a cool diner that played 50's music! (I was so born in the wrong era!) We finally got to visit the cool Christmas store I had wanted to visit the entire time.



Then we went and rode go-carts for 2 hours. (they had a special!)

Day 6
We went and ate a marvelous breakfast and did a bit more shopping. Eric found a 3 story knife store to visit so off we went. Woo Hoo. I really should have had a better attitude about it. He enjoyed it and had been a great sport all along. We started the long trek home, stopping only to eat and bathroom breaks. We ran out of sandwich meat so we had to eat out. Andrew finally got the Chinese food he wanted the entire time we were gone. It was the most expensive meal we ate! LOL Christopher met us briefly in Ruston to see our pics. We made it home, exhausted, around 11:15.

We had the best time in Tennessee. I am so thankful we had the opportunity to go. The only thing that would have made it better is if Chels would have been there. It was a relaxing vacation, yet we had a great time. I learned a lot about myself and am glad that I had time away to think.