Gatlinburg ... a Practically Unplanned Adventure! June 27 - July 5, 2009 - Page 11 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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"Somebody had mentioned that, and I looked on their website. But that was a few months ago and I guess it hadn't opened yet. It sounds really neat, though, and I would like to try it out. Originally we were planning on going back to Myrtle Beach next summer, but now are thinking of trying out a different resort in Gordonsville VA. If we do that, then we would be pretty close to LU and might make that a day trip, or either a stop on our way back home. Definitely something to think about. "
That was me, I had mentioned it before, but it is open now, so maybe you can find out about it.
Were you looking at Shenandoah Crossings Resort? That is where my parents were members. The resort is very nice, the cabins are great and there is a lot of historical things to do in the area! I'm not an outdoorsy type, so I can't tell you what there is to do in the area that way, except the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.
__________________
Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
Oh wow - what stunning views from the observation tower!
Thanks you guys!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MGW
That was me, I had mentioned it before, but it is open now, so maybe you can find out about it.
I was wondering, since you live in that area, but I couldn't remember exactly who it was. That's something we'll definitely look into.
Quote:
Were you looking at Shenandoah Crossings Resort? That is where my parents were members. The resort is very nice, the cabins are great and there is a lot of historical things to do in the area! I'm not an outdoorsy type, so I can't tell you what there is to do in the area that way, except the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.
The resort looks great. They have the same floorplan of townhouses available that we were staying in at Mountain Loft in Gatlinburg, plus several other types of cabins. Plus they also rent RVs, and even yurts! Those look really nice. We will be getting our next year's points on Sept 1, so we need to sit down soon and discuss if that is indeed where we are going. I want to call as soon as possible for a reservation, so that we can get a really cool place to stay. Next summer's trip, regardless of where we go, will be our year to take a "relaxing" vacation, as opposed to planning so many things each day. But if we go to Virginia I would still like to see a lot of stuff, especially since we've never been there. But not necessarily a theme park, just some little places here and there. I wouldn't mind doing the historic Williamsburg tour - how far of a drive is that do you think? We may just be in a place that makes day trips a little too far. In that case we'll hang out at the resort, take the Wii with us, put together puzzles, play games, etc. I noticed they have horses, maybe we could go riding one day.
We finally arrived back at the parking lot of Clingman's Dome, and while pulling out found this turkey, who I guess was looking for a handout. Jay took this picture with my camera, since the turkey was on his side of the truck.
But he was able to get better pictures with his camera.
After taking the turkey's picture, we headed back out toward Newfound Gap Road. I was able to get a few pictures of the scenery looking into North Carolina.
And I believe this is at the point where we had arrived back at Newfound Gap Road.
From here, we headed back to the resort. As you might imagine I took a few pictures on the way down the mountain:
Again, trying to get a halfway decent picture of the area of the landslide. I think it was our last day when we came back this way, I did a little better.
We stopped at the Campbell Overlook because it was on our side of the road. This is the first main overlook you come to if you are going up the mountain from Gatlinburg.
I forgot about the traffic, so like tourists we just got in line with everybody else going down the Parkway. I had noticed where we should have turned, however, so the other times we come back this direction we'll be sure to do that. Very slowly we made our way from traffic light 10 to traffic light 3, and back to the townhouse.
After arriving back at the resort, we rested and freshened up a bit before getting out to eat supper. My unplanned plans for this evening called for us to go shopping in Pigeon Forge and eat supper at Huck Finn's Catfish. Jay talked me out of going shopping, and I was kind of glad he did. We had spent a long day in the park, and while I would have loved to check out some souvenir shops, it really would have made for too late of a night. So we just planned to eat and gas up, since gas is usually cheaper in Pigeon Forge than Gatlinburg. Besides, for some reason the gas stations in Gatlinburg don't post their prices , so you never know what you're going to pay until you pull up to the pump.
We had never eaten at Huck Finn's before. I think I found the place because they advertised in the Pigeon Forge vacation planner. I noticed they had a web site, and checked it out. We all love catfish, and we were ready to try out a different restaurant, so Jay agreed to eat there. I didn't take a picture of the big catfish out front, but there is a picture of it on the website. Huck Finns Catfish, Chicken and Steaks Restaurant~Home Page
We ended up ordering the all-you-can-eat catfish platters. I'm not sure why we did that, as we weren't starving or anything. The food was good, but we were only able to eat a little bit more than what would have come on the regular plate. So if we eat here again, we'll be sure to order the regular plate, and then maybe we will have room for dessert! We had a little food left over so we got a to-go plate and took it back to the room with us. Jay ended up eating it as a snack either later tonight, or sometime tomorrow.
While we were eating a guy was playing guitar and singing, and had a tip jar sitting in front of him. I noticed when we left that he was also selling CDs at the register. The music was nice, but at times I felt a little awkward about somebody playing for money inside a restaurant. He would play a few songs in one location, then move to the other side of the restaurant and play some more. Then he would take a break.
Would we eat here again? Yes, and we would definitely recommend it to others as the food and atmosphere were good and the prices reasonable. However, we can get good catfish locally (MS is known for its catfish farms) so we would probably try someplace else next time. But there's no other reason we would avoid it.
After eating, it was time to gas up. Jay noticed a Pilot station that had fairly low prices, and it looked like it was new or newly remodeled. He couldn't get the pump to read the credit card, so he had to go inside to pay for it. After that task was completed we headed back to the resort and got ready for bed. Each night, we (Joshua and I, that is) worked a little bit in his Junior Ranger booklet. My parents had bought it for Joshua when they were up here in May, so I had looked through it at home before we left to get an idea of some of the things he would need to do.
There were 11 activities in the book, and to earn his badge he needed to complete at least 8 of them. Tonight we got started on a couple of the activities that dealt with the National Park and rangers in general. During the rest of our trip we would be visiting some of the specific sites that were dealt with in some of the other activities.
Next it was time for me to get in the bed. It was at this point that I decided I didn't like the 2-story layout of the townhouse. My legs were so sore from climbing up and back down that long trail today, that I had to literally pull myself up the stairs by using the handrail! But overall I was excited that we had done so much today, and that we so enjoyed all the things we did. Tomorrow was going to be a very full day as well, and we would need to get an early start.
Shenandoah Crossings might be about 2 or 3 hours from W'burg. But there is stuff close by, Monitcello, Ashland, Montpelier, Gordonsville had a great little civil war hospital museum that we went to several years ago, but we like historical things. And you are fairly close to Richmond, which has tons of great stuff, like Maymont, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, the Science Museum of Virginia and a Children's Museum too. Since you like the outdoorsy stuff, try the parkway and skyline drive. We rode horses there, that was fun. They have Yurts? Now that is different! Last time I was there they were building really nice houses around a golf course, camping would be fun too!
__________________
Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
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It was! I didn't need to be spending money in the stores anyway!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MGW
Shenandoah Crossings might be about 2 or 3 hours from W'burg. But there is stuff close by, Monitcello, Ashland, Montpelier, Gordonsville had a great little civil war hospital museum that we went to several years ago, but we like historical things. And you are fairly close to Richmond, which has tons of great stuff, like Maymont, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, the Science Museum of Virginia and a Children's Museum too. Since you like the outdoorsy stuff, try the parkway and skyline drive. We rode horses there, that was fun. They have Yurts? Now that is different! Last time I was there they were building really nice houses around a golf course, camping would be fun too!
Well, I don't know if I could talk Jay into a 2-3 hour drive for a day trip. But I'm sure there will be plenty of stuff closer to interest us. We do historical stuff, too. And Joshua thinks cannons are way cool, so he wouldn't mind any war-related sites. The yurts are fairly new, I would guess about a year ago they had those ready to rent. We'll see ... I'll have to make a separate post once we make our reservations, to let everybody know where we decide on going and what type of accomodations!
I am really enjoying this TR Christine - the pictures are amazing and what beautiful weather you had for your hiking. Looks like everyone in your group is having a great time.
I am really enjoying this TR Christine - the pictures are amazing and what beautiful weather you had for your hiking. Looks like everyone in your group is having a great time.
So far so good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katara81
Wow, what great pics from Clingmans Dome! Never been up there before, gotta try it now that I've seen the view!
It's a tremendous view when there aren't any clouds, or if it's not too hazy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meggera
You can see why Katharine Lee Bates wrote about the "purple mountain majesties." They are clearly seen in your pictures. Very nice!
Huck Finn's sounds like a neat place to eat. Great update!
Thanks! You know, it was only when I was posting the pics on here, and really looking at them upclose on Shutterfly individually while inserting them in the report, that I noticed all the different colors that showed up in the mountain shots.
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Oh, and at Shenandoah Crossings you will be really close to Fredericksburg. Lots of Civil War battlefields in the area - Wildreness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Chancellorsville, and Fredericksburg. I know you can get BSA badges for hiking the trails at Gettysburg, I wonder if they have something similar at other battlefields? I know they have the junior ranger booklets to fill out.
__________________
Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
Oh, and at Shenandoah Crossings you will be really close to Fredericksburg. Lots of Civil War battlefields in the area - Wildreness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Chancellorsville, and Fredericksburg. I know you can get BSA badges for hiking the trails at Gettysburg, I wonder if they have something similar at other battlefields? I know they have the junior ranger booklets to fill out.
Sounds good. Always keeping our eyes peeled for badge opportunities!
Christie, aobut the catfish in MS: I ate at Catfish Charlie's in Gulfport. Yum!!! I'm not normally a catfish person, but that was delish! Of course, at Catfish Charlie's, you only ahve a choice of catfish, shrimp or chicken strips, and I don't eat shrimp, so catfish it was!
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The resort looks great. They have the same floorplan of townhouses available that we were staying in at Mountain Loft in Gatlinburg, plus several other types of cabins. Plus they also rent RVs, and even yurts! Those look really nice. We will be getting our next year's points on Sept 1, so we need to sit down soon and discuss if that is indeed where we are going. I want to call as soon as possible for a reservation, so that we can get a really cool place to stay. Next summer's trip, regardless of where we go, will be our year to take a "relaxing" vacation, as opposed to planning so many things each day. But if we go to Virginia I would still like to see a lot of stuff, especially since we've never been there. But not necessarily a theme park, just some little places here and there. I wouldn't mind doing the historic Williamsburg tour - how far of a drive is that do you think? We may just be in a place that makes day trips a little too far. In that case we'll hang out at the resort, take the Wii with us, put together puzzles, play games, etc. I noticed they have horses, maybe we could go riding one day.
I had noticed where we should have turned, however, so the other times we come back this direction we'll be sure to do that. Very slowly we made our way from traffic light 10 to traffic light 3, and back to the townhouse.
We had spent a long day in the park, and while I would have loved to check out some souvenir shops, it really would have made for too late of a night. So we just planned to eat and gas up, since gas is usually cheaper in Pigeon Forge than Gatlinburg. Besides, for some reason the gas stations in Gatlinburg don't post their prices 
, so you never know what you're going to pay until you pull up to the pump.
But overall I was excited that we had done so much today, and that we so enjoyed all the things we did. Tomorrow was going to be a very full day as well, and we would need to get an early start.
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