Gatlinburg ... a Practically Unplanned Adventure! June 27 - July 5, 2009 - Page 23 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Y'all forgive me for being short today, but our Cub Scout Pack had our Blue and Gold Banquet last night. Joshua received his Wolf badge and some arrow points, and I'm hoping to get them sewed onto his uniform before our meeting tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes! Will be back next Sunday afternoon to try to finish this thing up. Thanks for sticking with me.
Wow! Your TR was terrific, especially all of the photos. We have hiked several of the trails at the National Park, but not for about 7 years. After seeing the beauty in your photos, I really want to go back!
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Congrats to Joshua for getting his Wolf Badge. It looks like you had a wonderful trip. It was nice seeing the GA and AL state lines as I have lived in both.
Great update Christie! Good luck with the cub scout stuff! Colin just got his Wolf bagde yesterday as well, so I feel you pain with all that sewing!
Congrats to Colin! I was wondering how he was doing, since we haven't talked Cub Scouts in so long. I chickened out with the patch sewing - got the Wolf badge and the gold arrow point done, but still haven't done the silver arrow points. Those things are so slippery! And not hardly big enough to hold onto. Will try to do more this week.
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Originally Posted by MAKHayes-DisneyDiva
Wow! Your TR was terrific, especially all of the photos. We have hiked several of the trails at the National Park, but not for about 7 years. After seeing the beauty in your photos, I really want to go back!
Thanks! I can definitely attribute the pics to my camera, not me, as it usually stayed on the automatic setting. Even after spending the whole week there, (and of course it's been several months ago now) I'm ready to start planning our next visit. And I know I said that I hardly did any advance planning for this trip, but you know how you're always thinking things through in your mind as to what you'd do differently and what new things you'd like to try.
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Originally Posted by chezp
Great update, although sorry to see this coming to an end.
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great update! I've really enjoyed this TR. Sorry it's coming to an end.
Thanks Cheryl and Pam!
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Originally Posted by Meggera
Congrats to Joshua for getting his Wolf Badge. It looks like you had a wonderful trip. It was nice seeing the GA and AL state lines as I have lived in both.
Thanks Laura! Getting the Wolf badge that quickly meant a lot of hard work each week, but it was worth it. He was excited about it. A lot of times I don't think about getting the state line pictures, but for some reason I was really wanting to do so this time. I missed getting the ones on the drive up - on the Natchez Trace they're not as prominent.
Shortly after leaving the rest area/welcome center, the rain started and it was heavy at times! It stayed with us for quite a ways, too.
Here's pictures from our drive through Birmingham.
We stopped for gas in Tuscaloosa and kept driving. We had pretty much made up our time at this point and the weather had cleared out for a little ways too. This part of the drive was nice.
We made another rest stop at the Mississippi state welcome center, and grabbed a snack from our stash while we were here. We were about to get into some more rain. These copper roofs are over the picnic tables at the welcome center.
I've always thought it was so cool when you could see the edge of the rain so sharply.
I guess that's all I thought was worthy of taking pictures of, or either the rain got too heavy. But we were also only about 2 - 2 ½ hours from home and I see the sights on this portion of the highway a little more frequently, so I might have just gotten lazy! Somehow we made up a lot of time and arrived home around 6:00, about an hour sooner than I had thought we might. We unloaded the truck and I put most everything away this evening, although a few things were left out until tomorrow, once I'd had some sleep.
As per our recent 3-year vacation cycle, we were looking forward to being back in Gatlinburg this summer. I love to try to find new things for us to do, and new places to explore in the National Park. And even though I couldn't get into much of a planning mood, we still had most of the trip mapped out in advance and had a good time. Since this is one of our favorite destinations it wasn't such a big deal that I didn't do a lot of planning.
Staying at Mountain Loft was nice, since most of the things we did were in Gatlinburg and the National Park. Being that close to both cut down on some of the driving, and being across the street from the trolley stop was convenient as well. We were very excited to be able to stay in a townhome this time, so that we had plenty of space and a better floorplan than the condo unit we stayed in 3 years ago. The only thing that would have made it better would be if we'd had a better view. But there's not really any way to request that. Maybe next time it will happen. We had originally thought we would be able to walk to the trolley stop, but it wasn't very practical. The entrance drive is very steep and the road the resort is on is so busy with traffic all day that it was easier to just drive over there..
What did we like about this trip? Our most memorable day was Day 4. We had a nice drive out to Cades Cove, where we finally got the chance to visit the one place on the driving loop that we had always missed before, the Elijah Oliver Place. We also finally got to visit the Little Greenbrier School and the Walker Sisters' Cabin, two other places I'd been wanting to see for quite some time. So even though we had to adjust our schedule quite a bit today, and we didn't see very many animals in Cades Cove, it was still a great outing. That night we got to go bowling in Gatlinburg and discovered that they have a pretty decent bowling alley, and much less crowded than Pigeon Forge's. And supper was at one of our favorite places - Bennett's BBQ in Gatlinburg. Yummy!
Our most memorable place once again, was the National Park, because we all enjoy being outdoors, and it is the main thing that keeps us coming back to this area. It also helps that there's no entrance fee for the Park! Our most memorable attraction was the Firehouse Mini Golf in Pigeon Forge. We didn't really do too many attractions this visit, but this course was very nicely themed and we got a good deal on the price of playing the second course.
Our most memorable trail was the Road Prong Trail. We had to hike part of the Chimney Tops Trail to get there, and I didn't think I would make it that far! But once we got to Road Prong we were hiking on our own and the whole time we were on that trail it was like a huge expedition full of discoveries. I loved how green the whole trail was, and that we stayed close to the water. I even loved all the rocks on the trail. But even more than that, none of us complained about being tired on this portion of the hike and that made it even more pleasant. Our most memorable meal was, once again, The Alamo. And for the exact same reasons, too: because all the food was great and we were seated right away, and had excellent service. Our most magic moment of all was Joshua's long-anticipated first ride on a real go-kart at Fast Tracks in Pigeon Forge. It was something we hadn't planned, but Joshua decided he would rather do that than go roller skating. He had a blast riding with Jay, and I enjoyed seeing him so happy to finally be brave enough to ride those noisy go-karts!
What new things did we experience this trip? Several different trails, both along the Natchez Trace Parkway on our drive up, and in the National Park, the go-karts at Fast Tracks that I just mentioned, bowling in Gatlinburg, and the Firehouse mini golf in Pigeon Forge. Our only new restaurant for this trip was Huck Finn's Catfish in Pigeon Forge, the other times we ate at our favorite places or either had a picnic.
What did we miss? There are still (yes, still!) plenty of other trails for us to walk along the Natchez Trace and in the National Park; I don't think we'll ever run out of trails to explore! But in the National Park, we still really want to walk the Abrams Falls Trail, as well as visit some other areas such as Cataloochee and Parson Branch Road. I think by the next time we visit the much-anticipated Belle Isle shopping and entertainment complex should finally be open in Pigeon Forge, so we'll have to check that out, and I'd like to visit the caverns in the area, Tuckaleechee Caverns and Forbidden Caverns. And here is yet another trip gone by and I still haven't gotten the opportunity to visit the Arts and Crafts Community in Gatlinburg.
Daily Highlights:
Day 0 - Unexpectedly being at Cub Scout Resident Camp with Joshua! Getting home late that night after the campfire and trying to throw together last-minute items that I had started gathering and packing before we went to camp.
Day 1 - Leaving home, driving up the Trace and exploring new stops, and being pleased with our hotel room in Lebanon.
Day 2 - Visiting the Knoxville Zoo, being pleased at the lack of traffic on the roads, checking in at Mountain Loft.
Day 3 - National Park, picnic lunch at Chimney Tops Picnic Area with a friendly chipmunk, Clingman's Dome, supper at Huck Finn's Catfish in Pigeon Forge.
Day 4 - Cades Cove, picnic lunch at Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area, bowling in Gatlinburg, supper at Bennett's Pit BBQ.
Day 5 - National Park, picnic lunch at Greenbrier, supper at The Alamo in Gatlinburg, go-karts at Fast Tracks in Pigeon Forge followed by shopping at the Christmas Place.
Day 6 - National Park, picnic lunch at Heintooga, shopping in Cherokee, cooked spaghetti for supper at the resort.
Day 7 - Split day. Jay hiked to Mt. LeConte and snacked along the way, Joshua and I went to Ober Gatlinburg and snacked for lunch. Ate leftovers for supper at the resort.
Day 8 - Shopping on the Parkway in Gatlinburg, lunch at McDonald's, supper at No Way Jose's in Pigeon Forge, Firehouse Mini Golf, watched fireworks on the way back to the resort.
Day 9 - Driving home (traffic jam and rain), getting home earlier than expected that evening. but also
What would we do differently next time? Well, we seem to have our routine working pretty good. So basically just keep choosing different trails and points of interest to keep it fresh. Would like to get further along the Natchez Trace before dark so we can get to bed earlier that night. Possibly visit Dollywood since it's been so long - in fact, Joshua has never been. Maybe pick a musical show since we didn't do that this time. I think next time Joshua will be old enough to participate in the next level of the Junior Ranger Program in the National Park, so we will try to do that again. Maybe next time will be the time I finally get to visit the Arts and Crafts Community!
It's been fun sharing this with you, I hope you enjoyed reading it and didn't get too bogged down in all the details. Thank you for sticking with it, especially when I bailed and cut my updates so drastically.
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Up Next: My Branson Holiday trip report. This trip was from November 23-28, 2009. That seems so long ago, now, but I really want to document it. Unfortunately, as I've alluded to already, the report won't be posted here. As I've mentioned, my schedule has changed so drastically that I quickly found I no longer had enough hours in the day to visit with you all here as I had enjoyed doing over the summer. My plan is to post an abbreviated version of a trip report on Facebook, along with some of the trip pictures. If you are on Facebook and would like to be my "friend", please send me a private message and let me know. I would be glad to see you over there! My first order of business will be to pull out my favorite pictures from this trip and create an album, hopefully finding myself a new profile picture in the process, then I will begin the next trip report.
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It looks like you had a wonderful trip. It was nice seeing the GA and AL state lines as I have lived in both. 
Our most memorable meal was, once again, The Alamo. And for the exact same reasons, too: because all the food was great and we were seated right away, and had excellent service. Our most magic moment of all was Joshua's long-anticipated first ride on a real go-kart at Fast Tracks in Pigeon Forge. It was something we hadn't planned, but Joshua decided he would rather do that than go roller skating. He had a blast riding with Jay, and I enjoyed seeing him so happy to finally be brave enough to ride those noisy go-karts! 
So basically just keep choosing different trails and points of interest to keep it fresh. Would like to get further along the Natchez Trace before dark so we can get to bed earlier that night. Possibly visit Dollywood since it's been so long - in fact, Joshua has never been. Maybe pick a musical show since we didn't do that this time. I think next time Joshua will be old enough to participate in the next level of the Junior Ranger Program in the National Park, so we will try to do that again. Maybe next time will be the time I finally get to visit the Arts and Crafts Community!
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