Gatlinburg ... a Practically Unplanned Adventure! June 27 - July 5, 2009 - Page 5 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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We all slept pretty well during the night, although not long enough in my case! This hotel offered a continental breakfast, so after we got dressed we walked down to check it out. I had a biscuit with jelly and a bagel with cream cheese. Joshua had some cereal. And Jay fixed himself a waffle, only to be told by the staff that they were out of syrup! How can that happen? Seems like they would put out a sign to let people know. I much prefer to have syrup with my waffles! Well, Jay finished eating first, then used the free internet that was set up on a computer in the lobby to print out the 7-day weather forecast for Gatlinburg. Nothing had changed since we had left home - temps in the 80's with a little chance of rain later in the week. Jay went back to the room to start loading the cooler and some of his things into the truck. After Joshua finally finished his cereal the two of us walked back to the room to brush our teeth. I had really wanted to get a few pictures around the lobby and pool area because it was so nice looking, but I just didn't have the chance. Jay went to check us out at the front desk while me and Joshua brushed our teeth. We finally got on the road at 8:30, a whole hour behind schedule! Somehow it happens every time.
We gassed up at the Exxon station next door (now I remember - that was one reason we were getting a late start). Then we got straight onto I-40 East toward Knoxville. I had planned for us to stop at a rest area along the way, where we would also grab a quick snack. I didn't make any notes, so I don't think we stopped. It was only about a 2 ½ hour drive, so it wasn't really necessary. I took some pictures during the drive. Lots of them look similar - at the time, I kept getting excited every time I saw the next mountain appear over the horizon. But looking at them at home, you can't really tell that much difference, I don't think.
My first mountain sighting:
Then I started getting real tricky, and tried to take pictures out the side window. Every time we went over a bridge there would be a very brief break in between the trees to get a quick view of the water below. I wasn't quite fast enough on this one!
Lots of people fishing this morning.
Tried to get a picture of the rock wall along the roadside, but ended up with a reflection of our console. But in this picture you can see how much they had to cut into the rock to make the road.
One of several HUGE crosses along the interstate that we noticed on this trip. This one, appropriately enough, was in Crossville.
I zoomed across Jay to take this picture. Right in the middle is a hole in the side of the mountain. I assume this facility is a quarry.
The other side of the interstate was much higher than us at this point - see that RV?
I wasn't trying to, but I ended up with a pretty good picture of a traffic camera here. That's another thing I noticed a lot of on the interstates. We have some in the area where I live, but not as many.
I had heard during one of my few online research sessions that I-40 in Knoxville was closed for construction. They were supposed to be finished by the end of June, but you know how sometimes those projects can take a bit longer than expected. Since the Knoxville Zoo's website still had the detour listed, that's what we had planned to do. It didn't look too bad, actually. We just needed to take the loop around town, then when it rejoined the interstate again, backtrack slightly to the correct exit.
So we got a little closer to Knoxville and we started noticing the LED display boards above the interstate. You know, the ones where they can update you with traffic information. Well, the only thing showing up on them today was generic "travel time to" information. They didn't say anything about having to take a detour around town. There were also no orange detour road signs anywhere in sight, either. So we decided to take a chance and keep driving straight through. Worst case scenario, we would just have to take a different exit. Thankfully, though, all the road construction had already been completed, the roads looked great, and we made our way easily through Knoxville.
Soon we made it our exit! This is the park - the zoo is to the right of and behind it.
KNOXVILLE ZOO
If you are planning a visit here, I highly recommend their web site, as it is full of very useful information.
Awww now your getting to my neck of the woods, and I'm getting homesick. It's very amusing, I can tell exactly where each of your pics was taken along I-40. LOL And yes, that is a limestone quarry. Crossville is my hometown actually, and they do a lot of business in limestone and Crab Orchard stone.
Can't wait to hear about the zoo, haven't been there in a few years!
Awww now your getting to my neck of the woods, and I'm getting homesick. It's very amusing, I can tell exactly where each of your pics was taken along I-40. LOL And yes, that is a limestone quarry. Crossville is my hometown actually, and they do a lot of business in limestone and Crab Orchard stone.
Can't wait to hear about the zoo, haven't been there in a few years!
I figured there had to be somebody who would be able to recognize all those I-40 shots! I always forget how soon you start to see the mountains in the distance once you pull out of Nashville, so I was freaking out the first time, to get my camera ready. Based on our three visits, the Knoxville Zoo keeps improving over the years. It's much nicer than ours here at home.
That hotel room was pretty nice for $40! I was a little nervous about what you'd get. Love all the shots from I-40. It felt like I was on a road trip looking at the pictures. Looking forward to hearing about the zoo!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
I'm enjoying your trip report. I'm a fellow Bluegreen owner and our kids are using some of our ponts at Mountain Loft this week. Keep up the good work!
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That hotel room was pretty nice for $40! I was a little nervous about what you'd get. Love all the shots from I-40. It felt like I was on a road trip looking at the pictures. Looking forward to hearing about the zoo!
I was inspired by Donna (GoofyMom's) road trip trip reports. Glad you and everybody else enjoyed them. At the time, Jay was just rolling his eyes at me for taking all those pictures.
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Originally Posted by SoonerMickey
I'm enjoying your trip report. I'm a fellow Bluegreen owner and our kids are using some of our ponts at Mountain Loft this week. Keep up the good work!
You'll have to send me a PM and let me know your experiences in the club. Ours have been mixed. But I will say that Mountain Loft is one of the nicer-looking resorts. I don't know if you've stayed there or not, but I've got lots of pictures of our unit coming up after the zoo.
We arrived at the zoo about 12:00 (after moving our clocks ahead an hour while driving into the Eastern time zone), so we knew we would be getting something to eat first! We paid our $5 parking fee and thankfully were able to find a parking spot on the upper level, where we could walk to the entrance instead of having to wait on a tram.
As I mentioned, we get free admission here since we have a Friends membership at our local zoo. So after a minute to get our free tickets at the ticket booth, and a quick stop at the restroom, we headed straight back to Safari Grill, the zoo's main food location, which I am happy to report has a few tables inside. We waited patiently for one of these (it was extremely hot today), then sat down to eat. Jay had the big burger combo with cheese, fries, and a Coke, I had a junior burger and Dr. Pepper (I was disappointed to see they didn't have pizza ), and Joshua had a hot dog with fries and a green apple Slush Puppy. Joshua's cup said that you could get refills for only 50 cents, so we carried the cup around with us for the rest of our visit. Turns out the 50-cent refills were for soft drinks instead of Slush Puppy refills (they use the same cup for all kids meals), but that was okay. Our food was good, and soon we were giving up our table to somebody else happy to sit inside, and we headed out onto the trails to start looking for animals.
The restaurant marks the beginning of a loop at one end of the zoo. First were some hoofed animals in the Grasslands exhibit - waterbuck, gazelle and kudu.
Oh yeah, and I forgot the giraffes were next door:
Next Jay spotted this sign and got all excited because he is also an Eagle scout. He thought it was an interesting project to undertake. At first we thought it was kind of simple, to construct a sand box, but later on we found several more of these signs, so this guy was actually pretty busy.
Here's the sand box that was in this exhibit:
I don't remember which animal lived in this habitat. There was an African wild dog exhibit - that might have been it. The map also says the Lion pridelands was coming soon, but I don't think any lions were here at this point in time.
This curious ostrich was next:
I'm going by the guidemap on a lot of these for identification purposes. I believe these are the blue monkeys.
And the snow leopard. At this point the zookeepers must have sent out a memo that it was naptime, as it became harder and harder to find any animals up and around.
We caught a small glimpse of a lion
Hmmm kind of reminds me of Aslan on the stone table
and on the opposite side of the walkway was a bird, I think a heron of some type, or a crowned crane?
Here are the rest of the napping lions and tigers.
At the entrance to Gorilla Valley was this Red River Hog exhibit.
After a few minutes of patient waiting we got a great view of the silverback:
And just around the corner, we found this gorilla that was none too happy about being in this enclosure. I'm not sure if they were cleaning the other areas, or if this one just needed to be put in time out, or what. But every so often it was beating on the door, the rest of the time it was pacing around.
After Gorilla Valley you walk through Chimp Ridge. We only caught a few glimpses of the chimps:
Completing our loop, we stopped for a drink refill at snack stand, and a brief rest in the shade.
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That has to be some of the worst road planning ever. 
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How can that happen? Seems like they would put out a sign to let people know. I much prefer to have syrup with my waffles! Well, Jay finished eating first, then used the free internet that was set up on a computer in the lobby to print out the 7-day weather forecast for Gatlinburg. Nothing had changed since we had left home - temps in the 80's with a little chance of rain later in the week. 
Jay went back to the room to start loading the cooler and some of his things into the truck. After Joshua finally finished his cereal the two of us walked back to the room to brush our teeth. I had really wanted to get a few pictures around the lobby and pool area because it was so nice looking, but I just didn't have the chance. 
Jay went to check us out at the front desk while me and Joshua brushed our teeth. We finally got on the road at 8:30, a whole hour behind schedule! Somehow it happens every time. 
I took some pictures during the drive. Lots of them look similar - at the time, I kept getting excited every time I saw the next mountain appear over the horizon. 
But looking at them at home, you can't really tell that much difference, I don't think.
Every time we went over a bridge there would be a very brief break in between the trees to get a quick view of the water below. I wasn't quite fast enough on this one!
Based on our three visits, the Knoxville Zoo keeps improving over the years. It's much nicer than ours here at home.
Looking forward to hearing about the zoo!
You'll have to send me a PM and let me know your experiences in the club. Ours have been mixed. But I will say that Mountain Loft is one of the nicer-looking resorts. I don't know if you've stayed there or not, but I've got lots of pictures of our unit coming up after the zoo.
So after a minute to get our free tickets at the ticket booth, and a quick stop at the restroom, we headed straight back to Safari Grill, the zoo's main food location, which I am happy to report has a few tables inside. 
I believe these are the blue monkeys.
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