Nashville to Atlanta Georgia

The drive from Nashville was in driving rain and mist all the way to Monica Keith's a dear friend of Robie and Sharon.

When we arrived at Monica's the place was awash with water and mud due to all the rain they had the night before.

Monica's lake was completely full.

16 acres of beautiful greenery, hot and humid!

yep..Monika, water,water everywhere!!

Monika admiring the beautiful hydrangeas near The Hil Restaurant.

Betty enjoying an afternoon horse ride.

Betty with Goose who belongs to Ralph and Nancy, Monika's neighbours.

Robie at work as usual cutting the grass, he never sits still and always has to be up to something.

On Saturday Robie put on a pulled pork barbeque in the barn for us to meet up with all his friends and brothers. It was a great day with as much food and booze as anyone could wish for.

Tom and Monika.

Betty helping to "massage" the pork for Robie.

Hhmmmm, yum yum!

!

Shonsky doing his little begging trick - he's adorable. He belongs to Kat and Scott.

Chow time...

Robie doing what he loves!

Kat, Monika's daughter in law.

Robie with brothers Randal (in red) and Steven (in beige).

Nashville, Tennesse

14/6/13 - 17/6/13 Nashville, Tennessee

Well folks, this was the big moment we've been waiting for - the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville.

How exciting it was for us just to be there - Tom and I had prepped ourselves for a show at the Ole Opry with some music from Vince Gill (from our Ipod) since he was one of the draw cards for the night.

Country cousin Minnie Pearl and me in front of the Ole Opry. I had bought those boots in Montana last year in preparation for such an occasion.

The Holy Grail of country music...the Opry House centre stage where many aspiring country singers hope to stand on. It was interesting to find out that there are commercial breaks during the performance as the GOO is sponsored by the likes of Humana, Cracker Barrell and Dollar General just to name a few.

Mr Vince Gill entertaining us. What a treat it was to be there!!

Ms Jeannie Seely and our own Aussie girl, Clare Bowen doing a duet.

Shows at the Opry House are broadcast live on 650WSM - there are only 3 shows a week.

Ms Loretta Lynn, the Coalminer's daughter taking centre stage.

A small part of the grandiose Opry Land Hotel..what a magnificent place.

Take a good look at the water spouting from one rock feature to another...so cleverly done!

Folks, there are many more visual delights in this fabulous hotel.. you will not get much change from $300 at this hotel.

Kentucky

Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park Kentucky June 11-13th 2013

This is the Dale Hollow State Resort Park 18 hole golf course, a surprisingly good course with lots of uphill and downhill lies plus many bunkers and water traps.

I played with three other visitors that know the course and had a disaster of a day with 5 balls in the water on one hole. Betty and I went back the following day and I did much better at 4 under my handicap.

With the downhills and uphills club selection was tough and i never seemed to have enough club to get to the green.

An odd red shell turtle - not sure if someone has painted it or if it's natural.

A small deer across one of the lakes on the golf course - actually the lake where I deposited 5 balls.

What I believe was a black snake, it had it's head reared when I first arrived but I was not quick enough with the camera to capture it in defensive mode.

As if uphill and downhill were not enough I had to contend with side hill lies with the ball below my feet.

Tennessee

9th June - 11th June 2013 McCormick, SC to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Sunday morning saw us and the Hinklers up bright and early to see us on our way to Tennessee (hah! no such luck!). We had parked Al our 5th wheel in a cul de sac several streets away from their home during our 4 day stay. You'd think with all the mechanical troubles we've had on this trip, we'd catch a break...hell no!!

One of the brand new tyres on Al is flat as a pancake...somewhere along the way, we had picked up a nail. After some heavy work by Tom, he managed to change the tyre; we went back to Ron and Barb's for another breakfast and a shower for Tom.

Well it was a rather foggy and wet trip towards the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee...home state of Dolly Parton who was born in Locust Ridge.

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The Appalachian trail is well known for hiking and goes across the top of the mountain range.

Elevation: 6,644' (2,025 m)

Interstate 40 West carries a lot of traffic - we were jockeying for bitumen with dozens and dozens of 18 wheelers. It was pretty hairy at some spots with the heavy showers at times almost obliterating our view of the road.

What a fun town Pigeon Forge is for family and children. It has been a dry county ie, no alchohol served or sold until only a couple of months ago.  Being a Sunday, the only dinner show available was the "Hatfields McCoys" dinner show.  The set up of the facility is almost a replica of the "Outback Spectacular" down on the Gold Coast in Australia.

Monday saw us at Dollywood - we enjoyed the shows that were on especially "My People" at her Dreamsong Theatre, featuring Dolly's sister Cassie (centre), brother Randy and niece in this photo. There were also several other kin folk of Dolly's in the show.

Lunch? No we just had chilli fries.

Tom in front of Dolly Partons first class A RV

Inside Dolly's first tour bus, a Prevost - custom  built by Monaco Class A RV.

The Kitchenette where we were told Dolly enjoyed cooking her meals.

Our last show for the day was at The Back Porch theatre where we we treated to bluegrass music by the Smoky Mountain String Band.

A lovely grand building in Sevierville which is a suburb just before Pigeon Forge.

Can you work out this building? Its upside down...its an indoor entertainment venue for families and kids! Below are a selection of some of the other crazy buildings.

Yep that's an ape on the right of the photo.

A better vista of the Great Smoky Mountains taken just before sunset.

A view from our RV site at Two Rivers Landing RV Resort, Sevierville, Tennessee