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