Pigeon Forge, TN. Sept 14th - 20th

We chose Pigeon Forge, TN because it's a good location in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and was on our way to Nashville. The Park is over 800 square miles and gets more than 12 million visitors a year, making it by far the most visited national park in the US. The Park gets it's name from the smoky blue mist that is almost always present in the mountains. Looks super cool. I actually looked up the scientific reason that causes the mist and...well, I'll let you look it up if you're that interested. You'd laugh your ass off if I tried to explain it, since you'd know there was no way that I actually knew the reason. The park is full of colorful wildflowers and wildlife including bears, deer, and coyotes. Obviously we only saw a small portion of the Park but it was beautiful as you can see in the "Pictures" section.

Camp Margaritaville RV Resort was top notch! Great location with easy access to the national park and surrounding entertainment areas. Restaurant and bar on-site. VERY well kept with nice concrete pads and lots of thick grass areas. Pool, jacuzzi, and a lazy river. Live entertainment. Bowling. Arcade. And more! We sat in the hot tub almost every night. Great way to end the day while catching up with other travelers and listening to live music. We're staying at another Camp Margaritaville Resort in a few months. Can't wait!

Pigeon Forge is an entertainment mecca. It's like a kid's version of Las Vegas. I think kids could spend weeks there and never get bored. It's a plethora of arcades, mini golf, water parks, roller coasters, souvenir shops, shows, restaurants, etc. We enjoyed an afternoon at The Island, which was only a two three minute drive from our resort. It's described as "a place to eat, shop, play and stay" and "a playful destination with unique shops, casual restaurants, and amusement rides". For those of you in SoCal, think Downtown Disney. We managed to do a moonshine tasting while we were there. Yeehaa! We decided to forego Dollywood because we wanted to spend the day in the national park and at our resort pool instead of another amusement park. The nice part is that you can do all those things and are still just a short drive away from complete serenity in the Great Smoky Mountains.

We did two hikes (Grotto Falls and Alum Cave Trail) and both were beautiful! We also drove the Cade's Cove Scenic Loop, an 11 mile single lane drive through the mountains. Gave us a real sense of the tranquility and natural beauty of the mountains.

We found Gatlinburg to be slightly more adult friendly than Pigeon Forge. It's just a 15 minute drive so we did a day trip there and spent some time at Anakeesta, an amusement park that you have to take a chairlift to get to. Landscaping throughout the park is really well done and the park was decorated for Fall/Halloween.

Betty got serviced in Charleston. The Crew got all fixed up in Savannah. So Lou got her turn in Pigeon Forge. Oil change, tire rotation, etc. She had a small injury that needed to be fixed so the mirror on the driver's side got replaced. One of The Crew members (not Melissa, Rita or Stella) forgot how close we were parked to a concrete pillar in an underground parking garage and managed to destroy the mirror while backing out. Nothing major but just keeping it real. All better now. 😎

We arrived at the Nashville KOA yesterday and we enjoyed a Murder Mystery Dinner last night. In the "Pictures" section, you can see a short video of the portion of our drive to Nashville that took us through some road work. They didn't leave much room for error. 🤣 Today I went to the Tennessee Titans football game while Melissa caught up on some errands she needed to get down. More details in my next post.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend. Make it a great week!