Hello Dear Readers! Have you ever wondered if there is somewhere other than Disney that offers family friendly entertainment that everyone can enjoy? Well I’m happy to share that Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is the place to be!
We’d been to Gatlinburg once before, gosh, its been almost 8 years! We had road tripped from Washington State because I got a hair up my beehind to experience a backpacking trip. Dale was not at all interested, so I had found an REI trip in the Great Smoky Mountains. We decided to make a trip of it back to Charleston in our previous RV. Well I experienced it all right. I’m sorry to report that after three nights of nearly zero sleep, all the beauty, being on the Appalachian Trail, and what Gatlinburg even looked like was very lost on me. When I finally rejoined Dale I never wanted to see a pair of hiking boots again. Well, the boots came back into my life, but that backpack stayed in the closet until we sold our home last year. Then it made its way to a more deserving member of a generation who probably still finds that kind of camping fun. I’ll put it in writing here, Dale was right about that one.
Anyhoo – of course that experience all took place before my crazy quest to gather park stamps, soooo, we had to return for a more civilized visit. I found the quite lovely Pigeon Forge Landing RV Resort right in the heart of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We had three goals for this stop. 1) Visit Great Smoky Mountain NP, 2) Golf in Tennessee, and 3) Go to Dollywood! We had a week to get it done, so we settled in and started exploring our options around town.
Dale had booked our first evening at The Comedy Barn before we even left Florida. He was excited for an evening of PG, maybe R, rated comedy. He had even boldly gone forth and booked front row seats, a risky move for the kind of comedy he was hoping for. We stopped at the Hard Rock for dinner before hand. Which was PACKED because we had happened upon the Ponies in the Smokies 2025 Mustang owners event. We also discovered that the main drag through Pigeon Forge, appropriately, but oddly, named Parkway, was essentially a traffic nightmare. Honestly, 20 minutes to DRIVE one mile!?! But we arrived in time to get good parking at the venue, and it quickly became clear that we were in for a very G rated event. No alcohol sales!, What!?! In the end, we both enjoyed the show. It was cheesy and cute, and a few times laugh out loud funny. And I’m happy to report that the audience participation events required men in their twenties, or moms, dads and grandparents with kids in the audience. So we were spared. We made it back to our campsite to settle in for a lovely evening, even if we got to hear those “Ponies” roaring down Parkway for the rest of the night.
The next day it was Park Stamp time. We hoped to avoid as much Parkway traffic as possible so we headed to the park with the goal of being at the Visitor Center when it opened. For the most part, the ponies were still asleep, but we obviously weren’t the only ones with the idea of getting there early. That parking lot fills up as fast as the one at Zion NP. And since I’d already been on the AT at the top, we opted to do the four mile trip from the Visitor Center to Gatlinburg and back. Started with the park stamp (Number 44!), hiked down to find a good cup of coffee and then back to the car. Mission accomplished! But we decided we needed to check out one of the Alpine Coasters in town. $18 a person, 30 minutes of waiting, and our ten minute ride was complete. But what a blast!
The next two days were “hunker down” days, the rain was coming in. Neither Dollywood nor Golf would be in the cards. So the first day we rotated between Rummy, binge watching, and Cribbage for the day. By the second day, we both needed an outing. So while Dale opted for a grocery store visit, I opted for the Hollywood Wax Museum. He sure misses out on all the fun! For a mere $40 I shot monsters in 5D (scored 4th out of 6), ran from the Undead (which was scarier than I expected. I guess I prefer them on the big screen), and saved the princess in the mirror maze. Which was so easy, me and the group I was with were convinced we hadn’t actually found the end. I had to go back in to double check and then finally stopped at the end spot long enough to hear the proclamation that the Princess is Saved! Finally I had just enough time to whip through the Wax museum, which was pretty well done, though I spent more time analyzing the heights of my favorites. If those figures are accurate, Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling are all strapping men. Unfortunately most of the women were wearing heels, so that’s not fair and hard to assess. The biggest surprise was just how little, rapper Lil John actually is. I don’t think he even made it to my shoulders! The whole thing couldn’t have taken an hour, but I sure had fun!
And then it was time to tackle Dollywood. I told Dale that this was practice for our visit to Cedar Point coming in May. It was totally charming! There was NO DOUBT this park is about Dolly, from the multiple shows that feature something about Dolly, to the music pumped throughout the park, to the themed areas of the park paying homage to her youth in the mountains. I rode as many rollercoasters as I could. Dale made it through two of them, and that was enough. There were a couple that had technical difficulties so they dropped off the list, and I opted to skip the old wooden coaster, knowing from other experiences that they just hurt. But I stood in the hour long line to ride the newest one, so new they don’t even sell a fast pass for it…..unless you stay in one of the resorts connected to the park. Dale had informed me that he had run into our former Trilogy neighbors Eric and Deb Boehm! They had moved to Tennessee about three years ago, so it was another of those “the world is small place” moments for Dale! For me, The Big Bear Coaster was a nice smooth ride and worth the wait! I couldn’t convince Dale to stay for any of the shows, and if we stayed any longer we were going to be scarfing up the many fat pills available around the park. So instead we opted to head back and have dinner at the Hatfields and McCoys Feud Dinner show. (Dale’s idea!) Dinner was a good ole country fried chicken dinner, and you could even buy a drink! The show was entertaining, but I’m quite sure the real Hatfields and McCoys were slightly more violent…..
And with one day left, we had our last goal to complete. So off to the Gatlinburg Golf Club we went. Tee-off time was at 1:40pm and we were paired with a lovely couple from Kentucky who had as many challenges on the course as we did. The course was a bit more challenging than expected, and winds were so strong we were surprised the ball could stay on the tee! But we enjoyed the round and MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
And Dear readers, as busy as all that sounds, we barely scratched the surface of what there is to do in Pigeon Forge. Its clean, family friendly, and big! Its time for us to head further east now. Time for some more Park visits! So until we “meet again”, I’ll leave you with this Dolly quote: “You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.”
Lady Wanderingwise
Weise's Wanderings 
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