Rachel's Place: National Lampoon Vacations Part 2

The second craziest vacation was last year's vacation. Instead of heading to a beach, we decided to split a cabin in Pigeon Forge, TN with my brother and his wife. Now, Recie and I have been to Pigeon Forge before and we had a good time and my brother and I have been almost every summer of our childhood because that is where our parents always took us. We've never stayed in a cabin before so we thought it would be a fun and different experience. Different was correct. My brother picked the dates to go and lets just say he picked the worst possible dates ever. When we arrived, a car show, called the Classic Rod Run, had just ended, but most of those people stayed because starting that Thursday was the Fall Rod Run. Traffic was absolutely terrible and by Thursday of that week, it took 2 hours just to go from one end of Pigeon Forge to the other. We actually had to look at maps and find alternate routes just to get around the traffic. We didn't get to walk the strip because this car show brought some weird folks.  It was as if every redneck south of Tennessee who's name would've been Bubba, Cletus, or Clem was there, straight from the trailer with their confederate flags proudly flying from their pickup trucks. For those that don't know, I'm in an interracial relationship and a lot of folks from the south don't approve of that kind of thing. Yes, racism is alive and well and I see it every single day. We definitely got some mean stares when we drove past these folks who were sitting along the strip in lawn chairs. It was very uncomfortable so we just avoided going down the strip as much as possible.  The way people are today, you don't know what might happen and it was best to just avoid any negative or dangerous situation if possible.

Even Dollywood was a disappointment. I remember the park being so much fun as a kid, but not only was the park just about deserted (meaning there wasn't a lot of people there at all), but most of the people that were there were elderly and they would just stare at Recie and I and whisper among themselves. It was so funny that I just smiled at them and kept on walking. It was as if we were the talk of the town or something!  The roller coasters were disappointing. They were very rough and jerky. The only one we really liked was called Mystery Mine and although it was a little jerky also, it was a lot of fun. We also found that a wooden coaster, called Thunderhead, was a bit fun if you rode it in the front. We usually ride coasters in the back because to us, that is the best seat on a coaster, but the back was so jerky and bad that the front was the best seat on that ride. They had a new swing ride called the Barnstormer that was a ton of fun! And there was a family boat ride, called Riverbattle, that we just had a blast with. It was an interactive ride where you could shoot the people on the boat with a crank powered water gun and they could shoot back at you with crank powered water gun on their boats. We had a lot of fun shooting people and getting them soaked and then when we'd ride, those people that we soaked payed their revenge on us and soaked us back. We had so much fun and laughed so hard. We did thoroughly enjoy ourselves and we made the best of it. I thought that perhaps Dollywood was so desolate because we went in the middle of September, but my parents went there last July and they said that it wasn't very busy then either. Perhaps the economy has something to do with it, but in my honest opinion it's because the park isn't all that. This year they are opening a new winged coaster, so perhaps that will bring in more people.
The cabin we stayed at was very cute, but the walls were so thin you could hear every noise made in the cabin and every morning around sunrise, there were a couple of squirrels that would jump on the tin roof and run around up there and wake us up. They would be chirping and having a good time. LOL! All we could do was laugh about it. One morning I heard a noise outside and later that morning when I took Diamond out to potty, I noticed the trash can lid was on the ground and the trash bag was out of the can and ripped open.  Apparently a black bear had decided to see what goodies was in the trash that morning. The trash cans were mounted on a pole and they were elevated off the ground, but the lids had teeth marks and holes on them where bears had attacked the cans before.   LOL!

The highlights of this trip were seeing the black bears along the road while riding the trolley to Gatlinburg, eating at Bennitts Pit Bar-b-que (they had the best bar-b-que I've ever had!!!), hiking the trail to see Laurel Falls, which I've wanted to see since I was kid, having fun with Recie on Riverbattle and the Barnstormer at Dollywood, and having picnics at the Chimney's picnic area with Recie and Diamond. Unfortunately, the Great Smoky Mountains is not dog friendly and there were only two trails in the entire area that would allow dogs. Dogs were also allowed at the overlooks and at picnic areas but that's it, so Diamond didn't get to do a lot of activities with us last year on vacation.

Our last day, on our way back from Laurel Falls, we made the mistake of trying to take the regular way into Pigeon Forge and traffic was at a complete stop way before you even get into Pigeon Forge. We took the Galinburg bypass and about a mile after passing through the tunnel, traffic was at a complete stop! It took us over 2 hours just to get into Pigeon Forge and to a street that we could turn at and take a back road to go around the traffic. Recie doesn't like traffic and he was pretty upset that we had to sit in traffic that long. It was horrible. It was definitely a memorable vacation, but despite all the crazy things going on that week, we did have a good time. :)

Most of our other vacations have went smoothly in past years, but there always seems to be something funny or crazy that happens sometime during the trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about the two craziest vacations I ever had. :)

Recie in front of Laurel Falls.