Trip Day 2: Tennessee

Day 2 found us waking up in Jackson, Tennessee, and getting on the road toward Nashville. Tennessee is a beautiful, beautiful state. Full of huge, rolling hills, lush countryside, and amazing views.
We got into Nashville around lunchtime, and made our way to the state capitol building. It is perched up on the top of a hill, and is exceptionally non-handicapped accessible. I dropped Ben and the boys off at the bottom of the hill and they climbed 92 stairs to get to the building. There they asked where the handicapped accessible entrance was, and were told there was basement access through an entrance on the east side of the building. Really, the east side of the hill the building is on. The trouble was that the entrance was on a very busy road, and on the opposite side of the hill from the handicap parking. Huh. So I stayed in the car and Ben and the boys toured the building. Brigham (my architect-in-the-making) loved it and wished I had given him my camera so he could take pictures inside. I had to make do with pictures from the outside. You can only see the top of the building from the bottom of the hill. We saw several Capitol buildings on this trip and this one was the favorite.





We got back on the road and drove toward the Smoky Mountains, amidst radio reports of a tornado watch. We saw some stormy weather, but, to the disappointment of the boys, no actual tornadoes.
We made it to the Smoky Mountains in the afternoon, just in time for the Dolly parade in Pigeon Forge, AKA Dollywood. Have you heard of Dollywood? I hadn't. We happened to be passing through on the one day a year when they have the Dolly parade, and we actually saw Dolly Parton herself, riding on one of the floats in the parade. Our brush with celebrity. The boys were totally thrilled, being huge Dolly Parton fans. Just kidding.
Dollywood is an amazing place. It is this huge resort town with probably 50 hotels/motels and tons of resort-town attractions. Waterparks, helicopter tours, a gazillion restaurants, arcade-type places, a Wonderworks Museum, etc., etc., etc. It was 15 miles of hotels and resorts all the way up to the entrance of the park. Amazing. I had no idea that was even there. We laughed later, because we had stopped at a visitor's center a few miles before we got to Pigeon Forge (right off the interstate), and asked the person there whether or not there would be hotels closer to the park, or if we should try to find a place closer to the interstate. She gave us a funny look and told us she thought we'd find accomodations in Pigeon Forge. She wasn't kidding, the place could hold about 10,000 tourists.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but driving into the park was really spectacular. May is definitely the month to see the Smokies.




We stopped a couple of times to admire the view. Joseph was thrilled about taking pictures. I have to catch him unawares.


We wanted to drive up to the tallest peak in the Smoky Mountains, and we almost made it. I got really nervous since we were *just* about out of gas (the low fuel light had been on a while and the needle was now well past the "E"), and as we got to the top, it got extremely foggy. We could hardly see 20 feet in front of the van, and I wasn't keen on driving off a cliff or into someone coming down the narrow, winding road. Not to mention the fact that if we ran out of gas up there on the top, no one was likely to come up and find us because of the fog. So we stopped literally 1000 feet down the road from the top of the mountain, and I'm not sure Ben will ever forgive me. I spoil everyone's fun with my silly worries about driving off cliffs and being stranded overnight on the tops of mountains. :-)

But see? It was really foggy. This is at the top where we pulled over and turned around. I guess this is why they are called the Smoky Mountains.

On the way back down, we saw a beautiful sunset over the mountains.

We stopped again to let the boys wander around a bit by one of the many creeks running down the mountainside. I took pictures out the car window.

Mosey found dandelions.


We did make it down without running out of gas (phew!), and stayed the night in Gatlinburg, a little resort town right at the entrance to the park. It is nestled snugly between mountains rising steeply to either side, and was surprisingly busy. Lots of people walking up and down the street going into the little boutique shops and candy stores and restaurants. We ate an exotic dinner of McDonalds and slept soundly in a small local motel.