Pigeon Forge & DOLLYWOOD

Pigeon Forge where are you? The Tennessee Smokey Mountains are no place for a couple of California’s to be travelling after the sun goes down. I don’t think these people have heard of street lamps yet. I’ve seen black night skies before, but never as black as this. And what about signs, don’t they know how to put signs up? After travelling for over an hour and still not getting any closer to our destination we came across a little country store that, believe it or not was still open. In dire need of a restroom we went in and were greeted by a plump little woman (at least we think she was a woman) and told that we’d come too far. She told us to go back the other way and “cut to the right” at the second street light, then “cut to the right” again at the next street light and that would take us straight into Pigeon Forge. Okay so we get back into the car and try to figure out if “cut to the right” means to make a right turn or to bear to the right at the fork in the road, and not wanting to feel any stupider than we all ready did, we decided to take our chances and see what happened when we got to the second street light. Guess she wasn’t too thrilled with tourist. She definitely wasn’t as friendly as the rest of the Tennessean’s we would soon encounter.
After finally making it to the Dollywood KOA, long after the office closed, but thankfully having made a reservation, we found our key and Kabin with no trouble at all. Roger being the gentleman that he is went and checked out the facilities for us and reported back that they were A-OK. Being that he didn’t take a flashlight with him, I figured I didn’t need one, so off I went to visit, well, you know. Needless to say, on my way back my foot came down on the side of the asphalt wrong and I went head first straight for the dirt and gravel still wearing the dress I wore to church this morning. Roger was more than a little surprised to greet me on the porch whimpering like a baby with blood oozing out of both knees and palms. Thank you Lord for making me remember to bring the first aid kit. Dr. Roger cleaned me up pretty good and wrapped the worse knee and bandaged the rest, but we both were wondering if I would be able to do all the walking at Dollywood the next day.
DOLLYWOOD, here we are. We made it and it’s opened this time. 12 years ago when Roger and I drove cross country I tried to surprise him by detouring to Pigeon Forge while he was napping, but when we got there Dollywood was closed. Needless to say that was a 2 hour detour we could have done without. The town of Pigeon Forge, where Dolly Parton was born and raised is almost as brightly lit as Las Vegas. There were so many places open as we drove through the night looking for the KOA, that we thought it must not really be as late as we first thought. It seems that the night life of Pigeon Forge is just as popular as the daytime activities.
Driving just a short distance from our campground, we arrived at the entrance to Dollywood and were delighted by the brightly colored Butterfly in her signs. Another plus for us was the fact that Dolly has thought of the military and during times of war, (like right now in Iraq) she offers a substantial discount to active and retired military. Thank you Dolly. We found our way through the crowd and of course the first thing Roger spotted was the very big, very wooden, very fast rollercoaster ride. As any good mother would do, I held his camera so that he could go enjoy himself getting dizzy.

Rein's Eagle Project

On the Road Again...

Fort Barrancas

When we left the Aviation Museum we came across this old Fort. It was nestle on top of a hill and had a dry moat surrounding it. When the enemy came in trying to attack, the soldiers at the Fort were able to attack them from both sides. It was impossible to penetrate the walls of this Fort.

National Aviation Museum

I don't think I've ever seen Roger more like a kid in a candy store, then I did at this Museum. He sat in more Pilot seats, and played with more gizmos than I care to count. But, I had so much fun, watching him have so much fun. We watched several films while we were here and he even got into the Blue Angel Simulator. Did I, you ask? Not on your life, I held onto his camera. Isn't that what every good mommy would do? Seriously, I can't believe how much of our nations Aviation History they have stored in this one spot. And 90% of it you can touch. We ate lunch in this little cafe that was a replica from the Vietnam era. Roger will have to tell you more about that.

MILTON, FL

We arrived at the most beautiful campground of all. And can you believe it Bob Elliff beat us here. (Not really, but we found his car.) Our Kabin even has it's own little Gazebo. The people here are so very nice and our mattress is so thick that we almost need a footstool to get into bed. Weather is beautiful and the campers are friendly. They have the cutest little bugs and they're everywhere. The call them Love Bugs because the fly with they're bottoms stuck together. And there are zillions of them. We're off to see Pensacola tomorrow.

NASA SPACE CENTER HOUSTON

After many U-turns we finally ended up at the entrance to NASA Space Center Houston. Upon entering the facility we got to view a film on the History of Houston Space Center. Then it was off on the tram to tour where the Astronaut's train. The first stop: Original Mission Control Center where the words Neil Armstrong said from the Moon "The Eagle has landed" were heard and a roar of cheers went up. "One small step for a man, One giant leap for mankind" was also received in this same Control room. Imagine, there was only 428 megabytes of RAM for the whole control center. How far we're come since then. They even had rotary dials on the equipment instead of digital. Back on the tram and off we went to the actual training center where the Astronauts learn all they will need to know once they are up in space. Everything there is an exact replica of the real thing, so that they can test all types of malfunction scenarios. The only thing missing are the wings on the Shuttle, because they don't need them for training purposes. We also saw the building where all the Moon rocks are kept, where the Astronauts are quartined 7 days before leaving on a mission and the Astronauts Circle of Trees Memorial park. There is a tree planted there for each Astronaut who has died, some during their missions. The final building we went into was where they house the Apollo 18 rocket. The Apollo 18 mission was cancelled prior to the rocket ever be sent into space. And of course, we had to pass McDonald's where the Astronauts snack on McFlying Fries.