Gatlinburg Tennessee

Well, sorry for the delay in updating the blog. We actually arrived in Pigeon Forge Thursday afternoon and we're staying at a Park right off the Parkway, which is where everything, and I mean Everything, is located. Parkway is like a Main Street that runs from the entrance to Pigeon Forge, some 15 miles all the way through Pigeon Forge "and" Gatlinburg, all the way to the entrance to the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Yesterday we got a pretty late start and just ventured out to the Pigeon Forge Main Street and walked around, checking out lot's of shops. They have everything, and by that I mean, not just a "gazillion" restaurants, both sit-down and fast-food, from McDonalds to Tennessee Barbeque places...to ALL Kinds of activities, like race car tracks, to circus rides, Mirror Houses, Magician Shows, every kind of Dinner Show imagineable. There's more 'stuff' on this Main Street drag than we've ever seen! Even the Las Vegas strip can't rival the stuff here. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of shops. We stopped by a wood shop and had a sign made to hang on our RV, and of course we included Clyde and Duffy's name. Pictures of our new sign are included in our Gatlinburg slideshow.

Today we were going to spend the day in the Smoky Mountains National Park, but when we got there we found out that to go to the primary locations in the park, it would be 3 - 4 hours, including the return. We didn't have enough gas or time to make it that far today, so we've made an 'executive' decision this afternoon to extend our stay through Monday. We're planning on avoiding the Park tomorrow...it's so crowded here and Saturday and Sunday are the absolutely horribly crowded. We're planning on getting up early Monday and spending the entire day in the Smoky Mountains.

We spent several hours today on the Gatlinburg 'strip' and had a great time. We probably walked at least 2 miles and checked out hundreds of shops and malls and stuff. We came across this shop selling these machines called the"Jiglin' George", that you lay down, place your ankles in, they place a soft compress over your eyes and just relax. This machine starts 'jiggling' your ankles, which makes your whole body kind of shake back and forth. Supposedly, it solves ALL problems. You got an ache anywhere and I mean anywhere, and this machine supposedly solves it. The only thing I could tell after 5 minutes, was my lower back really hurt! Really! I've had a bad lower back for a year or so now and it was off the chart painful after that 'treatment'! Sheesh! Guess that's what I get for trying the thing out anyway huh? *Mark took a picture of me while I was having the 'treatment' and I took a couple of him while he was laying down for his treatment. We look like real dorks don't we? See the slideshow for pictures.

We hadn't eaten out in some time and we passed Bubba Gump's Shrimp restaurant and decided to eat there. We both had the fried shrimp platter and it was delicious. Well, that's about it for what we've been up to the last few days...I'll update again Monday after our day at the Smoky Mountain National Park. Until later...~