We left Nashville yesterday morning and headed east towards the Smoky Mountains. After a homely lunch at a chain of restaurants called Cracker Barrel we stopped in at Knoxville to visit my friend Susan who I met online doing internet projects between our classes back in 1995. The only time we met face to face was when we came over here in 1998 or 99 when we were on a busy trip that stopped in Phoenix, Arizona. She's retired since then and she and her late husband took to the road and now she's in Knoxville.
After a few hours of chatting we drove further east to stop at Pigeon Forge where Dolly Parton has developed her theme park and turned what was undoubtably a little country town into an eclectic mix of dinner shows, restaurants, shops and accommodation.
Last night we went to the Dixie Stampede show which tells a bit of a story and pits North against South through horse riding and showmanship, wagon train rides, singing and dancing, pig and chicken races while you get fed an enormous dinner to eat with your hands! It was a great show and well worth the money.
Today we went to Dollywood and wandered through what is like a mini Disneyland. There was a lot of history of Dolly's career. We saw inside her old tour bus and listened to her music. We also went on a few rides - a water ride that saw us get pretty wet, and a few roller coasters. After the first two it confirmed that I DON'T like roller coasters! Peter went on quite a few more than me and as usual I was happy to watch and wait!