More Time in Pigeon Forge

 Tuesday was a quiet day. We all met for breakfast at the 

It was right down the hill from our campground and close to the Meyers cabin. Breakfast was great and we all had too much to eat. The service was great too. We had a nice relaxing day. Glynda spent time in the lazy river at the campground and we spent some quality time with Abigail. The weather was perfect. Glynda had to leave in the afternoon to go home which was only a few hours' drive.

For dinner we went over to the Meyers cabin for spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. It was delicious and the views were spectacular. The cabin was at the top of the mountain, and it was quite a drive up that curvy steep road. The cabin had nice sleeping areas, a hot tub, a pool table, a foosball table and great balconies overlooking the mountain range. A fun place to stay. 

On Wednesday, the Meyers went to Dollywood Splash Country Water Park. They had a wonderful time on all the rides and slides. Fun times, for young people. Not so much for old folks like us. David and I went to Mel's Diner for breakfast.

 We have eaten there several times in the past, and it was always good, but it wasn't good this time. So-so at best.

After breakfast David wanted to go to the outlet mall to look for a new pair of Sketcher's. He couldn't find what he wanted in his size, but I found a pair I liked for a good price. I checked out the Talbots store, but everything seemed to be in petite sizes, so no luck for me.

After the outlet mall we went to the Shine Girl Moonshine store. It is owned by Dolly Parton's niece, Danielle. You should read her bio. She is amazing.

  Her website.     Shine Girl Moonshine. New in Tennessee! #moonshiners #fulltimerv #tennesseewhiskey (youtube.com)

We sampled their 4 moonshines, and they weren't what you would expect. Very smooth and flavorful. and didn't burn your throat. We bought a bottle of the Red Velvet and Coconut to take home. One drink you could make with the Red Velvet was to mix it with cold brew coffee and heavy cream and the coconut could be used in a Margarita. Very interesting. 

After Shine Girl, we stopped by Iva's Quilt shop. I haven't been there in years, but I did find some fat quarters I liked. 

On our way back to the campground, we drove down Tester Dr, a street over from the main drag in Pigeon Forge. That road used to have little strip malls on the left side and empty fields on the right. Now it was all built up with hotels, restaurants. It was late in the afternoon, and we were hungry. Lo and behold, we saw a Guy Fieri, Downtown Flavor town restaurant. So that was something else. David ordered the cheesesteak eggrolls, and I ordered the trashcan nachos. WOW! they were delicious and huge. Plenty of leftovers.

And this place was HUGE. It just seemed to go on forever. Here's a video.  Downtown Flavortown Pigeon Forge Full Tour & Review (youtube.com)

It was worth the visit and luckily, they weren't busy at that time in the late afternoon. I would go back there again. It was great.

The Meyers came over for a campfire and Smores. It was a fun time. The campground was almost empty since it was the middle of the week. Even Abigail sat out in her playpen. She still smelled like a campfire when we got home.

It was a wonderful trip. Close to home, short and fun.

Headed to Pigeon Forge, TN

 The Meyers had been planning a 4-day vacation to Pigeon Forge. They planned to leave right after school was out on May 25th. They asked if we wanted to meet them there since it is only a few hours from our house. Of course, we said yes.

Our plans were to arrive on the afternoon of Sunday, May 26th, Memorial Day weekend and leave on Thursday, May 30th. A short, but fun trip. It would be our first trip without our precious Bentley who died on Tuesday, May 21st. He had been on every trip with us since 2007 when we bought our first motorhome. Abigail did her best to fill in for him, and even though she did a good job it just wasn't the same.

Here she is riding on the dashboard as we started down the road,

And Emma & Trevor were busy on their devices while riding along on their way from Florida.

After we checked into Camp Margaritaville in Pigeon Forge & the Meyers checked into their cabin, they came over to our place. The RV Park had a restaurant, bar and lodge with an arcade in the basement. for the kids. It was a good thing too, since it poured down rain. Glynda drove up from Chatsworth to spend a couple of days with us too.

The weather prediction was to have rain all week. It stormed all Sunday night and Monday morning and by 10am it had cleared up and was beautiful the rest of the week.

Monday morning, Abby and I went for a walk around the campground.

It was a really nice campground with lots of amenities. They had a lodge, heated pool, lazy river, pickleball courts, a couple of bars and places to eat, playgrounds and lots of games for the kids. It was very clean, and the staff were all very friendly. They had more amenities than we needed for sure.

The Meyers decided to go to Dollywood on Monday after the rained had stopped. They had a great time even though they didn't get to see everything.

Emma and Najla really liked the roller coasters like the Thunderhead wooden roller coaster. Ryan and Trevor, not so much.

For dinner, we had reservations for the Dollywood dinner show. It was great and the food was really good too. They served creamy vegetable soup, a whole roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, a biscuit, BBQ pork and an apple turnover. You didn't leave hungry for sure.

They had a pre-show for entertainment while we waited. The trio was very good.

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Here are some of the pictures taken at the show.

Buffalo

It was a fun night and everyone enjoyed the show and the food.

Monday, March 4th, Last Day in St. Augustine

 We had a nice quiet day with the kitties and their squirrel friends. Of course, throwing out peanuts for the squirrels helped.

We would be leaving on Tuesday to head home, so we spent some time organizing to get thing ready to get back on the road.

Ryan texted and said they were going to skip Emma's volleyball practice that night and they would come over at 4PM and spend some time with us. When they came over, it had turned a little cool outside, so we sat inside. We ordered pizza and salad for dinner from Marcos's pizza. Then, the kids went into the bedroom to watch TV, while we chatted. It was a good night. Abby even came out and made friends with Najla. We talked about meeting them when school is out in May in Pigeon Forge, TN. They wanted to go to Dollywood. I couldn't believe I didn't take any family pictures. What was I thinking? The kids are so tall.

On Tuesday we left for home. It was raining almost the whole way. Abigail jumped on the dashboard to see where we were headed. She was amazed at the windshield wipers going back and forth, back and forth.

Check out the video.   https://youtube.com/shorts/gQLXBODTUvM

We were stopping over night at the KOA in Forsyth, GA. This has usually been about our halfway home stop when heading home from Florida. Unfortunately, it rained most of the way and the ground was saturated with puddles everywhere. 

 The one thing going for it was it had geese, big, noisy geese. Bentley saw them too. He couldn't hear them, but he could see them.

Meanwhile, Abby was busy begging for her cat grass. We keep it in the showers so she can't get to it. She is obsessed with it. It must be some pretty good stuff.

The next morning, we got ready to hit the road for home. The geese were busy honking and teasing the kitties. Abigail loved it.

She like this campground.      https://youtube.com/shorts/XIv1_4CeEWc

After getting the car hooked up, away we went, with Abigail leading the way. 

We had no issues this trip and no traffic problems getting through Atlanta. We got home early enough to take the kitties home , come back and unload everything from the motorhome. We were all happy to get home and Abby was especially happy to get back to her screened porch.