We left home early at 6:00 AM Saturday morning and began our summer vacation trip to Tennessee with the kids. The plan, to drive for 9 hours and stopover in Georgetown, KY for a quick overnight and then resume the remaining 3 hour trip to Knoxville and visit Natalie’s dad before arriving at our final destination, Dollywood! This wasn’t our first trip to the Gatlinburg area and I doubt it will be our last.
During our evening in Georgetown, located just north of Lexington, KY, Natalie and I were able to escape the Hilton hotel and found ourselves in The Tipsy Cow Bar located a mere 200 yards from the hotel. We listened to a live country music band that played songs neither of us recognized. I drank Bud Light in a can because the bar didn’t have the supplies or know-how to make the first five drinks I ordered. We walked back to the hotel after one beer and half a dozen unrecognizable songs to rest before continuing our trip into Knoxville the next morning to visit Natalie’s father.
Natalie’s father is staying at an excellent memory care facility there as he struggles with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. With COVID restrictions, only two guests are allowed in his room after screening. The kids had a chance to say hi and Natalie enjoyed the limited time she had with him prior to the continuation of our trip eastward. We also knew that we planned to stop back and say our goodbyes just prior to his birthday at the end of the week. It’s been an emotional struggle for the family as his mentation has declined very rapidly over the last couple of years shortly after retirement, from being a very functional, engaging individual and progressing to a state of confusion, memory loss, and inability to form words.
We jumped back into the Expedition and began the short trip to our final destination, Dollywood, to celebrate her twins’ 12th birthday. Dollywood first opened in 1986 but has grown a ton in the last few years, expanding to include a water park and The Dream More Resort (which is a short trolley ride away from the park and where we spent our overnights while there). Dolly recently said, “Needless to say, it’s been the biggest and best investment I ever made.” The star’s hometown attraction pulls in three million visitors and makes about US$118 million annually. It really is a crazy attraction that I personally have never even heard of until I met Natalie who seems to be some sort of “regular” there. The Dream More Resort, being a very Christian and morally above board resort, has no sports bar or any other adult venue for that matter. Adult-only venues with copious amounts of alcohol seemed increasingly necessary as the days went on while spending time with three tweens wanting to do all the things tweens want to do or didn’t want to do because it was too boring.
Our first day there was dampened (although the word “dampened” was a true understatement) towards the end of the day with thunderstorms and rain (thanks to Tropical Depression Fred). Natalie, being the modern-day June Cleaver, was prepared for EVERYTHING throughout the day and quickly pulled out of her well-packed backpack five brand new fluorescent blue and red rain ponchos she purchased a week ago just in case. Everyone but I donned the new rain gear and continued on our way. I tried to show up to everyone by proving that I was a real tough guy and didn’t need a poncho, but quickly become drenched to a point beyond any return so I just sucked it up and walked around soaked the rest of the day. Luckily the others had their very bright ponchos on making it virtually impossible for me to lose my way while following them in the torrential downpour.
Despite taking my Nikon D-850 DSLR camera and a bag of lenses, I didn’t shoot a single picture with it. All pictures are taken with my phone. Not the best, but given the weather and long days of walking in the heat, it was the best I could do.
As luck would have it, Tropical Depression Fred hit landfall over the Florida panhandle on Monday and is slowly creeping north and east bringing with it thunder, rain, and flood warnings. I pulled up the NOAA site to learn that the projected storm path courses DIRECTLY over Dollywood later today and as I write this, early Tuesday morning (10/17), we also discovered that Dollywood doesn’t shut down for a little measly tropical storm.
The waterpark, appropriately named Splash Country, is open for business today (Tuesday) and it seems like we are going to get wet in the waterpark regardless of our willingness to ride any of the rides. Despite my gentle suggestions that perhaps we could find some fun indoor activities to enjoy, my words fell on deaf ears and it seems we are heading out into the storm to enjoy the water in the rain. Hooray!
Later Tuesday evening, to celebrate the girls’ 12th birthday I had the idea to find a dinner theater to watch! I was able to come up with this murder mystery dinner show and because of Natalie’s silly antics with the staff beforehand, she got pulled into the show with a speaking part. Her character was an Elvis fan! Unfortunately, because of my association with Natalie, I too was pulled into the show as Mr. Bud Wiser! I wore a cowboy hat and also had to “act” in front of a bunch of strangers. Natalie, being her true self, even deviated from the script several times and was completely flustered, but thanks to the professional actors, she was able to be drawn back into the script and ended up doing a superb job. All in all, we had a good laugh and it was a lot of fun. The kids are already asking to do this again.
As crazy as our first two days in the heat, rain, and wind while standing in lines and waiting to hop on another roller coaster for the 8th time and me experiencing severe foot pain from wearing the same worn-out and now soaking wet Keens, we planned another EPIC day at Dollywood for Wednesday. Below, you can see the pure joy on Natalie’s face as we endure the heat during the early afternoon. It was so much fun!
Before our Dollywood departure, we absolutely HAD to stop by the gift shop and pay for some much-needed Dolly merchandise. I get a kick out of watching all the people and just looking at the stuff. The place was massive and so many people eyeing their next mementos, sweatshirts, tee shirts, and coffee cups!
After we left the Dollywood madness, we started to plan our drive back home. We stopped by to say our goodbyes to Natalie’s dad and even were able to take him out for lunch and a few beers before heading north. Our plans were fluid and we were trying to find something along the way to keep the kids engaged during our drive. It’s been a while since we have been to Chicago because of all the COVID restrictions and we decided to bite the bullet and get a hotel room for a couple of nights stay there over Friday and Saturday night. In the end, I think it was a great decision despite the blisters slowly forming on my feet from all the walking. We met with my daughter, Lily and her new husband, David, for dinner on Friday night at a great place near their home.
We then really spent most of our time doing the typical tourist things while there since the kids really haven’t had too many experiences there. The Magnificent Mile shopping and Navy Pier were high on our list of To-Dos. We even just happened to be at Navy Pier during the annual Chicago Air and Water Show and witness the Blue Angels performing for 30 minutes directly overhead. I personally can never get tired of watching this stuff and it makes me want to start flying again even though I know I just couldn’t devote the time and energy needed. I’ll stick to just watching planes fly overhead.
I’ll be honest. After living in Chicago for 5 years during medical school, I was always ready to move away and settle down somewhere a little less hectic. That was over 30 years ago! Time is flying by! After our short weekend there last week, I started to really miss some of the great things about this city, and it makes me want to find the time to spend more of it there. Perhaps this will be something we do more of over extended weekends in our future as it’s only a couple hours drive and I could totally embrace all the good things this place now has to offer.
We made it home on Sunday morning and I think Natalie and I were ready for another post-vacation vacation. A beach by the ocean with endless supplies of rum is sounding real good about now…….
