Just kidding…kinda’. If you remember from our last post, we were headed to Pigeon Forge and Dollywood to celebrate Stu’s 70th birthday. We dropped the #2doods off for doggy camp and headed to Knoxville for my final post-surgery checkup (got the A-OK and “don’t come back unless you have issues” talk). Beautiful weather and minimal traffic. We got a kick out of the overhead warning sign on I-40.
We got checked into our room and that was the first surprise. I had booked a king suite advertised “with a hot tub”. What we actually got was quite a disappointment. You can read our review HERE (click the MORE link to see photos). Sigh…
It was just after two and with the nice weather, we decided to head over to Dollywood. The weather forecast for the next two days was cold and rainy. We got there and realized they were closed on Tuesdays. Oh well… So we opted to drive up Newfound Gap Road.
We drove through Gatlinburg and were shocked! The town was packed, the sidewalk full of people, the majority without masks and the remaining few often struggled to cover both the nose and mouth. No wonder Sevier County is near the top of the list of COVID cases per capita. The county initially instituted no restrictions. They now have a mask restriction in place to the end of the month, but it was obviously not being enforced.
It was a nice drive with eventual snow on the sides of the road. Here are a few pics, you can see all of them in our SmugMug album.
We headed back into town and stopped at Firehouse Subs for dinner. We had driven past our favorite stop, Mel’s Diner, but it was packed. Too packed for us to want to eat in there.
The food was good, as always, the place was almost empty (although several people came in to pick up to go orders), and all the employees were masked.
We woke to rain, LOTS of rain. And cold, VERY cold. We kept waiting and eventually headed over to Dollywood around 4-ish to get some dinner and see the lights. Dollywood has put several restriction in to place: temperature checks, reservations required (to limit the number of attendees), and masks required except when eating/drinking. We saw very few issues other than noses peeking out at times.
I think the lights this year were the best in our three Christmas time visits. That said, I didn’t take any photos. All bundled up against the cold, trying to breath in a mask that was getting wet, and walking way more than usual was enough. Sorry…lol. Our dinner options were limited as places were closing so we grabbed a BBQ sandwich as we headed out.
Stu’s birthday opened with more rain and cold but it slowed enough by just after lunch to head out to eat and then over to Dollywood. We stopped at a spot new to us, the Sunliner Diner. We had wanted to have dinner there the night before but it looked too busy for our comfort. We did have a 15-20 minute wait and the food was “okay”, nothing spectacular. But we enjoyed the atmosphere and music and thought it would be a good breakfast stop on Friday morning.
If you look close, you will see a date in 1958!
We bundled up and headed into Dollywood for day two. My legs were already sore and they were quickly tested as we took the steeper route over to the two rides Stu wanted to get in while it was still light. I took on backpack watch duty and waited while he had a blast. The new wooden coaster was his favorite. They are in the process of dismantling and rebuilding the old wooden coaster. Hopefully it will be running next spring when we hope to visit again (we have season passes).
Back in the room, we noshed on snacks and went to sleep early, both beaten by the cold and walking. This is where the “hot tub” would have been nice. Oh well…
We took our time getting up on Friday and, of course, the sun was shining brightly now that we were headed home. We went to the Sunliner Diner for breakfast. Stu got an omelette and it was HUGE. I stuck with the basics.
Final opinion – fun place to visit, bit pricey but that’s to be expected, food was average but good sized portions. Oh, and while we were there Stu took a photo of me that I actually liked!
We got home late enough we opted to leave the #2doods at doggy camp. Turned out to be a good decision because by 2am Saturday we were in the ER with Stu having severe stomach cramps. We were back home at 6am and he has an appointment with our GP to discuss further testing/options for gall stones.
2020 isn’t done with us yet….argh!
