Day 1: Friday, July 21:
Today, we left Helen, Georgia, early morning, about 6AM. We took the back roads, and by 6:51, we were in Clayton, North Carolina.
By 8:12AM, we were in Cherokee, North Carolina.
We stopped here to take pictures of the bear statues before heading across the mountain. We stopped along with several others to see a herd of elk gracing.
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| Herd Elk |
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| Bears of Cherokee, NC |
We crossed the mountain and stopped several times to take pictures of the smokey clouds lying on them. We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Pigeon Forge.
We went shopping at the Tanger Outlet Mall. Bought two bras and two panties at Victoria's Secret and one bra at Pink. We stopped at several other stores: Disney, Nike, Under Armer, just to name a few.
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| The Christmas Place |
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| We feed the Ducks, Geese, and Pigeons at the Old Mill along the Little Pigeon River. |
We rode to the Old Mill Farm-House, where I bought my son several different herbs packages, a bag of stone ground yellow cornmeal, and olive oil.
Along the Little Pigeon River near the Old Mill, we saw several geese, ducks, and pigeons.
We ate Taco Bell for lunch.
We checked into Apple Valley Inn a little after 4 PM, unloaded the car, and filled the fridge with our snacks.
Spent the rest of the day watching TV and resting.
Day 2: Saturday, July 22:
We ate breakfast at McDonald's I ordered Muffins and sausage.
We rode to Pigeon Forge's Visitor Center and bought all-day tickets to ride the trolley.
We bought fuel at Murphy's and bought a few groceries at Walmart (bagels, cream cheese, drinks, fruit)
Took our food back to the hotel.
We rode to Parrot Mountain and were there when they opened at 10AM.
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| Parrot Mountain |
Had my picture taken with five birds, two on my arms, two on my shoulders, and one on my head.
We visited the parrot nursery where we could actually pick up the birds.
We also went into the feeding area with Nectar several small birds flew down and drank every drop of the nectar from my hand.
Around 11:30 AM, we rode to the Trolley from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg.
We took the trolley from the Visitor Center in Gatlinburg to the downtown area.
We were the last two to board the fully loaded trolley, which was standing room only.
A nice young man gave me his seat, and hubby had to ride standing up.
It took over an hour to go a short distance because of the traffic. When we were almost there, everyone got off except a couple and us.
Everyone had to get off the trolley when we arrived at the Center near the Aquarium and wait for another trolley to take us into the downtown area.
The traffic was terrible, and we had already waited over 30 minutes for the next trolley.
Where we were going was several blocks away, so we decided to walk.
We took the scenic route along the Pigeon River, which was not crowded, and there was a nice cool breeze.
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| Seafood Platter at Bubba Gumps |
We were headed to Bubba Gumps for a late lunch.
We ordered a seafood platter of shrimp, fish, hush puppies, and fries.
When we finished, we walked down the crowded sidewalks, and it began to rain, so we looked for shelter.
It did not rain long, so we walked further down the sidewalks.
We walked back to the Trolley Stop and waited for the trolley to take us to Gatlinburg Visitor Center.
The crowd had thinned out, so the trolley was not crowded going back.
At the cross, there was an accident involving four vehicles. Our turn was blocked by police vehicles.
We had to take a detour, which took us a couple of miles out of the way.
We took the next trolley going to Pigeon Forge, which also had to take a detour.
This ended up being an all-day event.
It was late when we arrived back at our hotel.
Day 3: Sunday, July 23,
We ate bagels with cream cheese for breakfast.
Packed our bags, loaded the car, and headed for home.
We stopped at a couple of rest areas.
We had snacks with us, so we did not stop to eat until we got home.
