We were up bright and early at our hotel in Bull's Gap TN.
I so enjoy saying that name....lolz
By the time Hubs got into the shower the hot water was nonexistent, poor thing.
This is why I always try to take my shower the night before when traveling....
The hotel free breakfast was pretty good. No "meat/protein" other than Sausage gravy for putting over biscuits which I don't care for but they had oatmeal and actual hot water to pour over it so I was good to go.
Hubs mentioned at check-out about the lack of hot water in the shower and the front desk person gave him a 20% discount for the next time we stay here.
Not really on our regular route so not such a great thing. lol
Since we aren't booked ahead for lodgings except for while we are in Louisiana, we aren't on a hard time deadline. We can go and do what we feel like each day, as long as we are making progress toward our destination in LA.
While I detest not having hotels booked and secured(control freak much?), I do enjoy the travel and sightseeing freedom that comes with "freestyling".
We decided to check out a sight nearby before we blew this part of Tennessee.
We drove into Greenville Tennessee. This was the adopted home of President Andrew Johnson.
He was born in a log cabin in Raleigh North Carolina but his father died when he was 3 so his mother worked as a laundress to support the family. They were my kind of folks.....early American "white trash". His mother apprenticed him and his older brother William to a local tailor but they ran away after some time.
Eventually Andrew made his way to Greenville Tennessee and was married here at age 18 and the rest is history.
Greenville is proud of their famous son, with many MANY businesses named for him.
You can cash a check at the Andrew Johnson Bank, buy liquor at the Andrew Johnson Spirits store, and then hole up in the Andrew Johnson Inn and sleep off your drunk.
Ok, so that's not such an illustrious example of all sites AJ in Greenville.....
Hey look!
Another "Rent-to-Own" Shed business!!
After driving through town we got to where we were headed for our 1st stop of the day....wanna guess what we were going to see?
The birthplace of Davy Crockett. You remember the song, don't you?
Seems to me David Crockett was the last honest politician who was known more for other accomplishments than for being a bureaucrat.
Sluggy calling the family in for dinner at a replica of Davy's boyhood home. You can tell Hubs took this shot as he cut off part of the cabin. lol
The cabin interior was barred off and dark but with the camera flash, all was revealed......
The "dining area" of the one room cabin. There was a sleeping loft you couldn't view.
The backside of the cabin with a garden area to the right.
We didn't have time to go over to the nice new museum across the way(and it might not have even been open we were up and out so early, but we did some reading on these informational boards and shot some photos while an ornery bee attempted to sting us.
Davy was a very interesting fellow with a large sense of justice.
This led him to eventually oppose Andrew Jackson and his policy of Creek Indian annihilate. He stood alone in Congress against the President and as a result lost his seat in the next election. I feel that was the last time of man with morals was ever in Washington D.C.
Davy ended up taking part in the Texas Revolution.
That whole Alamo thing didn't end very well for him......
An old concrete monument between the cabin and the nearby creek.
Another monument between the cabin and the museum, constructed in the 20th century.
This site is VERY out of the way and the signage pointing your way is easily missed.
As a result it is very quiet with no crowds(we were the only ones there on our visit).
There is a shelter with picnic tables down by the creek(a branch of the Nolichucky River) and it was very peaceful down there. Had it been later in the day we would have brought a picnic lunch to eat at this spot.
On the way out of town, we stopped at a local liquor store to check it out.
While Hubs bought a few more bottles of TN whiskey, I posed for a photo with my new BFF Popcorn Sutton......
"White whiskey" my ass.....that there's moonshine!
We bid Davy, Andy and Popcorn adieu(for now)and found our way back onto the Interstate.
We knew we were getting close.....
Another 45 minutes and we were on the road leading into Gatlinburg TN.
The annoying ginormous billboards were one clue we were getting close. That sign was advertising the Hattfield & McCoy Dinner Show.
WTF?!? lolz
Chocolate Monkeys?? Hmmmm.....
The road into Gatlinburg has changed ALOT since we camped in the Smokey Mountains National Park as a family back in 1997......
Not a very good place to park a boat, I must say!
I didn't know they had gorillas in Tennessee?
I forgot to take a shot of this monkey when we headed back out of town to the interstate. It's positioned so that you can take a real nice big close-up shot of King Kong's ASS.....LOLZ
These were but 2 examples of big overblow schlocky "entertainment venues" on the road between Sevierville and Gatlinburg. If you get off the main drag there is Dollywood too.
None of this was here back in the 1990's when we stayed here.
I find this all very sad that Americans can't go to a place of natural beauty without turning it into this.
Are we so easily bored by being out in nature that we need bigger and bigger rides, movies, shows to entertain us when we aren't glued to our smartphones?!?
*Sigh*
Enough of that mess.....
Not soon enough we were in the park and looking at beautiful scenery for a change......
We were headed to our next stop in Gatlinburg TN.
After paying a highway robbery price of $8 to park we headed into the rain to go here......
No, we weren't here for the scenery......
Though I did like this vintage repro poster......
Tampons for men?
Yes, please.....
No, we were here to take this picture......
.....taste Tennessee sippin' whiskey and haul off 2 BOXES of booze!
Since last August we have been
jonsing to get back to TN for some whiskey. And you can only find this Davy Crockett brand in Eastern Tennessee.
Yes, Davy, we meet again......
We
only relieved the Barrelhouse of 9 bottles of whiskey and a few trinkets as well.
Only 1 bottle didn't make it back as my daughter claimed it.
Of all the alcohol we tasted these 3 were my favorites.....the Salted Caramel Whiskey, the Wildfire Cinnamon Cream Liquer and the Sassafras Moonshine.
I know a cinnamon cream whiskey sounds a bit odd and unappetizing, but trust me, it is
AWESOME!
I went there thinking I'd like the PECAN flavored Whiskey but it tasted like pecan shells to me. lol
So after lugging heavy boxes to the car, we set off in the rain across the street for a late lunch at Shoney's.
They had a real nice buffet deal for $10 with some non-fried schlock so we loaded our bellies up.....trying to absorb all that alcohol we had just ingested before getting back on the highway.
On the way back down the highway from hell to the interstate we made a stop......
At a Russell Stover Store.
I had never seen one of these before.
So I go in, and it's the week before Easter, so the place is LOUSY with Easter themed chocolates.....Bunnies, chicks, crosses, that sort of thing.
And the prices?
As high as any you see in Macy's, the drugstores and even the Evil Empire.
But a vast variety of items they don't carry in those stores.
You know I am NOT about to pay regular retail for anything, even tempting chocolate if I can help it.
So I spy at the back of this HUGE building a section without all the fancy trappings and special lighting and decorations.
I walk back and it's a part of the store reserved for the
reject candies.
You know, the overruns that didn't sell, the stuff going out of date(out of date chocolate? NEVER!lol), chocies in specific holiday containers from holidays past that didn't sell, etc.
And the prices?
Let's just say they were much lower than the crap being sold in the front of the store! lolz
So I picked up some of this, some of that.....
Some was BOGO, some was $6.99 a box.
I passed on the Valentine's Day hearts and Christmas overruns but I got this ginormous 3 lb. box of BLOOPERS.....
It wasn't even $12.99 as marked but only $9.99.
When is the last time you got 3 lbs. of Russell Stover chocolates for $10?
Ok, so they weren't anything to look at as they just smushed them all together in a box without those fancy wrapper cups but hey, for $10, I'll close my eyes and eat the not-purty rejects
thankyouverymuch.
A few of the "presentable" boxes I gave away as presents on this trip but much of it came home with me.
Bad Sluggy, Bad!
After dropping $50+ on chocolate *
Yikes!* (ok, so this was NOTHING compared to the amount of money Hubs dropped on liquor this trip)we got back on the interstate.
We took a pit stop at a rest area and lookie who I saw!
Dolly was hanging out trying to drum up business for her amusement park....
You just never know who you are going to meet when you are traveling, do you?
Thankfully no one besides us was in the rest area then so I could get all friendly with Dolly and not feel self-conscious.
Comparing "assets".
You win Dolly!!!
After using the
facilities, we drove until it got dark and we needed to stop for the night.
We found a Choice hotel right off the interstate on the highway we needed to go down the following day toward our next destination. The front desk clerk was real nice and found us a discount too so we paid less than $50 for the night.
After we got settled in, we went across the road for a small something to eat, and when I say
small, I really mean it!
We went here for dinner.
Krystal.
The South's answer to White Castle.
The food behind me may look huge but trust me, it's done with mirrors or something because this is what it looks like when you get it.....
This is $14 worth of burgers, hot dogs, fries and drinks for 2. One grown man could eat all this and have room for more. lolz
But that's fine because we had a large healthier lunch and didn't want anything much.
We got the Krystal Sampler.....it came with a Krystal cheeseburger, a chicken sandwich, a corn pup(not big enough to be a dog lol), a chili pup, a small fries and a drink.
I have to laugh because Hubs saved his chili pup for last. You see, it came in a normal sized Styrofoam box(see it behind my burger and chicken containers?)so he was thinking he'd eat all the
miniature food first and then eat the chili dog.
You should have seen the look of disappointment on his face when he opened that box!! lolz
The chili dog was about 4 inches long. and most of that was bun.
They really need to put a disclaimer on their floor to ceiling photo I posed with above, that "food is not as large as it appears". ;-)
After finishing our
miniature food we headed across the street to Baskin Robbins for some dessert.
What the heck.....it had rained all day since leaving Greenville TN, it was getting cold and we were on vacation.
We needed a treat.
Ice Cream that meets the Spidey seal of approval.
Hubs looks like a pouty little kid in this one.....his cone is twice the size of his scoop!
Some 20 something disheveled, squirrely acting guys came in and all I could think was they were going to pull weapons out of their shirts and rob and kill us and the girls working the counter.
When they didn't and the girls working the counter started
working the guys(hehehe) my anxiety passed and I decided that now was a good time to try taking a
selfie.....
The "Hey! you wanna piece of me?" look....
The "trying to get the camera button pushed & keep it pointed at me at the same time, so I can't worry about my expression" look....
The crazy eyed Sluggy.....
Going for the come hither look and failing.......
And I have no CLUE what this expression was all about. lolz
By the time we finished my teeth were chattering and we headed back to the motel room.
Hubs dug out his new bottle of Davy(premium none of that flavored stuff)to warm up and we called it a night.
The following day was to be jam packed with adventures as well.
Stay tuned for Day Three.....
Sluggy
