Our Road Trip to The Smoky Mountains

We hadn't had a real vacation in years, so we decided that we would save up our pennies and plan a trip to somewhere neither of us had been before, and the Smoky Mountains it was!  We were going to stay in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains.  It was a week long road trip and we really had lots of fun.  Buckle in for a LOT of pictures ahead in this post.  I took tons of pictures and video but this is only a very small percentage of them.  Enjoy!

Just in case you're interested, you can visit my Instagram page here and see lots of video of our trip under the "Road Trip" highlights tab in my profile.  Some of the first part of our trip got deleted on there, which I'm sad about, but most of it is there.  I am ddcamp170 on Instagram.

Our trip started on Saturday, May 19th.  Here we are at a rest stop stretching our legs in Malvern Arkansas.  It was the perfect sunny day for a road trip and some drone footage!

My honey took the drone along of course so we got some really cool shots, like this one, that was fun to add to our memories!  We have the DGI Mavic Air Drone, click right here to see it.

He also thought it would be fun to have a dash cam and yall, you should get one if you're road trippin' cuz its hilarious to watch back at the end of each day.  Click right here for the one we got.

 

We stayed the night in Little Rock Arkansas that first night and we ate at the Flying Fish.  It was really good food and the whole atmosphere was awesome.  Lots to look at while we dined.

 

This is one of many big giant bridges we saw while on our trip to Tennessee.  So cool!  I snapped this one from the roof top of our hotel, sittin' by the pool.

The next morning, Sunday, May 20th, we were up and off to Memphis Tennessee.  First stop Beale Street.

We went in to Schwab's Dry Goods Store to look around and they had the neatest stuff in there, look at these "old" aprons!

They had an old fashioned soda fountain on one side and we ordered a homemade root beer and shared it.  It was pretty good too!

Next stop because my honey couldn't resist, Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.  This thing was blindingly shiny! Very cool!

Inside their General Store.

You could ride to the top of the pyramid and look out. Going up, up, up!

Monday, May 21st and we woke up in Nashville Tennessee.  We arrived the night before and drove through Broadway street downtown (see IG for the videos) and it was a very lively place with loud music and millions of people!

Here you see the General Lee, you know, from Duke's of Hazard.  We found it just driving by at Cooter's Place and had to stop and look.  Of course we went inside and toured the museum.  There was lots of memorabilia and movie props of the Duke's in there.

Next we were on a mission to find the American Picker's store, Antique Archeology.  It was located in Marathon Village.  It was a tiny little shop, not what we were expecting from seeing it on TV. lol!

This old building used to be a motor vehicle factory back in the day and it was VERY interesting and beautiful all at the same time.  Photo op!

We found it!  See videos on Instagram!

Drone shot!  I love old rusty stuff!

Same water tower from inside the building.

Drone shot again! So awesome!

We finally made it to our destination, Pigeon Forge Tennessee.  Eagles Ridge Cabins.  This is where we checked in at the office.  It was late in the day and the ladies there couldn't have been any nicer to help us get all settle in for our stay.

See the video on Instagram for this cute little area.  This is the cabin we stayed in and it was way more than we expected.  Very pretty!

We stocked up on some groceries and settled in for the night, we had a hot tub calling our names!

The next morning Tuesday, May 22, we were up and headed to Gatlinburg to look around.  The locals said we needed to visit there for sure.

There was tons of stuff to do and see there.  We had lots of fun, first we ate some lunch and then we went through a Zombie 3D Adventure and then went through a mirror maze too.  We also found some some saltwater taffy to try as well.

One of our favorite stops was the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies.  Also, it was a nice place to cool down a bit.  Hot and humid here in Tennessee, just like at home in Texas!

This is the other side of the water fall above.

That same night we had reservations for the Hatfield and McCoy Dinner Fued.  A show and a meal.  The place was packed!

Here's what we had for supper.  It was lots of food for two people and it was all you can eat.  Sadly, it didn't sit well with me and I was sick in bed all the next day, Wednesday, May 23.  It was a 24 hour tummy bug that got me good.  Whew!  We already had reservations for the day, but thankfully we were able to reschedule everything for Thursday.

Thursday, May 24.  Thankfully, I was feeling way better because we had lots of fun things to do today!  First up, a horse back ride at Five Oaks Guided Riding Tours.  I haven't ridden a horse since my kiddos were little.

 

There they are, just waiting for us.  My horse's name was Obama and Bobby's was Betty.  We were told they were boyfriend and girlfriend to each other.  Sweet!  Betty was double the size of Obama.  Both beautiful creatures.  Our trip took about an hour and the views were picture perfect!

Next up, Zip Lines at Adventure Park Zip Lines! Oh boy! I'm not going to lie, I was nervous about this, but I am so glad I did it now.  It was loads of fun!  Neither of us had ever zip lined in our lives so this was a fun first we got to enjoy together!  Don't we look funny in our helmets and gear? lol!

I was very last in our group each time, which was ok with me. Ha, ha!  Here's my honey giving me the thumbs up for his maiden voyage.

This was at the very end of our our zip line adventures.  It was really fun and now I want to seek out all of the zip lines to ride!

After the zip line fun we played put-put golf and rode go carts that went REALLY fast.  On the way back to the cabin my honey road a really cool roller coaster that took 8 minutes to run the course, it was called the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster, then we came back to the cabin to chill for the day.  What a wonderful fun packed day we had!

Friday, May 25.  We were up early and ready for more mountain adventures!  Along the way the locals have informed us what all we would probably want to see, so here we go to see what we can find.  Texas is beautiful for sure, but you just don't see these sights in Texas! Gorgeous!

The roads were tree lined and winding all the way.  There were water falls that we were told was fun to see, so off we went to search one out.  We found the first one, Laurel Falls.  There was a sign at the trail head that said the falls were 1.3 miles up.  Here we go!  I'm pretty sure it was more than 1.3 miles, but it could have been that we are both out of shape and wearing flip flops of all things to hike in! Ha!

 

The path was paved, but very narrow in places due to the elements wearing away at it.  One path for coming and going.  But look at those views!

We made it!  The temperature dropped a good 20 degrees when we got close to the falls.  It was so beautiful and refreshing after our 300 mile hike up a mountain!  Scroll by fast (next pictures) if you're squeamish to blood because I had a fall on our way back down to the car.

Remember how I said the path was narrow in spots?  Well, there was a Mama holding her kiddo's hands, one on each side of her.  I went to step over out of their way so they could pass, my foot slipped and I went knee first into the pavement path.  Ouch!  A nice couple stopped to help us and they just happened to have a first aid kit in their backpack.  My honey patched me up with the bandages they had and then when we got back to our car he grabbed our first aid kit and fixed me up a little better until we came across a store that sold bandaging supplies.  Thank you baby!

Back on the winding road again.  Thank goodness there were little spots to pull off the road for snapping pictures like this one.  God's beauty was everywhere yall!  The road literally followed this river the whole way.

Another place we were told by several people we needed to see was Cade's Cove.  Cade's Cove is an isolated valley located in the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  They were right, it was a need to see!  Please see the Instagram videos on this place, gorgeous!

Really great burgers alert here at Apple Valley Stores in Townsend Tennessee.

See ya next time Tennessee!  We were up the next morning really early Saturday, May 26 to start our trek back home.  We went through Georgia and Louisiana on the way back.  We were going to stop in Louisiana for the night, but we were so close to home (3 hours away) that we just kept driving. lol!

Here's another road trip of ours:

Our Trip to the Pioneer Woman Mercantile

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

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