Chimneys

My last post brought to remembrance that I still have quite a bit I could blog on about several of our last vacations.

This one is more about our trip to Tennessee a couple years back.

We had found out from some locals about one of the trails out in the Great Smokey Mountains, a hike out to a natural rock formation called The Chimneys. My younger son and I left mom at the trail head with the rental car and started out.

I went back through my pictures and selected several of the good ones from the hike.

Another of those situations where almost all the pictures came out really good!!!

It was only a little over three miles of a hike, but it's upsy most of the way. It gains almost 1,500 feet.

The first part follows along a stream bed, so there were many water shots.

It started out as a bright sunny day with a few clouds, but as the day (and our hike) went on, it became more and more cloudy.

Which was actually pretty nice, otherwise it would have been even more sweaty!!!

It appears that the only actual shot I got of the wood beam steps that were prevalent for the later part of the hike was one of my bad shots, where it blurred.

The main color that we saw was the forest green, which made the red flowers and red leaves we saw stand out all the more.

When we got to the actual Chimneys, the trail ends and you have to scramble up the exposed black rock.

There's not a picture that shows it very well, but it goes up. Almost straight up!!!

There were some other hikers up there to take a shot of both of us.

And the last couple of shots were from my newly acquired smart phone, a selfie of both of us.

And another, attempting to get a shot of the sheer steepness.

What I Got on My Vacation

Here's something of a throwback post, a few of the shirts I picked up on the last couple of vacations!!!

First up is a couple of shirts I got from last year, while we were in Tennessee. Pigeon Forge, in addition to all the arcades and mini golf and go carts, has several gift shops competing for your business. One we stopped into had 3 for $10 tee shirts advertised. Not all of them were, the better ones went for more.

I'd done an inventory of my shirts not long before we'd gone, and discovered I didn't have any red shirts. Found this one with the Smokies memorialized on it.

The rest of these are all from this year's trip to Texas. First up is also the highest price tag on this whole post from the Johnson Space Center.

The next three all came from our final stop in Galveston. One of the things we kind of look for while vacationing is restaurant chains we like that you just don't find here. One of these is Cici's Pizza buffet. Looking on the map, discovered one of those there, and just a bit over from it was a Goodwill. My wife had taken a little joke of a purse that kept spilling stuff out, so she wanted to go in to see if she could find anything. Shockingly, she did!!! I had the thought of looking for another shirt while we were there, but I ended up with three!!! First up has nothing to do with Texas, except for the fact that it is Sheldon's state of origin. It's a little small on me, but I couldn't resist!!!

The next couple are quite retro, but both in excellent condition. The one from 2009 is about as quintessential Texas as you can get, and also a color of shirt I don't have much of in my wardrobe!!!

The last one has two sides to it, and is also pretty Texas, with the longhorn skull on the front.

The back has what is now my only Harley Davidson branded shirt, along with Walker, Texas Lawyer, whatever that is!!!

In other news, I really have far too many tee shirts...

Fireflies!!!

Here's a first for our family!!! While we were vacationing in Tennessee, seeing fireflies was one of the things on our list to try and see there. We made it to the night before we were leaving without having seen any. This was our second day of going to Dollywood, and we'd started late in the day, after going to the Titanic Museum. Pretty far on in the evening, late twilight time, and it occurred to us that we hadn't even attempted to see any fireflies. We were a bit off the main thoroughfare, and saw a park employee, an older guy (there's a lot of older folk working there, one of them earlier had commented that Dollywood is their retirement plan). We ask him where we might be able to see some. He replies that there's always a bunch around his home, and I ask if that's an invitation. He laughs, and is trying to think where, when all of a sudden, we see one off in the bushes!!! We try and track it's progress, and another kid comes by and catches it. Another comes by, and I caught it. Tried to peek into my hands, and it crawls out. Ran a few seconds of video, and caught a couple!!!

Down South Vacationin'

Welcome to the recap of this year's vacation trip!!! A few years back I had the idea of going to check out Dollywood, and finally this year that is what we did!!!

Compared to the perpetual fail of last year's trip, it was a great vacation!!! (On that trip, I could have, and probably should have, and if I ever had the chance still might do a post about the other parts of that vacation that epically failed... Looking at you, Expedia and American Airlines, two companies on my "Do Not Patronize" list since then)

In the second shot, you'll see the cool Dr. Who cats shirts my wife thought would be good to get to travel in!!!

I had the idea of hitting Nashville and Memphis while we were there, but it turns out that Tennessee is a pretty big state, and flying from one area to another would take a while with the NSA lines and whatnot. I had 11 days consecutive, but my son was still in school for the first four, which worked out, as I had time to fix Scruffy. If it hadn't been for the school thing, we may have hit all three areas.

We left VERY early on Saturday (like don't even bother going to bed the night before early) which worked out good in that there was very little traffic on the roads, and the airport lines weren't that bad yet. We got there a bit longer than the prescribed two hours early, and the airline kiosks weren't open yet, then when they were, the TSA checkpoints weren't. Still not bad at all. Knoxville is the closest airport to Pigeon Forge, and there are no direct flights, so it was via Denver on the way there, and O'Hare on the way back. Upon arrival, and even before looking for which way to get to our lodging, we cruised aimlessly into Maryville, where we happed on the Dead End Barbecue, which turned out to be as good as it sounds!!!

Didn't do much else after checking into our room that afternoon, just reset our sleep clocks!!!

As you may expect, the whole of the area of the state we saw is very lush. Lots of little creeks and streams, hills and valleys. Oh yea, and humid, too!!! Not Florida humid, but still more than home. Seemed like for most of the drive we were on two lane country roads, very picturesque!!!

Got the three day passes for Dollywood and Dollywood Splash Country. Had a couple days where we weren't at those parks, but it turns out there's a LOT of other things to do in the area!!!

There is a new coaster at Dollywood, the Lightening Rod, the fastest wood coaster in North America, with a power launch. Looks awesome, with turns banked to near vertical, but both days we were there it wasn't open. Something like that happened last year, too.

Other things to do around Pigeon Forge??? There's an Alpine Coaster, with one or two person sleds, almost bobsleds, that are right on the mountains. You control the brakes, but they really aren't necessary!!! They are worthy rides, and we ended up going twice, once at night.

Of course, there's also the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We heard of a hike out to the Chimneys that we did one afternoon. Only two miles, but upsy most the way in. That is where I got most of my pictures on my real camera, and worthy of a post of it's own. Maybe that will happen.

According to a statistic I just made up, Pigeon Forge has the most go-karts per capita of any town in America. Seems like at least half a dozen places down the main drag. Mini golf and arcades are also abundant. Made it to the Titanic museum, but not the Elvis museum.

There is more to come...