Vacations in the Smokey Mountains

Vacations in the Smokey Mountains

It’s been a full week and I’ve been good. No more magnets on the refrigerator – YET!! They are all still in the box on the dining room table. I’m waiting for my hubby to bring up the file cabinet from the basement so I can put my favorites and the ones that mean the most to me on that where I can see them from my office chair. Then we’ll narrow them down for what will go on the kitchen refrigerator, the garage refrigerator, and the remaining ones on the duct work in the basement (thank you, Gina Glover, for that suggestion).

We have quite a few magnets from the Great Smokey Mountains (the national park and attractions around the area). In the Butter Y’all” blog, I mentioned that Gatlinburg, Tennessee is our happy place. We have been vacationing there at least once a year for at least five years now. We drive straight through, and with breaks and traffic, it takes us about 12 hours. This is also the one time that I willingly give all control of driving to Troy. This also makes it easier for him to drop me off and then park further away because he doesn’t mind the extra steps.

We rent a different cabin each time using Jackson Mountain Homes rental company and have never had an issue with them, although this last trip we tried Cabins For You rental company. We’ve gone a few times where it is just Troy and I. Went once with Troy’s parents, and another time with his parents and his brother and sister-in-law. The cabins are nice because you can pick and choose location, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, etc. And concerns for Troy’s mom and me are a limited number of steps into the cabin.

Every trip, we make it a point to go to Dollywood. Even though Troy is the only one that goes on the rides, I love the people watching! This is the cleanest amusement park and the layout and themes are wonderful. With the COVID situation last year (and precautions continuing this year), I felt safe. They did limit number of attendees inside the park. The buffets were replaced with family style dining. And they were extremely creative in using the outdoor space to bring in more musicians (all the indoor theaters were closed).

Each trip too, we go to the Log Cabin Pancake House. Bestest breakfast ever! I usually get the apple pancakes with sausage patties or the cherry crepes. Troy has to make a difficult decision between biscuits and gravy or French Toast Royale (topped with bananas and a secret sauce). Depending on how long we are in TN, then we may go there twice. They have a variety of college flags hanging from the ceiling (including our own Wisconsin Badgers flag) which is in contrast to the regular rustic cabin décor. Definitely worth the wait in line if you go. 

I hope you get the opportunity to visit the Smokey Mountains soon and enjoy it as much as I do. Watch out for the bears. Say "hey" to Norm when you see him walking around downtown Gatlinburg.