Smokies

After a late morning in Pigeon Forge and trip to a pancake house :), we drove through the Smokey Mountains National Park to Bryson City in North Carolina. We had to take separate cars and I stopped to take a few photos. The first part was dry and sunny.

The Smokies.

However there were some colder, more icy parts.

Icicles. 

Deep snow!

More snow

There were parts where I was questioning the wisdom of this part of the trip. Where the sun hadn't reached, the roads were quite icy. I also got stuck behind a car going 5 mile a hour. I understand the need for safety. But you also need some momentum. I was very glad when the car pulled off! (I was nearly going backwards - and sideways! - at one point.)
But in the sun, the roads were clear and the views great.

Clear skies.

We reached the cabin safely. It was a different one to last time we were here, with an open plan. (Which was extremely fortunate the next morning!) We spent a few hours in the hot tub with a couple of bottles of wine, putting the world to rights and gossiping! So much fun (and I really want a hot tub!).
We also had a fire place! We cooked and watched films. Neither of us wanted to deal with the road to the cabin consisted of a 45 degree road with 180 degree hair pin bends and blind corners in the dark.

Open fire.

Lumberjacks and Margaritaville

Last weekend, Caroline and I meet up in Tennessee for a girls weekend! Last time we were in Pigeon Forge we saw adverts for the Lumberjack feud and we figured it had to be done. It was a dinner and a show though honestly the food wasn't that great. But the show more than made up for it. The pre-dinner show was a trio band.

Banjo and guitar

Our lumber jill, dancing.

It just ins't a show without a dancing bear.

I was quite surprised how many people were there considering it isn't anywhere near peak season. There were even a group behind us who had just got married that day. This was their wedding dinner. Not my idea of a good time but each to their own. They seemed to really enjoy it and got pulled up on stage to participate. 

Wedding group

The idea of the show is there are 2 families, the McGraws (our team in red) and the Dawsons (in blue) who are competing for the rights to log the last mountain after the smokies became a national park. So they have a lumberjack competition.

Ready to fight.

They did various activities. All really impressive. And they were very .... athletic! :-)

Chopping down a "tree"

We were encouraged to cheer for our team. And like good sportsmen/women, boo for the other side.

Boo!

They also had a lumber jill on each side who got into the action.

Jill and jack double saw.

Jack and jack double saw

Honestly though my favorite was the lumber dogs. They were just so happy. They came bouncing onto stage each time, so eager to do their job.  Basically they play catch and fetch for a living. The first one was jumping for a stick into water. Flying dogs! And a fetch the "duck".

Flying dog.

Got it!

"Let's go!"

Fetch for a living.

It was also really funny and light. The comic relief was a guy called Cookie who was a little crazy.

Cookie

Don't call a guy with a chainsaw a jerk!

Showing us the chainsaw.

My favorite was one of the cheats. They are supposed to put their hands on the top of the log for one event. But they wrote "top" on the bottom side so his hands were close to the chainsaw. But he got caught. However Derek was then told to put his hands on his bottom. So he did! (Current favorite photo!)

Hands on your bottom!

In action

Derek was my favorite lumberjack. He was so cute! After each win, they gave away a cookie (piece of cut off log) to someone from the winning side who was the most enthusiastic. Derek gave his to the little boy sitting near me who had been going crazy trying to get one. The kid was so happy!

There were also times when I had to cringe. The axes were real. And very close to limbs at times.

Too close for comfort.

The lumber jills also got into the chainsaw action.

Very happy with her chainsaw.

In action

And no one seemed the least bit fazed by heights. At least Cookie had a safety rope.

Cookie being nuts.

The lumberjacks did a "climb" up and down a 60 foot pile. With no safety lines. In about 10 seconds. It was like watching spider man! And coming down was more of a semi-controlled fall. It was amazing (and most of my photos were blurry).

Coming down. At speed.

The finale was the log roll, where 2 lumberjacks get on a log, in water and try to roll the other on off by spinning the logs.

Balancing

It was a best 2 out of 3. The second time, our lumberjack Derek landed funny. One leg either side. :( We think it may have been staged as they had a routine ready. But can you imagine being told that was part of your job!?!?!?

About to do the splits.

Dramatic finish.

The show was great fun and I highly recommend it.
After the show we went for a walk around an area called the Island. The whole place is a little bit over top (a cross between Vegas and Blackpool) but it made for good photos.

Night time display

I wish I could say my choice of hotel was carefully selected, as we were over the road from the lumberjack feud so could walk. But I don't plan that well and it was a complete coincidence. And even better was the fact that there was a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville a minutes walk from the show. 

Margaritaville

We had to wait a bit (as it was packed) but they had a great live band so it was not a problem.

The band

There was also a 72-yr old in tap shoes, just dancing away around the bar. He was very happy just dancing. I hope I am like that at his age. Because if you can't dance like no one is watching then, you never will!

Dancing in tap shoes.

We got a chocolate brownie sundae and of course margaritas, including a sampler selection.

Margaritas.

Enjoying our sampler.

It was a really fun night, though the bar closed at 10pm which was a bit of a disappointment. But still probably for the best. (I was really enjoying those drinks!) 

Chattanooga and Ruby Falls.

On Sunday morning, I did not feel great. I am blaming the fact I only had a salad to eat so the wine really had an effect and not the fact I can't seem to drink much anymore! (Caroline felt fine.) But we were up and out reasonably early to drive the 2 hours to Ruby falls. I have been wanting to visit these falls for a while. The falls are 145 ft inside a cavern in Lookout mountain. The elevator at the start goes down 260 ft into the mountain and the doors are glass so you can see the rock. It was a little unnerving.

Cave Donkey?

Formations.

Cave bacon

The tour was interesting and the tour guide was really good. The only problem I had was the group was really big and they didn't give us enough time at the Falls. I took a few photos of Caroline in front of the falls. I was just handing over my camera and they turned the lights outs! So I didn't get any of me with the falls. :-( But I did get some nice ones just of the Falls.

Ruby falls

Caroline at Ruby falls

 You can also go up the mountain so we headed up and saw the views across Tennessee.

View from Lookout mountai 

Windswept on Lookout mountain

We also wanted to check out Chattanooga. It was a nice little place but not what either of us expected.  There was less of it than we thought there would be. We had a drink and walk over the bridge in search of a downtown-like area.

Paddling area near the aquarium

 We thought there would be more little shops etc. That said, it didn't stop us finding a nice little jewelry shop and spending more money. We are going to head back to Chattanooga next weekend so we have earmarked some places to go. We kind of staggered over a different bridge on the way back, as we were both flagging!

Caroline on our way back to the car.

Then we headed back to Huntsville, Alabama. Via Georgia and Tennessee a few times which confused us. But we made it and after a quick supermarket stop, headed to Caroline's to make thai curry and watch Game of Thrones and Frozen. We were exhausted! But it was a lovely weekend. And I am looking forward to the next week. Lots of fun and wine in Alabama! :-)

Knoxville

Friday afternoon (after a week of hell with Hubble proposals), I got the Megabus down to Knoxville, Tennessee, to meet Caroline for the weekend. The bus was late so when she picked me up from the bus stop, we headed straight into downtown for food. Once we found somewhere to park, we headed to Market Street, which is a pedestrian area with lots of bars and restaurants.  It was really nice and the weather was amazing! I forgot to take any photos though. :-( We were so hungry. We ended up putting our names on a waiting list for a nice vegetarian restaurant and going to get a glass of wine first. But the food was nice and we scoped out some places to try later.

On Saturday morning, we wanted to go to an old house with some tulip gardens. At first we went to the wrong house and quickly escaped, saying we would come back for the tour (but we never did). Once we finally found the Crescent Bend house (the right house), it was a bit confusing. It looked like they were setting up for a wedding so we were a bit worried about gate-crashing. And there were 3 girls dressed up wondering around. We thought they were for the wedding but apparently they also just wanted to see they gardens (making us feel very underdressed!). We ended up feeling like we were sneaking in but we found the gardens.

Top of the gardens

Tennessee river

Fountain

Looking down from the house

Unfortunately we missed the main tulip time as most had flowered and been deheaded. But it was still really pretty. We didn't get to go into the house (we couldn't figure out how to get in!) which was a shame.

Tulips 

More tulips

After Crescent Bend House, we headed to Knoxville zoo and had a great time wondering around. Plus the first ice-cream of the year! The weather was amazing and in the 80's. So nice. A lot of the animals were either sunbathing or chilling out in the shade. Caroline and I got a little burnt too.

Black bear 

Furry Armadillo! :-)

A baboon giving his opinion.

Sun bathing lion

Monkey and his friend

Playing 

Gorilla helpfully sleeping near the window

Posing Rhinos.

We must have been amazingly efficient as we were finished by about 2pm. On the way in, we had seen a sign for the botanical gardens. It was more of a field and we were just trying to find somewhere quiet in the shade to sit and chill out. But it seems to be very popular with photographers and we seemed to be getting in everyone shot so we decided to give up and headed back to the hotel for a rest.

We chilled out for a bit before popping out to find a liquor store as we both wanted to try proper moonshine. The store was amazing!

Moonshine!

We selected 3 little ones, 1 classic and 2 flavored (strawberry and apple pie). We have only tried the apple pie so far.

Classic, Strawberry and apple pie moonshine.

Caroline preparing

Ready

We both decided it would be better chilled with some ice! A lot of ice! I'll let you know what the others taste like.

A little too strong!

Not so good.

After the moonshine tasting and we were sure we weren't going to go blind, we got a taxi into town so we could both have a few drinks - nicer ones. (When we booked hotel, the site said it was downtown, but it lied! It was a 10-15 min drive from downtown! :-( )

Knoxville was pretty busy this weekend. They had a football game by the Tennesse Volenteers (the collage team) so there were lots of people dressed in orange. (It felt very similar to Blacksburg at times.)

We went to the Sunsphere (which was part of the 1982 World Fair) and were really happy we hadn't gone during the day. The observation deck was shut for renovations. But the lounge bar was open. Perfect!

Sunsphere.

enjoying the view, drinks, and company

Drinks in the sun.

After some wine and nibbles, we headed into downtown. They had closed off Gay Street for the Rossini festival. We have no idea what it was for but it was fun to wonder around. There were lots of street performers, food vendors, and craft stalls. So we had a great time checking out all the jewelry stalls.

View down Gay street of the festival

Tennessee Theatre.

We decided we wanted to sit down with a glass of wine for dinner so headed back to Market Street. Everywhere was packed so we put our name name for an outside table and went into the bar. We ended up getting bored waiting and eat inside instead, before heading to the Hilton to get a drink there (as we figured there would be taxi's there). We had one drink and still no taxis so we had to cheekily ask them to order us a taxi to go to another hotel. :-)

Last drink of the night at the Hilton.