We got to sleep in a good bit today, and that was great. I got over to the continental breakfast there to get our breakfast, which we enjoyed on the balcony, the three of us overlooking the river here and watching the geese and ducks assemble again. There were ducklings, and they were ready for feeding time - we had smuggled a bunch of bread over from the buffet there and were tossing bits over the ledge, down four floors to the waiting ducklings and geese and ducks and pigeons and pretty much any bird that was out there. It was a big number of birds.
We left for our first destination later in the morning, and perhaps we should have left earlier, as the red light at the end of Veteran's Parkway that meets the Dolly Parton Parkway is abysmal. Literally one quarter of our trip or more was spent at that one red-light. Regardless, we got to our destination at the Sevierville exit of the interstate, and that was the brand new Buc-ee's there. Maddie was pretty excited!
The amount of people in that space was astounding. It's amazing the crowds that came here. Disney World's visitors are shrinking, and yet everyone is wanting to go visit what is essentially a large department store with a beaver theme. Seriously though, it's a place of wonder. The merchandise is so much... we spent an hour there and realized that we didn't give ourselves enough time! Still, we picked up a few t-shirts, and we all posed for some pictures too.
We had to leave there and head back to Pigeon Forge, because we had reservations for the "Hatfields and McCoys Dinner Feud." Here's Mom and Maddie posing for a picture out front.
Going into the last year, out of the "big three" dinner shows in Pigeon Forge, we would have ranked this one third. Still quality, but how can you compete with pirates and how can you top the Stampede show? Still, when we walked out of this theater, all three of us agreed - this one was our favorite.
Joey the Porg was there to watch the show too...
And maybe get something to eat....
Goats and chickens populate the outside of this place. Given the theme, we'd expected some butting, but the goats were pretty content and resting.
The outside decor is amazing. All around the building and through the parking lot, there are old trucks and all kinds of hillbilly decor. Super fun!
Once we were in, it was straight to our seats. The food was incredibly good, and for some reason all-you-can eat. As if we would ever want more than what was given to us. It was an immense amount of food, and anyone who eats all that deserves the stomach ache they get! But seriously, it was a lot of food. The waitress was really great with the gluten-free items for Mom, and she really enjoyed the barbecue, the grilled chicken, the corn, and a special gluten-free brownie. Maddie and I had fried chicken, and pretty much all the other things Mom had too. There was mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and biscuits too. Plus the soup of course. All these places seem to emphasize that opening course of soup, which is of course available in the gift shop.
Here's Maddie with one of the performers, a really nice guy who came out to speak with everyone and just generally help people along. He told us teh Christmas show was very good too, and it was the sort of show that didn't lose the real message of Christmas. Wink, wink. Dollywood is doing it right. I took a few snaps of the show along the way, which started pretty much after everyone was done eating.
It was a great show! The amount of food was just immense, and the performances by a live band were really fantastic. This girl was very happy with all of it, laughing all the way through. Here's a few snaps of her before the show began, including all the food, and the rubber chicken she brought along to make some noise with.
We also got a few cowbells to make some noise with, ringing loud each time our side of the theater was called upon to make noise. And that was pretty frequent!
All in all, like I said, we came into this one thinking it would be good, but not as great as the others. And we came out thinking this was our favorite. We will be back to this one.
And speaking of heading back...
Here we are on the tram again, heading back to Dollywood. We got a little rest at the hotel this afternoon, napping, doing mad-libs, watching the animals. Look at this picture that quacks us up:
I proudly present to you... duck butts.
Anyway, we went back to Dollywood and it was somewhere between 5 and 6pm when we got there, so the weather was just right again. The sun was peeking out, and in fact shining right in Maddie and Mom's faces for that picture above. But it was perfect weather, and in fact better than yesterday!
Joey the Porg thought so too. So we arrived, and the weather was supposed to be rainy all day - and that may be tomorrow - but we planned for a lot of this with indoor activities like the dinner shows and the indoor productions at Dollywood. None of that was necessary tonight at all. We hit the rides right away!
Here's a quick picture of Maddie and Mom going for a ride together on the Rockin' Roadway, easily the longest line of the day. Which wasn't that bad, but it was surprising, as the roller coaster right next door only had a ten minute wait. Maddie skipped on that one for now.
We went on the carousel after that, and Mom and I usually sit down on one of those two-person seats. I rose to take a picture of Maddie on her horse before the ride started, and that's when an autistic child sat down next to Mom, wanting that seat to sit in. That was alright with all of us. The child's mom was there, sitting next to him with Mom on the other side - I just rode on a horse there, enjoying the ride around. As we wrapped up, I snapped a few pictures of Maddie, and the rubber chicken she's brought along for the journey. She's got that just in case we meet a certain Dollywood celebrity who had her own rubber chicken.
We went down to the county fair after that and did a few traditional rides there, like the Shooting Star...
And of course the bumper cars, the Demolition Derby!
And what trip to an amusement park would be complete with a trip to the skies on board flying elephants?
It was a nice little evening - all of this was just icing on the cake of an already wonderful day. We stopped to say hi to the ducklings over by the train depot...
And then made our way over to the Wildwood Grove, posing for a few pictures along the way...
Maddie and I did our roller coaster here, and it wasn't Thunderhead, but it was the newest one, Big Bear Mountain, which was actually a lot of fun. It was about a 25 minute wait, and the stuff to see in line was pretty cool, documenting sightings of a ginormous bear! The ride itself exciting and and fast - and long! We had a great time there, and got off the ride just in time to get over to where Mom was seated and waiting for us. It was a great spot to stop and watch the show that was about to begin.
The fireworks we've seen before, but the drone show was something new - it was what we missed last night when we thought it'd be our best chance at seeing the show. But tonight was much, much better. And the wait was worth it!
Everything you see here are drones that are lit up with various coordinated colors and positions in the sky, all set to music. It's stunning, and massive, and just wonderful to see in person.
After the drones, there were more fireworks, and we were just blown away by the evening's entertainment.
What a conclusion to the day. We didn't want to get stuck in the flow of traffic, so Mom and I stayed seated for a bit while Maddie snapped a few nice pictures of the Wildwood Grove tree.
We got back to the car, and because we're arriving at the park, we get these crazy good parking spots right next to the tram station there. We've been in parking lot C this week. The tram director said there was a bear sighting in the parking lot recently, and that was pretty cool. We saw one this week too!
It was a quick drive home, and an easy one. We got there, got up to the room, and were ready for bed pretty quickly. Still, we red from our latest book about Princess Leia, and then after that we said our prayers, thanking God for a really amazing day. It was time for a good night's rest.
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