I’ll begin with a few photos of our campground and a sampling of the MANY fall decorations that are scattered around Pigeon Forge and Sevierville.
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| This display is at our campground office. |
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| Peggy and Gary's motorhome and our fifth wheel |
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| Our fifth wheel and the view that we have from our large rear window. |
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| Taken at Dollywood when Natalie and Megan were here. |
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| This one used watering cans for the faces |
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| Display at Dixie Stampede |
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| I like the sunflower eyes! |
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| And this guy has a broom face and dust pan feet |
I worked on the 14th, 15th and 16th, and Peggy worked on Monday so we waited until Tuesday to go to Best Buy in Knoxville to look at Home Theater Systems. Peggy and Gary took their PC to the Geek Squad for repairs while we shopped. We left empty handed, but made arranged for a home entertainment advisor to come out on Saturday to see what components would fit in our limited space and which system would work with our present speaker system. After lunch at Panera, Peggy and I took advantage of being in Knoxville and did a little shopping at the mall. Peggy had hoped to find something to wear for her daughter’s wedding next month, but didn’t find what she had in mind. In the meantime, the guys occupied their time by looking at tools in Sears and taking a nap in the truck. We rewarded them for their patience by going to Camping World on the way home, and then had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, which is one of their favorite places to eat.
We started the next day with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. After breakfast, we talked the guys into taking us to the Beehive Wholesale Factory Store in Sevierville. They dropped us off and went to the nearby Smoky Mountain Knife Works store, which is the world’s largest knife showplace. Our sons loved this knife store when we came to the Smokies on family vacations! We decided on a whim to stop at Belk’s on the way home, and it was well worth it! I found a Nautica coat (that I LOVE) for 40% off, and then got an additional 20% off with a text coupon! We spent the rest of the day at home and went to Peggy and Gary's for Reubens that night.
It was still raining on Thursday when Peggy and Gary went to Dollywood to turn in their resignation and then to the Cancer center for Gary’s injection. The chemo causes a reduction in his white blood cell count, so he has to get periodic injections to increase the count. I had an appointment for a haircut and then we met them for lunch at McAlester’s. Peggy still needed to find something to wear to Michelle’s wedding, so the two of us took the jeep to the Tanger Outlet Mall and the guys went home in the truck. This shopping excursion was successful, and Peg went home with the perfect outfit in hand!
Ron works Fridays and Sundays at the campground office and I work all weekend at Dollywood….so we were soon back at work again. The Best Buy advisor had met with Ron on Saturday for the consultation visit, so Ron and I went back to Knoxville on Monday afternoon to buy our Home Theater System. The plan was for me to make white chili for dinner that night so, when we saw that we were going to get home late, we gave Peggy and Gary a call. Peggy suggested that I make the chili another night and we all go to ‘No Way Jose’s’ for margaritas and dinner instead. Good idea!
On Tuesday we were off to have some fun. Peggy and Gary went with us for a drive on the
Tail Of The Dragon, a stretch of U.S. 129 that runs between North Carolina and Tennessee. It is considered to be among the finest roads for sport car and motorcycle enthusiasts in the world and is also a road with many casualties. It snakes its way through 318 hairpin turns within 11 miles! We stopped at Deal’s Gap to see the "Tree of Shame", a makeshift shrine that was started sometime in the 80's by a group of Harley riders. The tree is covered with parts of motorcycles and cars that didn’t make it through the dragon We ate our picnic lunch in the pavillion and then continued on to drive on the Cherohala Skyway. After 34 years of construction, it was finally completed in 1996 with a price tag of $100,000,000, making it North Carolina’s most expensive highway. The road took us up and over 5,400 foot mountains for 15 miles in North Carolina. It was a beautiful drive with a magnificent display of autumn color. We stopped at every opportunity to view the scenery and to take pictures. When we reached the highest elevation, we found the trees bare…a sad sight after the brilliant display of color we had been seeing. The color returned soon after we began our descent and drove another 21 miles into the deeply forested back country of Tennessee.
Ron spent Wednesday morning untangling wires and removing our old unit so he could make room for the new home theater system. He and Gary worked all afternoon fitting the new system into the cabinet and hooking up wires and cables. Peggy and I had picked up some fabrics at JoAnn's earlier in the day and were trying each one on the windows to see which one I should use for new window treatments. Before we knew it, it was almost 8:00 and we hadn't had dinner yet! The guys picked up a pizza and we soon called it a day.
Thursday was rainy and dreary...a perfect day for me to make the white chili, so Peg and I went to Walmart to get the ingredients. We also went to the Corelle outlet, hoping she could get a few more dishes to match her pattern. Unfortunately, they no longer carry it. When we got home we found that the guys had successfully connected all of the wires and cables, so we had background music when Peggy and Gary came over for dinner that night. Of course, we spent the evenings watching the Cardinals and Texas Rangers play in the World Series. What a great ending for our week! The Cardinals are the 2011 World Champions!!!
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