BROADCASTS.com

Season 2 Episode 77
5/6/22
We left Johnson City on 4/25/22 and arrived in Pigeon Forge Tennessee an hour and a half later. We pulled into the campground they had no record of us reserving and paying for a spot for three nights via Passport America. But they said no problem. We asked that they received our package and they said it's been laying here for 3 days and we had no idea who Paul Sebastian was lol. We are in the south. Our package was a replacement valve for leveling jacks. Hooray our leveling jacks are fixed. We hooked up relaxed for a bit in the 86 degree temps and then drove around Pigeon Forge. The downfall to this town is it seems you really need to drive from place to place. Albiet there is a trolley you can take. It's amazing how many distilleries there are in this area and how many give you free samples, too many lol. We came back to the RV I set up the grill. One of our boondockers welcome hosts suggested cooking quesadillas on the grill. We had never done that but we did it today and I'll tell you what we are hooked. Here's the link to some pictures we took as we entered Pigeon Forge and walked around. You can see the Smoky mountains in the background ttps://www.instagram.com/p/Ccyny0WsvV3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= The next day Trish did some laundry and I drove around looking for a place to buy propane gas line connections. When we first bought our first rig I installed an extended stay connection on the rig and ran a gas line for a grill and it worked fine. This RV has a quick connect in the back hooked up to the propane tank so I assumed it was going to be working good and it doesn't get as hot. Apparently the connection for the gas grill on this rig is after the regulator on the onboard propane tank so the Weber gas grill has two regulators controlling the propane entering it so it doesn't get so hot. So I'm looking around for connections to avoid the regulator on the Weber grill. Here's a link to the Weber grill we use and have used for going on 5 years now https://amzn.to/3LnQdzu During the night the rains came in and with it a cold front. 20 degrees colder today as compared to yesterday. The rain stopped around 1pm and we took a walk on the Pigeon Forge Greenway, a walkway that follows the West Prong Little
Pigeon River. Here's a link to the walkways https://www.cityofpigeonforge.com/parks-greenways.aspx
So we found Pigeon Forge to be an expensive area. And very touristy. If you have little kids definitely visit Pigeon Forge.
The next day we visited Gatlinburg. We liked Gatlinburg a bit better than pigeon forge. Reason for this is you can actually walk from the store to store instead of having to drive. Either town if you have young kids teenagers or you like to hang out in bars these towns will work.
We parked for $15. Walked one block and then went to Gatlinburg SkyLift Park. This was a bit expensive but we figured we'll never be back to Gatlinburg so might as well experience it. Basically take a chair lift to the top of the mountain is the skywalk which is a suspension bridge great views from the top that a gas fired fire pit with lots of sheets around it I would imagine in the summer it is mobbed but here it is late April and it wasn't bad at all. We then walked around town popping in and out of shops getting some free samples of wine. We then walked down to Hillbilly Golf and played a game of mini golf. We've seen this golf course 2 years ago when we're driving through Gatlinburg with our rig and said when we come back to Gatlinburg we got to play this. You take a small tram ride to the top of a hill and you have a choice of two different golf courses as you walk halfway back down the hill and then the tram picks you up and takes you back down to the bottom. Here some pics https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc5ZaPguDa9/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
After 2 and 1/2 days of over the top entertainment we hopped in the Jeep took a ride over to The visitor center of the Smoky mountain National Park and did a 4-mile hike into the cataract waterfall. Just what we needed. Back to the woods and move our legs. We drove back to the RV threw some shrimp on the barbie. Relaxed for the evening the next morning headed out.
We drove 3hrs to Fall Creek Falls state park in TN. We are now in CDT .
We arrived to our campsite $29/nite with w/e. Jacks work fine leveling. Yay and cheers !
Got set up and searched out a hiking trail on Avenza Maps. We found a trail that we could walk to from the campground to a beautiful waterfall and a bridge and then to a nature center. So we went inside we actually working there for suggestions for another hike and she gave us one with views of a few different waterfalls. So our walk turned into a beautiful six mile hike lol. The next day we did 2 different hikes. A total of 7.5 miles today. This state park was beautiful. There are breathtaking views on most of the trails and from some of the parking lots too.
The next day we had a confusing 3 hr drive. We kept going from CST to EST. So according to our GPS are our arrival time kept changing by an hour. Lol.
We arrived at bandy Creek campground which is in bandy Creek National Park, which is in Great South Fork River Recreation Area, which is in Daniel Boone National Forest which is in the Cumberland Mountains lol.
We got set up in our sleep walked around the campground, talk to park ranger and got some tips for hikes. That night it only got down to the upper 60s and we didn't have enough windows open so it made for a warm rough nights sleep. The next morning we drove about a half hour to the twin arches. We did a 3-mile hike to see the largest Arch east of the Mississippi. Wow. And a quarter mile away from it is a second Arch which is equally impressive.
We then did a 8 mile hike on the Great South Fork River. Definitely a beautiful area. The campground is really big and a bargain at $25 a night for water and electric. The next day we drove North and again crossed back into Central standard Time. And arrived at Jellystone Campground, 15 mins from Mammoth Cave National Park. We have w/e for $35/nite. The CG is really big so all the attractions are spread out. We were sad to see every site in our loop was on a slope. Our 1st site we couldn't get level on so moved to a different one. The CG is 99% empty yet there was garbage strewn at each site. The campground at the National Park are $25 a night with no services. The next morning we drove to Mommoth Cave and took the Dome and Dripstone tour. 2hrs. And 500 vertical steps.
270' down in elevation. It really have us an appreciation of the size of the mapped cave system, over the 2 hr tour we only saw .025 % of the mapped cave. Here's a link to the pics of that tour
https://www.instagram.com/p/CdJ3-qNM65G/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
That evening we did the
Star Chamber Lantern tour. This was a neat tour which was in darkness with only hand held lanterns. It was 2 miles and 2.5 hrs.
Here's pics from that tour
https://www.instagram.com/p/CdJ44TvMhfd/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
There numerous tours which use 6 different entrances.
Here's a link to the various tours
https://www.nps.gov/maca/planyourvisit/cave-tours.htm#Descriptions_of_Currently_Offered_Cave_Tours
Each of the tours were only about half full. It was really nice being here a few weeks before memorial Day. They say during the peak season you have to reserve the tours weeks in advance.
Between the 2 tours we spent time in the visitor center and asked for suggestions on the various hikes within the park. The woman was not very helpful. So we ended up hiking around 5 miles, which was just ok. Later we learned the a few old churches and graveyards on the property. Too bad the woman didn't mention them to us. Oh well.
The next day we went to Bernheim Arboretum in Clermont KY. They had wooden sculptures from Thomas Dambos. Here's a link to my pics
https://www.instagram.com/p/CdKBBp4Mn7w/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
And here's a link to his FB page
https://m.facebook.com/thomasdambos/
Then off to Bardstown KY. We wanted to experience some bluegrass music. We got settled in as t Little Patch of Heaven campground. Very scenic.
Then off to Heaven Hill Distillery. I sampled some of their bourbons and really liked the Apple Bourbon. We then went over to the state park called Old Kentucky Home. Apparently this house was an inspiration for the song. We walk the grounds for a little while and back to the rig cooked on the grill and sat overlooking the pond.
Today we will be spending the day in bardstown listening to music and maybe hit another distillery. And I'll tell you all about that in the next episode.
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