Wednesday the 30th 0f September

Today we went to Dollywood. Since we had 2 day tickets, we decided to take our time and enjoy seeing all of the sights at a little slower pace than what we usually do. This gave me an opportunity to take lots of photos and videos.

Off course before entering Dollywood, we wanted to freshen up a bit.

Here is one of the many craftsmen that put on demonstrations in Dollywood

This is a ride that Veronica went on. I stayed behind and took photos. Never did get on it, being the big wuss that I am.





Now THIS is THE RIDE that I should have been a wuss about getting onto. We went on this first thing in the morning and there was no one else around. We had no idea what this ride was like or all about. We figured that it was some easy going roller coster ride in an Old Mine setting...after all....we were in Dollywood and they never would put in a really scary coaster in Dollywood. Boy were we wrong!!!! This is one of those types of coaster rides that somewhere during the ride, you end up on your back going straight up and then come straight down....and I mean straight down...there was some serious air time involved. It went straight up twice, with the second time going straight up even higher than the first time. This was definitely one of the scariest coasters either Veronica or I had ever gone on. We were both shaken up a bit upon returning to solid ground.

As soon as we got off of the dreaded Mystery Mine coaster, we had relieve ourselves and fast. Unfortunately the public bathrooms were occupied.

They have many craft stores in Dollywood and one of our all time favorites is the wood crafters store. They carry some absolutely beautiful have crafted wood items in this store. We just love the hand carved fireplace mantels along with so many other hand carved items that they have. We could really spend some serious money in this store...if we really had some serious money with us.

There was a section of hand carved wooden holiday statues and ornements. These hand carved items were done by a Russian artist. They were really beautiful. I could not believe it but this item cost over $800.00 The picture does not do this item justice.

These are replicas of some of the rooms that were in a really small house that Dolly Parton grew up in.

Water mill in Dollywood

I saw this area and I just had to take a photo of it. This is an area that I would have spent lots of time in, just a few years ago. Now I walk right by it and never give it a second thought. Very liberating to have that monkey off of my back.

Several statues that are in Dollywood

This is Dolly Partons tour bus. We never went into it because they only let a few people on at a time and the line to get onto the bus moves very slowly.

These are some more hand carved items that were in the Wood carvers store. you can click on any photo and it will enlarge for you.

They had several bird exhibits in Dollywood. These are just a few of the many birds that they have there.

This fire pit was in an iron works exhibition in Dollywood

This is one of the rides in Dollywood and I thought that it would be cool to film while on the ride.

Below are excerpts of a show called Sha-Kon-O-Hey!—Land of Blue Smoke! Here is a link for more information.... Sha-Kon-O-Hey

Tuesday September 29th

Today we had to get up early in order to drive my Dad to his dialysis appointment, which was about 30 miles away in the neighboring town of Newport. It took us about an hour to go from our cabin to the dialysis center. They had a center closer to where we were staying but the days that they had available conflicted with the days that Dollywood were open and were different from his normally scheduled days. My Dads dialysis last approximately 4-4 1/2 hours. So rather than give up our chances to get into Dollywood and to keep my Dad on his normal schedule, we decided to go to the dialysis center that was in Newport. Although the hours available for my Dads dialysis were early in the morning and an hour drive away, it allowed us all to go to Dollywood, which we did on Wed and Friday.
On the way to Newport, I noticed that it must be homecoming week at the local high school based on the posters that were attached to the surrounding fence. I wonder if Ms. Presley won as the Queen. I figured that she probably did because she had the most posters up on the fence.


As we were entering the town of Newport we saw this huge food pantry. It looks like it was in an old grocery store. A sign of today's economic times.

On our way to Newport, we drove by a large area of old buildings that appeared to have been converted into some type of antique museum. We did not have the opportunity to stop and visit but it sure looked like a great photo opportunity. I hate missing prime photo opps.

On our drive to Newport, we also drove by an area that had a restaurant that was all decked out for Fall and just beyond this restaurant was a cemetery headstone business. I began to wonder how good the food really was at this restaurant. We decided to not take any chances.

I found this sign right across from my Dads dialysis center. I found it kind of unique but the strange thing was that there was no building associated with the sign.

On our drive to Newport, we drove by the local constables residence. A
constable is generally an elected peace officer with lesser jurisdiction than a sheriff. By the looks of it, they don't pay a constable much money in TN.

With all of the High School mascots that the Newport High School could have picked from....why this one??? This is just wrong on so many levels. I feel sorry for the kids who go out and play sports and represent this High School. They must take a verbal beating from other schools on a regular basis.
On our drive to Newport, we drove by the Bushs Baked Beans facility. Veronica and I tried to get in and see if they offered any sort of tours but unfortunately we had a difficult time finding a proper entrance onto the property. We ended up driving in the back of the fenced in facility and stumbled upon this great photographic find. The second photo is my favorite photo of the whole trip.

A new company store being built across from the canning/cooperate facility

Various signage on our drive to and from Newport, TN.

Now here is a special find that we came across in the Newport, TN area. You just don't see these any more. Old Americana at its best. I had to walk about 1/2 mile through dense brush and woods to get these photos but it was worth every step to capture these by gone days that I remember from my youth....concession stand and all.