I had to put petrol in the car and it cost £25 to fill the tank up, after UK prices I was quite surprised and you have to pay for your petrol first, so there are no drive aways, We left Nashville, about 10am, on Saturday morning after a nice breakfast.
There was no rush as it is a four hour drive to Sevierville at the foot of the Smokey Mountains. Its mid 50’s temperature today and the weather is fine- snow predicted in New York but not here. It was a pleasant drive, the American football team University of Tennessee is playing in Knoxville tonight and there are a lot of cars with flags, scarfs etc – all in bright orange. We stopped at some shops near Lebanon and Linda decided she needed some new tops, so bought a couple –of course there were in the sale. Halloween is big over here – so there are shops everywhere with costumes and other rubbish.
It was back on the road, and after an hour I saw ‘the sign’ and so we stopped for a Starbucks. After this it was a straight drive to the mountains, well it would have been but my navigators couldn’t decide which way to go at some junctions, so we had a look around some other parts of the area. We are using the IPAD2 as the Sat Nav and so if the blue dot is not following the route – you are going the wrong way, in her defence it does not always update as quickly as we are moving due to the mobile signal. We are now back in Eastern time which means we have moved forward an hour, it get confusing as we are still in the same state. It could be worse if your house is in the middle for the dividing line – every time you go in the garden you lose an hour!
We are stay at the Hidden Mountain resort and it was well hidden, a bit worried when it talked about snow tyres and chains, but no sign of snow (yet). It was several miles up the mountain around a few twisty small lanes, it has two offices, East and West. East was nearer, but unfortunately we weren’t staying there. We found the West Office and booked in – our log cabin is number 5097A and it was back down the mountain – about ¾ mile and turn left. We found it, it consists of a kitchen, living room, bedroom (with Jacuzzi), bathroom and then outside you have a rocking chair to sit and ponder as you look out over the mountain. There is also a hot tub for use on the other balcony. Inside there is an open fire place and logs provided.
We emptied the car and then went back into town as we needed to get some supplies, it is a 15 minute drive into Pigeon Forge. Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg all sort of merge into one, lots of shops, restaurants, amusements – think Blackpool doing country. Dollywood is here, but is shut this weekend. By now we were hungry and I could eat a horse – no horses were available so I settled for a cow. We went to the Longhorn steak house and had a huge meal, I had the T-bone and Linda chicken – it was lovely. We also saw the big game on the tv and it was a popular place as the queues for tables was out the door when we left.
After this we needed to do some shopping and went to the local supermarket, which has a Starbucks inside, I could get into doing the weekly shop here – well I could drive and then drink coffee whilst Linda did the shopping. We bought some food – it was difficult to find everything and then back to the log cabin, I did get small Starbucks for the road, but because they were so windy I had to wait till I got home to drink it. I have found the country music channel on the TV so we can listen and watch country music all day long. Linda is so pleased!
On Sunday, I was up at 6am as I couldn’t sleep. Having caught up on my sleep I am awake by 6am (4am the other day) and so get up, do some reading or check the internet. Linda on the other hand is having no problems sleeping. We had to prepare our own breakfast today, so it was cereal followed by a bagel with honey. The Mountain View Missionary Baptist church was not far away, a couple of minutes’ drive, we would have walked but left it too late – and there are bears in the mountain. It was a typical country church and very friendly. They sung the old hymns and the preacher preached a hell fire and brimstone gospel message based on 2 Corinthians 5. It was enjoyable and the gospel message was certainly made very clear. We were the first international visitors they had ever had!
After church we had a little drive into town and wandered around, it was very busy so we came back to the log cabin to relax and watch country music. I sat on the balcony, in the rocking chair, with my hat on and did some reading watching the squirrels running up the trees, chased by a dog from the adjacent cabin.
The leaves are all in their vibrant autumn colours. We did try out the hot tub and then watched a film in the evening, The First Grader, The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford. It was interesting and we recognised some of the politics and issues involved. I cooked a nice dinner of salmon, fresh veg and sweet potatoes. We had the log fire going, although Linda with all her Guide training couldn’t get it to light, using a whole box of matches, I used one and some leaflets and it lit and was going all evening – I do have some uses (apart from driving).
Tomorrow is a big day for Linda, it is shopping day, where she gets to visit all the craft stores and shopping malls, I just get to do the driving. So I went to bed early to prepare my for this ordeal.
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