After 6 years on this ranch it's time to get away. I'll be flying into Nashville on the 29th and heading for Rosiclare, Illinois for a week or so to visit with my foster parents daughter, her husband and their daughter. We plan to run down to Arkansas to visit my foster parents graves, go to Dollywood, the Smoky Mountains and hopefully the Grand Ole Opry. They have to be the tour guides for the simple reason that I have no clue as what to try to see while I'm there.
I do plan to spend some time with Larry (the foster parents son-in-law) He has been in mills all of his life and is a genius as a millwright and is definitely one of my idols. We'll surely be doing some fishing.
Any more recommendations on things to see and do while we're out running wild?
Thanks in advance.
Allan
Can't make any suggestions on what to do, but I drove through IL on 64 this past weekend and was amazed to see the corn this year. Literally watched new combines going through the field and all I could see was the tank extensions over the corn. That and I scored a ton of chestnuts that had dropped and a score of hickory nuts from along 70 in Missouri. Planted them in the nursery yesterday and will see what comes of them next year. Hope the weather is as nice as it was for me. The whole region is beautiful.
Hope you have lots of time to spend. The entire area is a national treasure.
I could spend a week in Dollywood visiting with all the old time crafts people. Pigeon Forge is loaded with discount malls, dinner theaters, music shows etc. Cades Cove is well worth visiting. Nearby is the atomic museum, birthplace of the atomic bomb. Just a bit south of Nashville is Jack Daniels distillery and the space museum just across the line in Huntsville, ala. Enjoy, take along a fancy phone or laptop and share with us..
Thanks guys. The big draw for Dollywood was the crafts and demonstrations. I'll have to take a look at Cades Cove on the internet and see what it's about. I would like to see the space museum, that sounds really interesting.
I am buying a new camera for the trip. My old one has been beat around either in the truck or one of my pockets for about a year now and I'm not risking it. ;D
It's kind of funny that I have absolutely no interest in going to Rome, Europe, The Caymans or any of the places you hear about folks vacationing, but I'm already getting pretty excited about seeing the Smoky Mountains finally and hopefully going to the Grand Ole Opry.
Thanks again
It's been a long time since we have been there. As I remember it , there is one massive Cave located East or around Maryville and not too far from Cades Cove. The cave was phoenominal, wish I remembered the name. Maybe someone here knows it.
Now that I would enjoy. I went through the Oregon Caves about 30 years ago and loved it.
I had a girlfriend once that had a mother in Knoxville that we went to visit. Like was said, Pigeon Forge is awesome and LOTS of stuff to do and see! Have a blast and be safe Allan!!
John
Thanks John.
The cave mentioned may be the Lost Sea near Sweetwater, Tn. They take visitors in small groups down to the bottom where the water is.
I think you got it. Hard to believe I had forgot about the water. It was long ago but I should have remembered that.
Well, there is an open-air museum in East Tennessee that no one should miss! It's just off I-40 (marked with a sign) west of Knoxville, called Museum of the Appalachians, and is a huge collection of tools and artifacts used in settling the area. It was amazing to me that I recognized so many---because i use them myself. anyway, give it a whirl.....
If you're in the area stop by The Billarosa just a couple miles from The Lost Sea and Tellico Plains.
Hope you have a wonderful, rewarding time.