Tennessee/Kentucky June 2003

Our trip to Tennessee and Kentucky in June 2003.

In June 2003, Sarah and I drove to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where Scott's cousin Paul was getting married to April. We drove down in one day, although we made several stops along the way in West Virginia, including Hawks Nest State Park, where we walked around some, and New River Gorge Bridge, where we did minimal walking, but saw the indoor exhibits. We also drove through the town of Dixie, where my great-great-grandfather Gustav Vencill lived for many years. We stopped at a Shoneys outside of Beckley for dinner, which was Sarah's first encounter with a Shoney's.

We had no traffic problems going through Pigeon Forge on the way, although my dad had told us it took him an hour and a half to go 15 miles earlier in the day. We could tell from the lights how it might be considered the Las Vegas of the Smokeys.

We arrived in Gatlinburg at about 11pm on a Friday. The streets were teeming with people, and we did not get to our motel (a Microtel near the center of town) until close to midnight.

On Saturday, the wedding was not till at least 3pm (there was some confusion over the exact time, it turned out), so we walked around Gatlinburg for much of the early afternoon. In the 2 hours or so we pretty much walked around all interesting parts of the town, and saw nothing spectacular. It was mostly a bunch of tourist shops, motels, and chapels. The touristy stuff had very little that was particular to Tennessee or the Smokey Mountains and we could have found most everything much closer to home. It WAS a gorgeous day weather-wise, and we enjoyed some ice cream on a bench near the small river.

There are lots of wedding chapels in town that have weddings every hour (eg. while we were at Paul's 3pm wedding, the bride for the 4pm wedding was escorted into the basement to get ready). We attended the small wedding and then had a very nice dinner at a restaurant just down the street - the Burning Bush. After dinner, we all met up at the hotel where most of the guests were and split up to do different things. Some people took a chairlift to the top of a nearby hill, and some people did the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, while we went to the Ripley's Aquarium. This was a really nice aquarium. It did not have big sea creatures like dolphins and such, but it included a long underwater walkway to observe lots of fish swimming. It was open late, which was a plus, as well.

On Sunday morning, we took a tram to the top of a hill, where there was an amusement park. There were some nice views from the tram. This is the extent of our time in the Smoky Mountains. If we ever go back, we will try to avoid Gatlinburg and do some hiking or something in the Smokeys.

We left Gatlinburg around noon on Sunday and were stuck in a traffic jam caused by the mass exodus of all of the tourists. It took us two hours to go 15 miles up to the interstate.

We then turned west and went to Knoxville to go to the Knoxville Zoo, which was only about 10 miles after we reached the interstate. We got in free as members of the Pittsburgh zoo (I had our membership card with us). It was a really nice zoo. See more details of our thoughts on the zoo on our zoos page.

When we left the zoo, we headed north into Kentucky. I had never spent any time in Kentucky before except for brief stopovers. We stopped for the night at a hotel along the highway. In the hotel we found "Welcome to the Corbin, Kentucky, the birthplace of Colonel Harlan Sanders". Nearby was a Kentucky Fried Chicken cafe and museum. We didn't go, but perhaps should have because the restaurant we chose did not have very good food. This restaurant was a Sonny's BBQ place. I had been to them before and thought that ther food was okay. Sarah had never been to one before, so we went. The food had little taste, the decor was not pleasant, and the service was poor.

On Monday, we went to a Cracker Barrel for brunch (a good experience), and then went to a waterfall in a nearby state park, Cumberland Falls State Park, walking around there a little. A picture of the falls is to the right. We then headed east to West Virginia, stopping in Huntington for dinner. We drove around the capitol in Charleston (Sarah had not seen it before), and then got a hotel room outside of town.

On Tuesday, we drove north back home to Pittsburgh.

Page updated August 24, 2003.