We Did Tennessee!

Hi All,

We arrived in Gatlinburg on Sunday, August 23rd. As I said in the last blog, it was a long drive, but once we settled in and explored the area, we really liked it there. Our campsite was so nice. We were right on the creek with shade trees all around. It was a small campground, but that was just fine with us. The worst part was getting to Gatlinburg through Sieverville and Pigeon Forge. I have never seen such commericalism any where like there. We lost count of the hotels, motels, retaurants, novelty shops, miniture golf, musical shows, go cart racing, etc, etc. It was about 14 miles of this stuff and we were really disapointed at first. Once we drove out of all that and up into the Smokies where Gatlinburg is, we were happy to see it wasn't as bad. Pigeon Forge is actually a small town where Dolly Parton was born. Dolly build a sort of Disneyland in Pigeon forge called Dollywood. This created a lot of new jobs, and income for this area that is pretty poor. If you have kids between the ages of 5-18 they would love this place for all the "entertainment" it has, but for us, there was nothing even close to enjoyable there. On the other hand, Gatlinburg is a smaller town with cute shops, and a lot of local artists. The Smoky Mts. are beautiful and probably better known for their fall folige and the multi colored trees that cover this area while the seasons change from summer to fall to winter.

Allen golfed twice, and one day we spent exploring Gatlinburg. There was a sky lift that I wanted to go on so bad, but Allen didn't want to go, he was scared. Now, how can a guy be scared of a sky lift after parasailing and doing a zip line on our cruise??? I don't get it, but whatever. I was tempted to do it myself, but I never did. : (
I did find this amazing arts and crafts area where I found little shops along the way with local artists selling their beautiful creations. I bought a new rug that was made by an elderly couple. No "made in China" stuff here! That was the high light for me. I was petty content to just sit by the creek and relax. Bailey loved walking in the cool water.

So, we packed up on Thursday, August 27th, and drove 450 miles from Gatlinburg to Memphis. We had no idea the state of Tennessee was so long! We stayed at the Memphis-Graceland RV Park right behind the Heart Break Hotel, which is directly across from Graceland. The park was fine, nothing fancy, but a great location if you are in Memphis to see Graceland and everything Elvis.
Say what you want about the man, Elvis, but he really did contribute to music in a huge way. He was gawdy, and rather over the top in his short life, but seeing Graceland gives you a whole different perspective on how he lived. He was generous to a fault, and really the most important thing to him was his family. Allen and I enjoyed the tour a lot. The home still looks as it did the day he died on August 16, 1977. Just looking at the rather obnoxious decor was interesting and to think that this was some what acceptable in that era, really makes me wonder what the heck people were thinking, but hey, he was Elvis. I think the car museum was really cool. He had some nice vehicles and motorcycles. The airplane The LisaMarie" was really amazing and took us back in time with the shag carpet and the old TV's. How did we survive back then with such old fashion electronics!!

As we were setting up our camp @ M-Graceland a gentleman stopped to talk to us and told Allen about this great golf course in Mississippi ( mind you there were no plans to golf in Memphis since Allen golfed twice in Gatlinburg), just about 30 minutes across the state line. Well, once Allen heard that, his mission was to see Graceland AND golf in Mississippi! He can now say he as golfed in 16 states. Way to go Allen!

So, we pulled up camp and headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico on Saturday, August 29th. It was a total of 1003 miles from Memphis. We stopped about 50 miles outside of Oklahoma City in a town called Elk City and stayed at a very nice KOA camp. We drove the rest of the 500 miles yesterday and arrived in Santa Fe around 2:30, thanks to the time change.

We will be here for 2 full days. Allen will golf one day, and we will explore the other day. I have to catch up on laundry and food shopping. Wednesday we will be in Flagstaff, Arizona. Back to our home state. We will camp with our friends over the Labor Day weekend, then we will be back in Phoenix on September 8th. I know one thing, I am not looking forward to 100 plus degree weather, but I do like the lack of humidity in the air.
Wow! I have a lot to say in the closing of this blog about this amazing trip we have been on, but I will wait for that.
Enjoy the pictures.

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Part of trip: Allen & Donna's Great Adventure!

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