TUESDAY
July 30th, we left NC to head toward Tennessee. On our journey down I-85, we dove into Gaffney, SC – home of the Peachoid! It’s a water tower made into a peach. They apparently needed to color it better in the past because it looked too much like a butt and people were getting into car accidents looking at it! Yikes! Anyway, It’s there to show everyone that the largest peach producer in the US is NOT Georgia but in fact South Carolina! So, as a car of mostly peach lovers, we stopped by Abbotts Farm stand (we’ve visited another location of theirs in the past) and oddly, didn’t buy peaches. They did in fact have a huge container of awesome blackberries for only $5 so we jumped on that and ate those in the car immediately. Then back to our travels.
“Hey, Mom! Take a picture of me & the Cheerwine!”
Peachoid – Gaffney, SC
First real stop was in Gatlinburg, TN. Wow is all i can say about Gatlinburg. I am used to NYC and it’s crowds and closeness of stuff, but Gatlinburg in the summer is insane! I dont know how anyone could enjoy being there! I will also say, in the most delicate way possible, that we almost felt too high class ot be there. If you know us, you know that we are far from snotty or better-than-anyone but… man! yeah! Gatlinburg is totally not a place we’d like to go back to although the gem we went for, was a great place and worth it! My friend, Diane, recently visited here and I saw pictures and knew we had to go to the Hollywood Star Cars Museum! We used a coupon which saved a tiny bit but it did still cost us about $45 (which was a budgeted expense). It’s a cool place! The museum features more than 40 cars that have been featured in movies, TV shows and music videos from the past 50 years. From the Batmobile, to Michael Jackson’s car, to the truck from Twister to Bumblebee, it had so much to entertain everyone. After we finished the museum, we ate lunch/dinner in the parking lot from our cooler of pre-made sandwiches.
Fred & Wilma
Edwards, Meet the Edwards’
Jurassic Kids
Mello YellO
Who ya gonna call?
CT & his De Lorean
My favorite movie! 🙂
On our way to Knoxville, we drove through Pigeon Forge. That area is MUCH nicer and we felt more comfortable there. We saw a Titanic thing and pulled over to see it. Hunter (and his Bestie Cooper) love the Titanic. It’s the Titanic Museum at Pigeon Forge. We got pictures by it while Tom found out it’s a one-of-a-kind tour that takes about 2 hours and would cost this family of 5, over $70 to see. Not budgeted, we couldn’t go inside the museum but spent about a half an hour in the gift shop! It’s really nice! We got a few small things for Hunter and his friend Cooper then back on our way.
Titanic – Pigeon Forge
Titanic anchor
Titanic & Hunter
Snacks and drinks in the car held us over until we got to our “hotel”. Tom used ______ and we got a cheap room (40 bucks) at Extended StayAmerica Knoxville – Cedar Bluff. Location was fine but the place was HORRIBLE! It smelled like urine… like the way my kids bathroom does since the 3 boys have bad aim. I mean, the bathroom was cleaned quickly. Toilet was fine and all but the tub, I could take a wet tissue and just graze over a dirt spot and it came right off meaning it wasn’t actually cleaned. There were areas on the tile that were gross and came right up too. EWW! Beds were less than comfortable but I wouldn’t know. Cole & I slept on the floors. We probably shouldn’t as I woke up slightly itchy and we learned there were ants (even crawling up and around the beds (on the top of the mattresses). EWW! We got out as quick as we could in the morning. Wasn’t worth being there one second longer. Worse place to stay! I get chills thinking about it. Great! Now, I’m itchy!
