8 Apr - Lunch with Doreen's Friend at Pigeon Forge

 

Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were on the radar today, so Doreen made plans with one of her childhood friends, Doris Thompson Perkins from Knoxville to have lunch.  Doris was in Rainbow (Masonic organization) with Doreen.  She was from Ft Dodge originally and attended the University of Northern Iowa, just a couple blocks from where Doreen lived.  They had not seen each other since approximately 1973.  

There were a couple different routes from the campground to Pigeon Forge we could have picked, but we chose what looked like the most direct.  Google Maps said about 18 miles and it looked like a very winding road.  What Google Maps did not tell us was the road was extremely narrow!  Luckily there was not a whole lot of traffic on it because there are no shoulders at all and my dually took up about 3/4 of the paved surface!!  So, the pucker factor was a little high and after a little less than an hour driving 18 winding, narrow miles I was ready for a break!

Arriving at Pigeon Forge we quickly found Harpoon Harry's Crab House and met Doris there.  Lunch was great and they enjoyed catching up.  

Doreen and Doris

After leaving the restaurant our plan was to check out Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, We headed north on the main drag and the area is definitely "touristy".  

Games and photo ops here

King Kong at the Hollywood Wax Museum

We also talked about going through either the Alcatraz Museum, or the Titanic Museum.  Yeah, right!  It is April!  Surely it will be quiet and uncrowded.  Yep, well it is apparently Spring Break for some and they all decided to come here!  Pigeon Forge traffic was bumper to bumper at a crawl but we did manage to find the Titanic Museum.  How could we miss it?  It looks like a huge ship!

So we found a place to park the big ol' brown truck and made our way to the entrance.  There was a sign saying they were sold out but we talked to the attendant and he verified yes indeed they are sold out... through Saturday!  Today is Thursday!  Who would have guessed?  

So we headed back to the truck and made our way back to the campground.  With the traffic and the crowds, we decided to do Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg a different trip.  We found an alternate return route that was not as winding as the first route.

Tomorrow we will likely head back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and enjoy the scenery, waterfalls and nature.