Greetings from the Central Time Zone
Posted by Donna on September 25, 2009
25 September 2009 – Day 7 of our Great Adventure
Greetings from Lebanon, Tennessee… we are now, not only separated by distance, but by time as well. At 3:12 p.m. today, my mother and I through some high tech, molecular regeneration, phase-shifting-bondo process went back in time by 3600 seconds. It happened so quickly… we almost didn’t notice it happen except by the grace of that street sign that stated, “Welcome to Central Time Zone.”
And here we are…
But before I tell you about where we are, let me catch you up on where we’ve been.
Specifically, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN.
Last night, the Motherdear and I went to Pigeon Forge to experience Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner attraction. It really isn’t something you just see. You do get involved. Here are some highlights.
- When buying tickets you had to pick whether you wanted to sit on the side of the north or south. We picked North cuz… well… it would have felt silly sitting on the losing side.
- No photos or videos were allowed so I can’t show you what we saw. I’m sure some people took pics, but I try to respect rules as much as possible. I’m such a killjoy, huh?
- There was a pre-show event featuring a trio of musicians. They played a bit of country, bluegrass, gospel, and old children’s classics. We sang along. We laughed. We clapped. Fun stuff!
- Got herded (quite literally) into the main arena for the main attraction. There were long tables for sitting at… you found your section and scooted in all the way down. We were elbow to elbow.
- The arena used a special dust-free dirt that didn’t kick up when the horses or longhorn cattle were racing around. Good thing since we were eating just a few feet away from the action!
- The waitstaff was dressed in either confederate gray or union blue depending on which side they were serving. We were on the Union side. They were running up and down the table dropping food on our plates.
- For dinner we had… a whole rotisserie chicken, a slice of pork loin, half a baked potato, a biscuit, corn on the cob, vegetable soup, and a flaky apple pastry. Yum yum! The only hitch was that we didn’t have any plastic or silverware. Had to eat everything with our fingers. Yum yum!
- The show was great. There were songs of the wild west and the growing south mixed with a series of contests between north and south. Some were horse riding events by the cast of the show others were chicken chasing events with children from the audience. The stunt horse riders were amazing to watch.
There was so much more to the show. I highly recommend it to anyone finding themselves in this neighborhood.
We got back to our hotel a few minutes before 8 p.m. Just in time to watch Survivor! It was the first time we’d put a TV on in our room since we left home.
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This morning we took a trolley from our hotel to downtown Gatlinburg. We went in to some shops and bought some souvenirs. Dang it all, though, cuz we forgot to buy more postcards! D’oh! Maybe we’ll remember in Nashville.
According to the trolley driver, Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg, TN are second to Las Vegas for spur-of-the-moment (not to be confused with drunkenly blind) weddings. Didn’t realize it was that big a tourist spot, but it appears to be.
We left Gatlinburg at around noontime… destination closer to Nashville than we were…
And we achieved that goal. We are much closer to Nashville now. According to Google maps we are 30.1 miles east of Nashville. Not too shabby.
Tomorrow we’ll be going through Nashville to Hurricane Mills, TN. This is the home of country music legend Loretta Lynn. We’ll be going to her concert tomorrow night. She’s 74 years old. Will be interesting to see what kind of show she puts on.
And I guess that’s the run down on today. Hope things are well with you where ever (and when ever) you are!
Hugs,
–Donna
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