Pigeon Forge, it's the Myrtle Beach of the mountains!

 

It's a highly contagious killer virus. Quick, lets buy an RV and go camping among strange people!

We surely would have spent more time in Virginia, but nowadays when you are making campground reservations, you have to take what you can get. This is especially true with state or federal parks, they have been in high demand since the Covid crisis.  It seems that in a collective epiphany, a whole lot of folks went out and bought RV's thinking that somehow this method of travel would keep the family safe from the ill's of the world. I wonder how that worked out for them?

Our site at Jellystone Campground

On Tuesday May 14, 2024, we moved from Raccoon Branch to Pigeon Forge Tennessee. We have a very nice site at the Jellystone Campground which is located just off the main drag thru Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. It is no more than ½ mile from the main entrance to Dollywood.

That first afternoon it was on and off showers, so we just stayed at the RV. The original plan was to secure theater tickets after we got here, but we’ve cancelled all that. After four days of music available ten hours a day at Denton we just weren’t enthusiastic about going out to any shows. We hadn’t seen any advertisements for any show that would be new to us, we’ve seen them all. Besides we plan on going to Dollywood tomorrow (Wednesday).

It rained heavily overnight and the forecast was for rain to continue all day. That prompted us to cancel plans to go to Dollywood. We fell back on a standby plan, an outing we now consider entertainment, “Thrifting”!  We shop at thrift stores; Millie is mostly interested in clothes, and I buy DVD movies.

We keep a stock of DVD’s in the RV because believe it or not, there are still many areas of the country with no internet service. We have no interest in over the air or cable TV, on the road we only watch DVD movies.  If internet service is available, we will watch youtube, but that’s about it. We each have our favorite youtube channels, Millie is watching old house renovation in France and I’m following “Itchy Boots”, the adventures of a young women from the Netherlands who travels the world alone on a motorcycle.

Noraly Schoenmaker "Itchy Boots"

On Thursday morning we went to the Apple Barn for breakfast. This is kind of a tradition for repeat visitors to the Pigeon Forge area. I am sorry to report that I no longer recommend it. First, and this is not the management’s fault, the place is always full of families with undisciplined screaming kids. Second, breakfast for two people was just not worth $34.  That’s all I will say about it.

Best part of the Apple Barn experience, the apple fritters

 After breakfast we backtracked about 40 miles from Pigeon Forge to Jefferson City Tennessee. Betty’s husband, Paul Pedigo is a patient in a nursing home in Jefferson City. It is a temporary situation, soon they hope there will be room available in a facility closer to Betty’s home in Virginia. Paul suffers from advanced Alzheimer's. 

Betty drove down from Virgina and we all visited with Paul. Millie and I stayed a couple hours Betty dutifully stayed on before taking the long 2 hour drive back to Virginia. It’s sad, that’s all my heart will let me say. God bless the caregivers!

Before leaving Jefferson City we drove through the downtown area, other than the college campus, it’s not very impressive. Like many small towns commerce has all moved to the outskirts of town on one of the main highways. 

Traffic, people, glittering lights of the Pigeon Forge strip!

We took the scenic route on country roads back to Myrtle Beach of the Mountains (My pun, because of the tourist attractions and over building going on) the closer you get to the tourist towns of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville the nicer the outlying country homes become. People who are prospering with the tourist trade I imagine.

Martijn Doolaard, youtuber

One of the Youtube channels we watch is a man named Martijn Doolaard who rebuilding a stone building in the Italian alps. He makes the most beautiful bread in a cast iron pot in a wood oven or sometimes over the hot coals of a fire pit. Now I’m thinking, I’d like to try that on my camping griddle. I’ve been looking for a small cast iron pan or pot, it has to be small because of storage concerns in the RV. I finally found one in a thrift store, but it was in bad shape and they wanted $14 for it. I’ll go to the store and by a new one first I said, Millie replied that they are expensive. 

I had seen the LODGE /cookware factory store along the main drag into town and stopped in on our way back to the RV. After making the rounds of all the designer cast iron cookware I found the 2nd’s rack in the far corner of the store. There I found just what I was looking for, the cost was $9.62. Let the cooking fun begin! 

Just the facts:

Fuel, Jefferson City $53.58, $3.12 per gallon, 17.13 gallons.