I know this is kind of retroactive but I have just been very busy lately! So now there is time and I am going to try to finish up this huge vacation!

On Monday, August 3rd, we continued on our journey to Nashville. From Asheville, we traveled I-40 to Pigeon Forge, TN for 2 nighrs. We left Ashevile in the morning and arrived at Pigeon Forge around 1ish after a stop for lunch at a rest area. At the top of the priority list for this trip is to take Maddie to Dollywood Splash Country. We have heard glowing reviews about this park. Kevin and Ronnie really want her to experience it. So here we are! Take a look at this. At first, she was a little shy about getting in the water. But after about 30 minutes in the kiddie pool area, here she is in the wave pool!

Check out this huge Lazy River Ride! We had ridden this earlier. Maddie took turns riding with everyone. She loved it.

This is a view of the Kiddie Pool Area. Love those umbrellas! They are so cool, big and tall. The kiddie area was great too. All in all, it was a fun way to spend a few hours on a hot day.

So on Tuesday, August 4th, plans are on for us to go shopping at the Outlet Center in Pigeon Forge in the morning and then it is on to Ripley’s Aquarium after lunch. We figured it would be a great way to spend a hot afternoon inside with the "fishies" as Maddie calls them. This was taken as soon as we walked in the door. She was so excited! Isn’t that what family vacations are all about after all?

This was undoubtedly the ugliest fish I think I have ever seen! I don’t even know what the name of these fish are!

 Check out this shot. What a cutie! Her reflection in the glass turned out perfect. I could not do this again if I tried!

So here is Gi-Gi and little Maddie. She wanted me to get "inside the tank" with her. Me who has claustrophobia! But you will be surprised what you can do when your grand baby wants you to do it with her!

And of course, Daddy had to get in there too. But Daddy was a little too broad shouldered. I wonder if he would get stuck  but he managed to get in without any trouble.

This is so cool! The jellyfish in this place were huge! I don’t think I have ever seen such a pretty jellyfish before.

This is where we ate a good dinner Tuesday night. We were looking for a local joint and this one seemed to get good ratings.

So this is our campsite at Pigeon Forge. Our stie backed up to a small creek.  We stayed at www.pinemountainrvpark.com/. This was a wonderful new park. The owner was very nice and accomondating when I called to make a reservation. The great-grandparents cottage turned out to be almost a little condo. It was very nicely appointed and smelled new inside.

 Then on Wednesday, August 5th, it was back out to I-40 and on the way to Nashville. While on I-40 heading west, I happened to see these smoke stacks.
These smoke stacks are in Oak Ridge, TN which is about 25 miles west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge is where the atomic bomb was built that was dropped on Japan in 1942! Interesting bit of history here!

 It has been a long time since we have seen mountains of this size! After leaving Roanoke in 2000, we have not seen mountains this high! Sigh! It is so pretty and peaceful looking. But, man, it can be COLD in the winter!

After an uneventful drive to Nashville, we arrive at the Nashville KOA. It is so hot. I had forgotten how hot August vacations can be. We have to drag out our electric fan for outside use. I don’t think we use it but once a year, but boy is it nice when you need it! The sites are a little narrow but in order to be close to the lodges, in the background, we chose this site. This is Nette and Alton’s lodge. Once again, it is very nice.

 check out little Miss Maddie! She looks so grown up sliding down this slide!

Curt and Carolyn, Andrea’s parents, arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday. Scott and Andrea came in on Wednesday night. On Thursday, we all decided to take a trip to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It was so massive, it took us almost all afternoon to go through it!

Look at this goofy guy! He is so funny. Humm.. I wonder who he is?

It was really hard to get one of this girl at the hotel. Everytime someone came close to her with a camera she took off! I sneaked up behind her and when she turned around I snapped this one!

Here is one of the "gang" all together. This only happens about twice a year. But they are all happy looking!

This is just inside the front door. Isn’t this beautiful?

On Friday everyone except Kevin and Ronnie went to Andrew Jackson’s plantation, The Hermitage. It was still very hot but at least inside the buildings were air conditioned.

 There is a beautiful garden there that Andrew had developed for his wife. He really loved her and knew she loved flowers.

This is where the two of them are buried. They are buried amongst the flower garden.

Guess what we are having for dinner tonight? Yep. You got it right. It is some good old fashioned Tennessee BBQ. But there is a story behind this restaurant. We have been using their BBQ Sauce on our pulled pork for about 6 years now. I found out about it from a surgeon I used to work with in PA. We have been mail ordering it but have never been to their restaurant. So now here we are! I am so excited!!

 And drum roll…………..the ordered product! The pancake looking thing on the left is actually cornbread!

Anyways, on Saturday afternoon, Andrea’s brother Kevin and wife Allie with their 3 children arrived for the remainder of the weekend. We all decided to go to the pool to cool off.

Here we all are relaxing before dinner. Dinner tonight is massive amounts of hamburger’s and hot dogs.

We all had a wonderful trip and really enjoyed it all. Even though it was very hot, we managed to survive. This turned out to be a great vacation and a good place to have it!

Well, we started out on August 1st early in the morning for our big trip to Nashville, TN, arriving on August 5th.   We are meeting Scott and Andrea in Nashville. Andrea’s parents from Grove City, PA are also coming down on the 5th. Her brother and family from Pittsburgh are arriving on August 8th. The big meeting place is the KOA in Nashville.

But meanwhile, there are several stops along the way for us. Nette, Alton and the big black Lab, Kobi, are traveling with us in the motorhome. Ronnie, Kevin and Maddie are traveling in Kevin’s Honda Pilot. So we decided to leave our CRV at home for this trip.

The first stop is in Asheville at the KOA for 2 days. Checkout is on Monday, August 3rd.

Sites are kind of small and tight. We got lucky that no one parked behind us and they let Clay pull through. Nette and Alton’s cabin was right behind us too which allowed us to just be able to "walk through" without having to go all the around the loop.  But it served the purpose was we were not there except to sleep.

This is the little "lodge". It was rather nice. There was a small bedroom, bath and a kitchen. At least it had A/C in it. It was rather warm even though it was August in Asheville. It did get cool at night though.

This is one of the many quaint streets in Asheville. Parking is a premium and rather hard to find. We learned one thing though, don’t go to West Asheville. We made that mistake looking for somewhere to eat and found some rather shady characters.

I fell down on my job of being the social director because I did not pick out a place for us to eat. But guess what? It just so happened that we found, that we all agreed upon, was a unique and unusual Cuban restaurant called the Havana. It was really open, bright and airy and quite large.

This was my dinner. I had the "Palamino Steak" which was thinly breaded steak with rice, beans, plaintains and yucca topped with sauteed vegetables. It was magnificient!

This was Clay’s dish. He had the "Sampler" platter. Ronnie also had this one. It was a fantastic meal too! If we are ever back in Asheville again, this would be a definite place to go back to!

 Sunday was reserved for the Biltmore visit. It literally took us 1/2 hours to go on the tour of all of the rooms. I can’t imagine having this kind of money and to live here. Sigh… We also toured the Biltmore Winery which is located about 3 miles from the mansion. This was a great way to taste some of the Biltmore wines. Since Clay and I are cabernet fans, the reds suited us just fine.

This was one of the many flower garden’s. A lot of the flowers were already spent and dying. It is August after all. I would love to go back here in the spring when the azalea’s are in full bloom.

This was really a Kodak moment! Do you know how hard it is to get Alton to smile? This was a true moment!

As usual, this is a fantastic picture! They make such a handsome family! I don’t care if they are mine! (Grin!)