The Southeast 2010
Long, long ago...
Okay, so not THAT long ago we decided that our boys needed to learn about other states besides Texas. So we planned a road trip to Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia (for a second), and North Carolina. The trip started off leaving the great state of Texas and venturing into Arkansas. They had the nicest rest area! We only drove through, but I think we drove through the entire state! |
Memphis, Tennessee
Our first destination was Memphis! "I saw stars dancing on the water. I heard Elvis, singing Blue Suede Shoes." By the way, if you touch those statues in the visitors center, an alarm goes off. Yikes! We were pretty worn out from that day-o-drivin' so we hunkered down at a Holiday Inn Express for the night. There was a HUGE turd in the toilet that greeted us. Like it couldn't even be flushed down. I totally called and had someone come up to break that monster and flush him. Poor girl! |
Mudd Island
Mudd Island is a small island near the banks of the Mississippi River. In order to get there, you'll need to ride a hanging monorail. It was a pretty neat ride! The island was super interesting and spread out. There is a huge interactive Mississippi River exhibit which you can follow from state to state. They also have paddle boats which were interesting. The only negative was that it was SO hot, and all the concrete didn't help. |
Sun Studio
Somewhere in there we visited Sun Studio. I can't remember how much it cost, (I think around $12.00) but it doesn't matter, DO IT. There's so much history in that building. Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all recorded songs here. We also ate at Marlowe's, which was okay. The pink Cadillac was cool, but the food, not so much. |
Road Trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
After a couple of days in Memphis we were ready to move on. Next stop, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! But first, we had to make a pit stop for lunch. And Coby was still loving Thomas the Tank Engine, so when we passed a train place, we HAD to stop. Before we knew it, we were in Pigeon Forge, TN (which is near Gatlinburg). This is the place to go if you like strange things, haha! The cabin we rented was in Sevierville, which was a hop, skip, and a jump away. |
Dollywood
Since we love amusement parks, we couldn't come all this way and not visit Dollywood! Dollywood is an Amusement Park founded by country music legend, Dolly Parton. The park is beautiful and there are several top notch rides including the Mystery Mine. Word of warning, we are fans of rides, and Dollywood is a park of shows. It started raining very early in the day and almost everyone left. Being the troopers that we are, we hug in there and basically walked on every ride after that. |
Cherokee, North Carolina
The next day we decided to brave the wild and head into the mountains. It was gorgeous! We went into Gatlinburg and just kept on driving - we ended up in Cherokee, North Carolina. There's a lot of history there, and bears too! One actually ran across the road right in front of us! I kept waiting for the momma bear to land on the car, thank goodness that never happened...whew! |
Great Smoky Mountains
During this portion of our stay we are surrounded by the Great Smoky Mountains. No matter where you look, it is almost like looking at a beautiful painting. They are called the Smoky Mountains because of the smoky looking haze that surrounds them. It is a sight to see. We drove through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and had a pit stop in the mountains at the Tennessee and North Carolina state line. |
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans was the real adventure outpost for our vacation. Bahahaha! Oh the memories! What was planned as a 3 day stop in New Orleans turned into a 5 day nightmare. Not really, but whatever. First stop was a swamp tour. Our guide was entertaining, until he started calling all of the gators in the swamp to the boat. WHAT!?! We were safe but it sure was scary seeing the alligators up close like that. The bayou was so full of color and just beautiful! Coby was obsessed with the toilet on the boat and had to pee like 300 times, yeah, sure. |
The French Quarter
How do you follow up all that swamp excitement? The French Quarter, of course! We went to Jackson Square and saw some strange folks. We walked down Bourbon and saw two old people being naughty on an electric scooter (I'm scarred for life!) Then I had a DRUNK woman tell me very loudly that we shouldn't take our kids down Bourbon in a certain direction because that was "GAY" Bourbon, as opposed to DRUNK as a skunk Bourbon. Whatever. It smelled bad and then it rained. It was quite disgusting. The architecture was absolutely stunning though! We took the boys and had a Cheeseburger in Paradise at Margaritaville :) On the way back to the hotel, the Trailblazer became possessed by one of Marie Laveau's VooDoo spells and died. It turns out that the neighborhoods near the French Quarter aren't that great, and we ended up smack dab in the middle of one! Thank goodness for roadside assistance!!! I called and they sent a tow truck, at the time we knew the neighborhood wasn't good, but we didn't know how bad until the tow truck driver wouldn't leave us there until our cab showed up. We ended up spending two extra days in New Orleans, but it wasn't bad. Our Holiday Inn Express was great to us and they had a pool - woo hoo!!! Before we knew it, the Trailblazer had a nice, new, shiny water pump and we were on our way back home. |