Camping in Gatlinburg

WOW WOW and WOW is all I can say! We had such an amazing time camping in Gatlinburg. The colors where so breathtaking and it seemed the leaves where changing as the week went on.

(View of Gatlinburg)
We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and set up camp, we did have a few problems at first. When we got to the campground it seemed to be a very nice campground, it was nicely shady and it had lots of sites that are spread out decently. The campground for some reason doesn't let you pick your own site so they assigned us one. There probably weren't maybe 10 campers on this 150+ site park and they placed us at the very front.
First thing we noticed was all the nats you couldn't even talk without one flying in your mouth up your nose and yes we even had a few get into our eyes it was so aggravating and the kids where very annoyed and where ready to go home because of the nats. Then of course the site they put us at was so stinking small your camper barley fit on them, no room to park your car on the site either. The sites where also very uneven and stumps everywhere. Jasons parents couldn't even get there lift down to get his mom in there camper and then our site had huge tree stumps. Actually as soon as we got the kids out Cami tripped over one and went face first into the picnic table and had got a huge knot on her head. So the guys went up to the front desk and complained and they got us much better sites in the back. Even better was there where no nats back there and the sites where pull through sites so lots of room for parking your car and camper. So once through all that things went much better. We just spent the remaining of the evening setting up for the 2nd time and getting the kids settled in.

Come early Wednesday morning(2am) we had a good storm and big gust of wind come through that I thought was going to blow us all away. If you can imagine a storm in your home just imagine one in a camper....you hear everything and feel everything. And of course here you are sitting under these huge trees wondering if a limb should fall through where is it going to land.
Strange thing too is that you could literally hear the wind coming through the trees. It sounded like a car coming down a driveway and then all of a sudden louder and louder then SWOOSH and the camper would start rocking back and forth it was so freaky, good thing the kids where asleep. Then came the rain....the best sound you can hear in a camper its so soothing! It rained off and on all day Wednesday so we didn't get out but for just an hour drive to Pigeon Forge. By Wed evening the rain had cleared out so we where set for the fun to begin.

Thursday was my birthday so we headed down the road to an Apple Orchard and man oh man was it perfect.

We ate lunch at there restaurant that had an amazing view of the mountain side with apple trees lined up and down the hills. We also got to see a momma and baby horse running down through the orchards hills. It was perfect and oh my goodness was there food out of this world. Lots of apple options, we had apple fritters with apple butter sauce dipping for an appetizer along side apple cider, it melted in your mouth so yummy! We had there chicken finger special that had an amazing honey mustard apple dipping sauce so YUMMO. And to follow I had an apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream what a lunch it was. We walked around outside afterwards and got some great photos and then picked up some of there Apple Cider on the way out.







We then headed back to Pigeon Forge and played at this new place they had in town. It had Pirate Putt Putt, a Laser tag room and a Mirror Maze, we tried it all. The mirror maze was a hoot imagine not being able to tell who was where and which way to go, it was so confusing weird how your mind thinks...LOL! They make you wear gloves in there so you don't finger print up there mirrors.....could you imagine having to clean all those...Not I!
Jason ran into his self a few times, and his mom ran into the glass with her chair cracking it....we all got a good chuckle out of that one. It was very hard to tell what was real and what was not. They warned us before we went in that they have had several people get broken noses in there and the part she ran into was the room that had the most cracks and tape on it...lol! Cami didn't know what to think, and Caleb thought it was hilarious, such a great memory in there. That pretty much summed up that day the driving from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg is a nightmare with the traffic its a hot spot that's for sure. Tons of stuff to do there, its like a mini Las Vegas without the gambling, very family orientated, putt-putt, go carts, laser tag and shows galore.



Friday we pretty much stayed in Gatlinburg. We ate some breakfast at one of there famous pancake houses, then hit the Aquarium. The kids LOVED it Cami was very fascinated by the fish and of course the ocean always strikes Calebs interest. When we got to the Seahorses(his favorite sea animal ever) we could not interest him in anything else. My sweet sweet little Caleb got so touched by their beauty and innocence that he just started bawling! Of course they where playing this most soft music that you ever did hear that did make it seem so sad. But bless his heart he just couldn't get over how cute they where and then he said mommy they just look so sad....Then it came...Mommy I want one....then came the tears again! I felt so sorry for him so I quickly pulled him away to see the other seahorses they where too cute and then he got to see some teeny tiny baby ones... it just made his day. I had to pinky promise to get him away to let him hit the gift shop on the way out. He got two sea dragons, a seahorse key chain, a bag and a sea horse t-shirt. He is truly in love with those things. I captured some amazing photos of them so I'm gonna blow one up and put it in his room, he'll love that!
Now I only had one request of this trip and that was to do something that I had never done before of all my trips up to Gatlinburg and that was to watch the sunset on the mountains. So we took our trip up to Clingmans Dome and we got there just in time to see the HUGE pink sun settling down behind the mountain, man was it a breathtaking site. It was so much colder up there and the trees where even more gorgeous up there. I however didn't get a very good shot of the sun setting since we got up there right as it was going down but at least I got to see it even though my camera didn't. I did capture some beautiful pink glow shots! I almost couldn't pull myself away from the endless view of the mountains, no words can even describe what I was feeling up there.....accomplished and no regrets...it was a perfect way to end the day.









Saturday we packed it in and hit the go carts and some shopping on the way out. It was such a wonderful Birthday present to just get away from all the stress from the week before. I didn't..... not once think of any of our everyday problems that the kids have, they for once seemed happy and healthy! Now that's a GREAT getaway!



Today I called and got Camis results from her GI Dr. All her blood test came back normal. No celiacs no thyroid issues...so great news there. But her X-Ray showed a huge amount of bowel a for sure sign and diagnosis of Chronic Constipation! Our instructions are to go ahead with the clean out and start her back on Murilax.
Her good sleeping habits have ended so I guess its off to try the Lunesta. Hopefully it won't back fire like the Ambien. I'll keep you posted. Right now we are just enjoying the last week of the kids fall break then its back to school....siggghhhh!

More pictures to come soon! This is all I had downloaded of my favs right now!