Serindipity: Dollywood!!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Dollywood!!

AHHHHHHHH!! Today I'm so pumped because we went to Dollywood! I have a ~~slight~~ ginormous love of Dolly Parton. I just think she's fabulous! She's blonde (YAY), loves sequins (YAY), country music royalty, and totally sweet! I adore her books and always have. She's just a nice person.

Dollywood History 101:

Take out your #2 pencils y'all we're going back to the year 1986.

Dolly Parton opened the theme park Dollywood in 1986. Previously this park was known as Rebel Railroad and was an amusement park that followed in the Smokey Mountain Theme. The park had several other owners and names. Dolly bought the park in 1986 and renamed it Dollywood. She splashed several butterflies on the place and added just the right amount of glitter/sequin/blonde ambition/and Tennessee Smokey Mountain charm to the place and even cooler? The park employs 3,000 people! That is a huge number folks! Dolly created jobs, opportunities, and a community attraction that is Tennessee's largest ticketed tourist attraction! Blonde Ambition? I think so!

Dollywood was FANTASTIC!

In true Dylan fashion, we almost got kicked out of Dollywood while riding on the tramcar. Right after Robert, our tramcar conductor finished explaining how Dollywood is a nice, safe, family place, Robert gave the parks' hours. He messed up the hours and another conductor corrected him. Robert apologized and stated the correct hours. Dylan, my dear dear brother, says, "DAMMIT ROBERT!" He didn't say it very loudly but loud enough (and since we rode in the first row on the tramcar the sound reverberated off the plexiglass) that Robert answers him with an, "I heard that. I'm watching you!" Of course Robert was kidding, but it was enough to embarrass us!

Upon entry we discovered some very non-NJ happenings.

1) Free Parking! The usual $10 fee was waved today for some reason...score!

2) Bags are not checked! This struck us all as a little weird because in NJ your bag can be checked anywhere. Movie theaters have even been known to check your bags.

I thought it would be kitschy and I was pumped because God knows I love a theme (as does the rest of my famsquad) but the rides and attractions were all actually solid! We rode on America's first "Winged Coaster" the Wild Eagle. Then, we rode on the Tennessee Tornado, Thunderhead (a wooden roller coaster. I'm not a huge wooden roller coaster typa girl but it was pretty good.) and a flight ride for my dad. My momma likes the roller coasters and my dad likes the high rides. We always tease my dad because when we go on the roller coasters he "holds the stuff and sleeps on the bench,". Yes lady and gents my dad is one of those people. He holds our stuff like someone is going to steal it. (Onlychildproblems)

*Side Story*

When we go on vacation my parents completely shift roles!

Deb becomes easy going, spendthrift, and carefree. My dad becomes a control freak and stressing out over the most mundane and easily fixable stuff. I don't know why this happens but Vacation Deb & Vacation Dad come out on every trip!

Back to the Main Story.

After we rode the rides we went to the GAC show. It was a really good 45 minute show featuring Tammy Cochran. The show's 6 main singers (3 girls and 3 guys) sang abbreviated versions of Blake Shelton's Honey Bee, Miranda Lambert's Over You, Jason Aldean/Luke Bryan/Eric Church's Only Way I Know, Eric Church's Springsteen, Carrie Underwood's Blown Away, Lee Brice Woman Like You, Toby Keith's Made in America, Taylor Swift's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, and Montgomery Gentry's My Town.

Next we got lunch. Since I love seeing Philly things all over the world, I got the "Philly Chicken Cheesesteak". It wasn't a Philly cheesesteak but it was good. It wasn't made with Amoroso Rolls and the peppers and onions were mashed up with the chicken. But it was still really good, especially since it was theme park food. (There also is a HUGE replica of the Liberty Bell in Pigeon Forge!)

Next we shopped, rode the railroad, and ate cupcakes as big as my head. Seriously, these thins were enormous!

We then went on Dolly's tour bus! EEK! So exciting! We saw where she lived when she was on tour in the early 2000s. We saw her wig, clothes, vanity, and bunks.

We made an early retire to go to dinner (it started raining. BOO! At least we got to see all the things we wanted to before the rain) and guess what we saw at the Blue Moose? More Philly Cheesesteak references! I didn't get another cheesesteak but I did get a buffalo chicken sandwich. Very yum!

Here are our pictures from the day!