We didn’t have as long to drive today so we could leave at a more leisurely pace. It wasn’t as hot today as yesterday, nor as humid. The drive was very pretty. This part of Tennessee (or maybe all of it) is green with rolling hills and exposed limestone cuts in the hills.
Our first stop was outside of Knoxville for lunch with relatives of my girlfriend Chris. Her mom’s cousin lives in the area and they had not met before so there was lots of family history to talk about, and old pictures to look at, and we had a very nice lunch together. It was a nice stop on the way.
Our final destination for the day is Pigeon Forge and we decided it made sense to visit my mom’s friend’s craft gallery on the way. We wound through pretty roads and drives, stopped at Aldi in Sevierville (birthplace of Dolly Parton), and ended up at the Highland Craft Galley. I had never met Kathie before (the owner) and it was fun to catch up and finally meet. Her store is full of beautiful crafts and art produced by artisans in the Highland Craft Guild.
Afterwards we drove a short distance to Pigeon Forge itself and got to our hotel. Pigeon Forge is a tourist town on the main road towards Smoky Mountain National Park. The main road where our hotel was is full of hotels, mini golf, go carts, music shows, restaurants, gift shops, and tacky attractions. More on that tomorrow.
The hotel is nice, we have a few of a stream and got to see some pretty heavy rain. For dinner we ate from our Aldi supplies and finished watching season 2 of The Good Place. That continues to be a really fun show. The idea of a Season 3 makes sense and the show continues to explore recursion in life.