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Renos and More Renos...

So part of doing all these renos on the RV is having to really think hard about what drove us crazy about our trip last time and things we want to be different with the RV.  This is a little hard to do, because as time goes by, you are just left with all the good memories and it can be difficult to drudge up the bad.  Lucky for me, certain things just stick with me!  Like....

1. ANYTHING that just sits of the floor is a fucking nucence!!!  Past trips this included things like, the trash can, dog water and food bowls, kennel, and heater.  In such a small space (34x6=204sqft), floor space is a covited thing and not to be taken for granted!  So anything that just sits out on the floor, becomes something to trip over, spill, kick, and knock over 1000X a day!  AN-NYO-ING!  So with this in mind, we are working very hard to make renos that will keep shit off our floors!  For example, Joe has installed this trash can that slides in and out of the cabinet.  Not only will we no longer be tripping over our trash, but it will keep the baby and dog out of it as well.  This is so HUGE!!!  Thank  you Joe!

We have will soon also build the dog kennel into one of the dinette benches.  This takes care of us needing to bring a kennel and also gives us a place to put Darby's water and food bowls, so once again we will not be kicking them and the baby  will not be eating/playing with her food as well.  Win/Win.  Thank you Pinterest for the idea!

Here's the bench the kennel will be built into.  We'll cut out the door and side, under the table and put gate metal, so she can see out and get air flow.

2. Our bathroom is teeny tiny.  There is no changing this.  However, we can spruce it up a bit and make it look as nice and big as possible.  So, that's what we've done!  Joe changed out the sky light above the shower to one that is clear.  So now you can look at the trees while you shower and it lets in a ton of natural light that makes the space really nice to be in.  We also added this shower curtain and extendable bar, making showers much nicer than before and giving the bathroom a little more room when the shower is not in use!  

Joe was also going to install a shampoo holder in the shower, that would keep me from having to set all our stuff in the bathtub before driving from place to place.  Which is good, cause there's a lot to remember to do before driving off already!  Like that one time I forgot to close the door to the RV and we drove off....but I digress.  However, we are starting to get lazier smarter and have decided to just hang a mesh bag in there instead.  This will also give us a place to put the kids bath toys.  That's right Kids, you will have bath toys on this trip.  You are welcome, and remember that Mommy wants land, not diamonds when you are older.  He also made the 1 bathroom drawer pull out further (little change, big difference!).  And we ripped off the maroon-hunting-camo-boarder that was over the sink before.  Ewww.  So now our bathroom is as FABULOUS as it can get, for only being 4 sqft. 

3. No desk space.  Being that Joe works from the RV everyday, he really needed a space.  He can still work outside if he wants or in the bedroom, but now he has a real, grownup space to work from too if he chooses.  Making this mod, really opened up the whole living room space a lot!  The previous entertainment center was just a big box of space with no shelves and opening to both our bedroom and the living room, makeing it a hard storage space to work with, and so it mostly went unused.  Now we have usable shelves, and a desk, and a more open living room!  Love!

 

This mod also gives us this added shelving in our room.

4. Kids Room.  It's a tight space, but I really wanted to make it theirs!   So we did the new flooring and are working on making them a chalk board and a felt board.  Then we made sure that their toy closet JUST had toys in it, and not all our camping gear taking up half of it like before, especially since not having enough toys was a problem last time and this time we have a whole nother kid!  One mod that is all my idea and I'm really excited about doing is changing this awkward bench in their room into a compartment to hold dress up clothes (and not just a bag of old yarn like last trip) and also turn it into a play kitchen.  Cool huh?!  I'll post pics as soon as it's done. 

This pic is of nothing I was just talking about, cause we haven't actually done much in their room, yet.  Nothing to see here, but a girl reading to her dog.

In addition to that we let the kids decorate each of their bunks with sticker decals.  And Joe is building a rail and curtain for Juliet's bunk (the middle one).

5. Living Room.  Joe added a sky-light in the living room!  We have light!  Real, natural light!  It's glorious!  Our RV had a sky light in every room (kids bedroom, our bedroom, and the bath), except the living room.  It made for kind of a gloomy, dark space.  The new sky light changes all that, and even makes the room seem bigger!  Yay for bigger in an RV!  Even just seemingly bigger!  This was a big mod and I'm so proud of my man for making it happen!  He plans to put up a more detailed post about it soon, cause apparently no one does this?


Here Joe is wiring the fan in the skylight.  He's so talented!

Finished!

Joe might be doing things like adding skylights, but where would we be if I wasn't adding things like this basket?!  Which will be used to hold our hats and winter gear incase you were wondering.

6.  Kitchen.  On our last extended trip, I ended up packing the kitchen like we were just going camping for the weekend and would be eating hot dogs and roasting marshmallows for 5 months. I brought crappy pots and pans, dull knives, and very little else.  I also had no counter space, a hood vent and light that didn't work, lots of unused storage space in cabinets, and a single drawer that held all utensils.  And although I had thought to I very quickly realized my lack of preparedness and want to make some changes this time!  Joe has already built me some additional storage under the couch for more pots and pans.  We also added some storage in the kitchen cabinets that will allow us some space to put some larger items like the crock pot and blender and a REAL coffee pot!  Last time we had this little one that made 1.5 cups at a time.  That was awesome. Originally, we were going to rebuild the cabinet shelves to make them closer together and add a third shelf.  Then I found these hanging shelves for $9 each on Amazon.  Way easier!!!  So now I have an extra kitchen drawer since I don't have to store the foil and baggies in a drawer anymore!  Now what to do with that drawer!?  Oh, the possibilities! 

We also added a magnetic knife rack, so we/the kids don't accidently stab ourselves trying to grab a fork in the "everything drawer" anymore!  We also have big plans for the spice storage, but we are still working those details out.  Last trip I swear I only brought salt and pepper and garlic powder and they all just rolled around in the cabinet and were a total pain!  I'm so excited about having lots of spices that have a designated space!  I really love to cook and this will make that a lot easier!

As you can see, our current spice situation leaves a lot to be desired!

Speaking of easier, I remember counter space being a huge problem last time too, and so we/Joe have added this counter extender.  Yay!  Every little inch counts!  And this little fold out makes me think that cooking Thanksgiving in the RV just might be a possibility!  In addition to all the useful mods, I also wanted the kitchen to look good!  It was ugly as sin for our last trip.  That maroon-hunting-camo-boarder was in the kitchen too, but making it even worse was that before leaving on the last trip in an attempt to help me destroy it, a couple of my drunk friends had ripped half of it off.  Half.  And that's how it  stayed until we/I did THIS to the back kitchen wall!

This picture also shows the counter extension and magnetic knife mount by the cook top.

I'm very excited about my new kitchen!

It's been really fun making the RV really truely US!  It's such a tiny space that it makes it so much less intimidating than a house to remodel!  Which I know helped me a lot!  I'm glad we had a little experience to help with our reno decisions too.  It's been really fun thinking of ways to best use every space!  I just kept thinking that everything should have at least 2 different uses.

It's really hard to show and mention every single reno we've done, so we will upload a video home tour, like all good RV blogs should have, very soon!  Just a few small things left to do on her.  You know, those "small things" that never end!  But it feels good to have so many of the big things out of the way!

A Weekend at Garner State Park

This weekend we went to Garner State Park for the very first time!  I'm still baffled by the fact that we have an RV sitting in front of our house, and yet we don't take it out very often when we are stationed at home.  I guess that's all the more reason to take it out on extended (like year long) trips like we do.  When we are home, it's just not a priority to "go camping", even though we have so much fun when we do!  Other things stack up and we spend our Saturday's mulching trees or running to birthday parties.  Some of those things we love, but it still means that taking mini trips as a family only happens 6 times a year at best, instead of hitting a new destination every week like we will soon be doing!  Eek! Nervous attack!  Okay, moving on.
So we went to Garner for 2 nights.  The original plan was to go to Padre Island National Sea Shore  this weekend, but when the weather took a turn for the freezing, we changed directions and crossed our fingers in hopes that Garner would be less windy and wet.  It was a great choice!  The weather was just about perfect and the cool temps made hiking even better!
Our plan was to leave home at noon on Friday.  Ha!  So when it was clear that we were not going to make that deadline, we aimed for leaving by 2.  Ha!  We finally rolled out of here at 4:30.  What took so long!?  I guess you could say that packing can be a bit of a down side to weekend RV camping.  It takes for freaking ever!  I'm now a fan of the have two of everything approach, so all you have to do is throw cloths and food in and GO!  Plus, Joe had some last minute mods he was getting done on the old girl before we took her out, like strapping the mounted TV to the wall so it didn't flail around while we drove, and installing a floor threshold, and some other stuff.  And, oh yeah, we had three kids to manage and feed while we did all this.  And, I'll admit, maybe we are a little bit of procrastinators.  So because of all this, we pull into our campsite at night, in the deep dark darkness.  Parking was fun.  NOT!
We eat, we make fire, and the kids start their ritual first day camping, you're in my face, fighting.  Not so awesome.  But eventually the kids all go to sleep and Joe and I (genius's that remember to bring the baby monitor) sit out by the fire and drink wine and have some deep convos and an all around great time together.  Campfires are therapeutic like that, you know.
Day 1- Baby wakes me EARLY (like before 7am y'all)!  He's coughing and we are all very aware of the climate change we have entered into with our itchy skin and insatiable thirst, and coughs.  I'm up so I make coffee.  I'm making coffee, so I make the big weekend breakfast, of eggs, pancakes, and bacon.  Once that's done and Joe's still not up, I send the girls in to get him.  Hehehe.  We eventually get outside and the weather is pretty good, meaning not too freezing.  High 40's.  We're Texans, remember!  First mission- get gas  in the truck!  Second mission- get Jr. Ranger Books!  Locating the Jr. Ranger books, accomplished our Third mission, which was to see the park.  We drove all other that park, Headquarters (nope), Store (nope), Gift Store (they're different!) (nope), and finally the Visitor Center (yes!), to get our books!  Once we had those in hand we set out to do some hiking and Geocashing!  We had never Geocashed before, but we had been wanting to give it a try.  Joe, being the techy of our family, pulled up the app and we set out to find "treasure"!  But, as newbies, we sucked at it.  Our first 2 cash's were fails and we didn't find them.  Lou was ready to give up and say to heck with Geocashing!  I told her the third times often the charm and to give it one more shot.  So glad we did!  Cause on our third try, we found the Geocash in a hollowed out tree and now we are all HOOKED!  It's so fun and exhilarating when you find one!  And this one was especially cool, cause it gave you the coordinates to two other cashes in the park that weren't on the Geocash app map.  We decided to leave those 2 other cashes to find the following day and went back to the RV for some biking ridding, lunch, and resting.  Then we were back out again to listen to a ranger talk on animals in the park.  It was interesting, but COLD as it was dark and Jonah could only take about 40 mins of the hour long talk, so we left early and headed to the RV/home for dinner.  .By this point, the kids were over their adjustment fighting period and played beautifully together while I cooked and Joe made another fire.  Lou was pulling the two littles around on a sleeping bag and everyone was laughing, including me and Joe!  I love that about RV living, the kids play right under your feet and you get to hear and be apart of all the fun they are having.  We all went to bed a little earlier that night after L and I hung around the camp fire for a bit, just her and I.  Special times.  Love those campfires!
The next day we started out by starting and finishing the girls Jr Ranger books at the picnic table.  The weather was even better than Saturday and we were headed to hike/geocash!  We found 3 geocashes that day and walked along some lovely trails to find them, and even spotted a humongous rat snake! thanks to Joe.  He's got an oddly good eye for spotting wildlife!  One of the geocashes was one that had some items in it to trade.  So Loralai took a plastic bear claw and traded it for a homemade necklace she had in the truck.  I thought that was a cool item to trade, since she had made it.  Then we had a decent burger at the park restaurant and met a nice family with 2 little girls,  that my kids lurked around while they ate at a separate picnic table and then L showed them where a geocash was hiding once I unleashed her to go and talk to them again.  We grabbed the girls Jr Ranger badges at the Visitor Center after showing them their workbooks.  Then it was back to the RV to pack it up.  The kids did some more bike ridding and Jonah even got on the plasma car with L while I pushed them around.  His face was hysterical; he was so awesomely happy to be ridding on that thing!  Then it was back in the truck to race back home so we wouldn't have to park in the dark again.  And guess what......we ended up parking in the dark.  But it was a great trip, full of memories made, to a place I hope we visit again soon!  And once the kids quit fighting, it was a great inspiration for our extended trip that's coming up so soon!  Eek!

New Wordpress Blog Site, CHUGGIN' ALONG, coming soon.  Be on the look out!

Head Spinning- So much to do!

We are less than 3 months from our departure date and here's the point where my head starts spinning.  I just spiral in an ADD tunnel for weeks over all the things we need to do.  One of the many things I should be doing in preparation for this trip is taking photos of items we want to sell online.  Except, a.  I'm not a great photographer, and b.  I'm not so good at uploading photos, and c. I just don't wanna.  I know, I know, I could learn, and probably pretty quickly.  But the task itself is really no fun at all, which is probably the real reason I have not done it.  Leaving on the trip, renovating the RV, planning and researching our destinations; now those are all FUN!  But uncovering and dusting off items in my garage so I can take photos and sell them online, NOT fun.  It's so not fun, that I'd almost just rather give it all away, then go through the process.  Almost.
I know I should be a grown up and just do it.  I scold myself everyday for not doing it.  But it doesn't help.  One of these days I bet I will get to it though, cause it's a necessary step to get to go on this trip.  And I really, really want to do that!
Ah, but I'm so much better at delegating tasks to my super talented and capable husband, then actually doing them myself.  I mean I am doing SOMETHING while he does all the things.....I'm holding the baby!  But there are a few things that despite how badly I do them, I still do them better than Joe.  And this means they are on MY job list.
Here's the rest of our TO DO list before we leave in the next few months.  Joe's jobs are in blue and mine are in pink, and purple means it's going to take both of us ....

Sell Everything
This is hard to do when you think you still need things while you are living where you live.  It's like I'd like it all to be picked up THE DAY we leave and not a moment sooner.  Sigh.

Pack Everything Else
I can't do that until we get closer to leaving and the holidays are over, cause that's actually the only time of the year I use all those obscure serving dishes that I store all year long, and would otherwise be the very first things I packed up.  You're with me on this one, right?

Get house renter ready
We've done a lot in this category!  Main house painted, gutters put on, decks stained, big oaks trimmed, things fixed.  But we still need to get my mom's house spruced up and get her wish list checked off before we go off and leave her for a year.  This includes painting outside wall, fix tub, install shelf, and install washer and dryer connections, and whatever else she throws at us before departure.



Septic Field
Whaaaaa!  It works......but badly.  There are holes and gurgling sounds and I'm just not sure our renters will be as forgiving about all that as we have been for the past few.....years.  We keep putting this one off, but I think it might need some addressing before we go.  Luckily, Joe's dad is a master plumber!  <----That's me trying to be positive.

RV Renos
We've really been knocking this one out!  Cause it's fun!  Most of the major stuff is done and we are just left with the millions of small details that will never end! 

Take Practice Trips (Really just an excuse to hang out with our peeps and camp, cause we like it)
So far we have planned a camping trip to Garner State Park in November and Dinasour State Park in December and we are thinking Pedernales Falls State Park in January.

Stuff in as many social events as possible cause we are gonna miss y'all!
Jonah's Birthday, Bean's Birthday, Host Thanksgiving, Run in a 10K, 2 Christmas's, New Years, Endless holiday parties, and our Epic Good-bye Party (that I should probably get started planning, instead of selling all our stuff online, cause that's FUN!)

So we will keep moving, probably at a snails pace, right up until it's time to leave and then we'll be losing our minds, busy as usual.

We (Joe) are also currently working on getting our new Wordpress Blog site, CUGGIN' ALONG, up and running.  It looks cool so far and should be up this week!  So stay tuned for that announcement!

Keep sending those good vibes y'all!

We Finally Have An Itenerary!

It's not until Joe and I start mapping out the places we will go, that I actually start to believe in my heart of hearts that we will actually LEAVE on these crazy trips!  And last night, we started mapping it out.  So I think we may really go!  Here's our itinerary so far. 

Of course it's only halfway done and I'm certain that the entire thing will change 100% before we get back.  But still, here it is, yahoo!

So our planned departure date is January 3rd.  But in all honesty, even I know that won't happen.  I mean, we will probably still be recovering from our New Year's Eve hangovers on that date, and it's highly unlikely that we will get our shit together in time to leave by then.  So, our fall back (much more likely to happen) leave date is January 24th.  Yeah, I know that's 3 weeks later than January 3rd, and no I won't by that point still be hung over (at least not from my New Years Eve partying), but it gives us 3 weeks to settle from the holiday craziness, and a little extra time to get outa here.  So for this itinerary purpose, lets say we leave on January 24th...

1/24- LEAVE
1/25- We have no freaking idea!  It's winter, so it will probably be cold.  Thinking about bumming around TX, maybe even staying at Pecan Groves in DT Austin for a week?
2/1- ???  Texas?  Oklahoma?  Arkansas?
2/8- ???  Texas coast?  Just need somewhere not too freezing.  Ideas please!!!

Not looking like much of an itinerary so far is it?  Well it gets better!

2/15- Baton Rouge, Louisiana to visit Aunt Jil and hopefully find some other cool stuff to do around there.
2/22- Dauphin Island, Alabama to visit family friends and it's a really cool destination!
3/1- Sugar Sand Beach in Florida (not sure which one exactly)
3/8- Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park in Florida
3/15-Somewhere in Florida?
3/22- Disney Land!!!  Loralai would never let us leave the state without seeing this one!  Also, I have an Aunt I'd like to see while here.  And my sister might come this week!
3/29- Savannah, GA- I have a cousin here and it sounds like a pretty cool town and on the coast to boot!
4/5- Atlanta, GA- Joe has an aunt here and teenage cousins to BABYSIT THE KIDS!!!!  Yahoo!!!!
4/12- Myrtle Beach, SC- heard it's gorgeous, but mostly have to go here cause I watched "Shag" as a young girl and it made such an impression that this town made my bucket list!  I plan to learn how to "shag" here, throw water filled condoms at strangers car windows while driving, and experiment with heavy eyeliner.
4/19 It's Easter!  And all I've got for this week so far is we will be in North Carolina.  Fail!
4/26- Shenandoah National Park, VA and Blue Ridge Parkway

Hopefully the weather is warming up by now, cause we are getting pretty far north!  Us Texans are deathly scared of cold weather!

5/3- Washington DC and Gettysburg stuff
5/10- Milford, Ohio to visit my Aunt Yancy!
5/17- Niagara Falls
5/24- New York City to see Joe's family and also some train trips to Philadelphia, NJ for Joe's work.
5/31- New Haven, Connecticut to visit Joe's other sister.
6/7- ???  Figure we will spend a week seeing parts of all those little bitty states, you know; Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts?
6/14- Portland, Maine- Come on Nikki!!!!
6/21- Acadia National Park Maine
6/28- CANADA Bitches!!!  I know NOTHING about Canada, except what I learned from Barney making fun of Robin on "How I Met Your Mother".  So HELP!  Plan on being there for 4+ weeks if it's awesome.  I keep thinking, the north woods, like in "The Great Outdoors".

So that's all we got so far.  Tips, advice, experiences PLEASE!!!

The Great Smokey Mountains, TN and Graceland!

This post is embarrassingly late.  Like, a year and some months late!  But, I did write most of it much sooner after taking this trip and just finally added the rest of the pictures and a tiny bit more of the story.  Enjoy.

 

After our somewhat rocky arrival, we took a day at our campground, Twin Lake RV, in Gatlinburg to relax and get settled. 

Gatlinburg is a very cute, tourist town.  The whole town mainly consists of the little shops and restaurants, all geared towards tourists, stretched out along the main drag.  There's a big Ripley's Believe It Or Not and an aquarium also, neither of which we visited.  Gatlinburg is also the closest, little town to the entrance of The Smokey Mountain National Park, so you have to drive down the main drag,  which is always PACKED with people walking and crossing the street and cars moving about 5 miles an hour.  It turns a very short drive into the park, into a 30 min+ trip real quick!  There was always great people watching though and the stores were all interesting as well.  We did eventually find an alternate route into the park, along the Pigeon Forge Pkwy much later into our stay which especially came in handy over the weekend with the traffic was practically at a stand still in Gatlinburg.

Gatlinburg

Joe and I's biggest draw to take our vacation here, was of course the National Park!  So the first thing we did was load up the kids and Cody and drive into the park and visit the closest ranger station, Sugarland.  It was close to 7pm when we got to the station and they were close to closing.  We were able to walk through the small museum that showed several animals that live in the park, as well as get the park paper and map (essential items to navigate any national park).  We also got the girls Jr Ranger materials.  Our visit was so brief due to them closing, that we had some time and decided to walk around the building and found a trailhead there.  We still had some daylight and decided to walk the 1.5 mile trial.  It was a great little hike. 

Gorgeous little waterfall

The next day, we made a full day of being in the park!  We attended a ranger talk geared for the kids.  It was an 1.5 mile hike with a ranger that lead to an old, one room school house used over 100 years ago.  The ranger talked to the kids the whole time about what it must have been like to grow up in the Smokies back then and told us this was the exact trail the kids would have hiked along in those days, except they'd be barefoot.  We learned so many cool facts on that hike, including boys would often wear dresses, since they grew so fast and dresses were easier then letting out hems constantly, millipedes smell like cherry coke, little girls had the job of hauling the rocks out of the garden every spring and stacking them to make rock walls, and kids only attended school 2 months out of the year and during the winter.  Once we arrived at the school house, the ranger went over some of the lessons the kids would learn, how they would have only one book, and a notebook and pencil would cost 2 eggs at the general store.  He talked about the games kids would play at recess (stick baseball, and build stick houses, etc), and also talked about how kids were punished (switched, dunce caps, and keeping  your nose against the chalk board).  It was probably the best ranger talk we've ever gone to.  The kids were entertained the whole time and it was so fun to be inside a one room school house!  Maybe it's just the teacher in me...

There was an old graveyard near the school house that we visited.  Half the graves were unmarked and another third of them were children or infants.  It was interesting to learn that it was not uncommon for people of the area to live well into their 90's, but illnesses in infancy or childhood killed many. 

We walked back to our meeting place at Metcalf Bottoms Picnic area and ate our sandwiches and drank some of the gallon jug of water that Cody had carried the entire hike and back, and let the kids play in the river.  After that, we headed out to Cascade (one of the busiest areas of the park) to see what it had to offer.  This area of the park is mainly made up of a loop you drive that takes you past several historical homesteads and farms.  It also has some of the largest meadows in the park, so it's a good place to spot wildlife.  I was REALLY hoping to see a bear!  Driving the loop took over an hour and we didn't see much wildlife, but it was beautiful and I think the people watching was better than seeing a bear!

This is how some people drove around the loop!

We stopped at the major homestead on the loop and learned a lot about how people lived in this area over 100 years ago.

Unlike most of the national parks we have been to, this one did not have any grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, or any amenities beyond primitive camping, camp stores, and ranger stations.  Another major difference was that this park did not charge an entrance fee.  This all has to do with when the government purchased the land BACK from owners 100 years ago, they made certain agreements about how the park would be run, etc.  This park is unique in that it was once owned almost entirely by homesteaders, small farmers, loggers, and miners, and was actually reclaimed as a national park.   

It was a very crowded loop and took awhile to get around, but was worth the trip and although we DID NOT see a bear, and Loralai was in a terrible mood, we were glad we came. 

The next day we set out to tackle DOLLYWOOD!

But first we had to make the huge mistake of taking the Gatlinburg trolley system to try and get there.  We got on the trolley, waited at a stop for over and hour, missed our connecting trolley cause their station markings are terrible, saw a lady totally fall and eat it right in front of us, waited for our original trolley to return and 2+ hours and $4 later returned to our RV, where we all loaded into our truck and DROVE ourselves to Dollywood.  Ahhh!  NEVER AGAIN!

Don't be fooled by the smiles and cuteness in this picture.  Our trolley experience was awful!

Parking is $10 and you are trolleyed to the front gate.  We opted to purchase the $90 package that got us 3 days at our choice of parks (Dollywood or Splashtown).  A child was $70 and 2 years and under were FREE. 

Our trip here started out a little bumpy.  Despite all the info and blogs I'd read about the place, it took us some time to figure out their systems, etc.  We went straight to one of the kid sections of the park.  The first ride we got in line for, BROKE, after we had waited for some time and we had to leave without getting to ride.  Then I went to take Bean on a ride and right as we got to the front, the man told me she was an inch too short to ride!  That's when I noticed that all rides were color coded for height requirements and Bean was not going to be able to ride ANYTHING!  Then we tried to hunt down the real train that rides though the park and runs off real coal....it was out of service that day.  So I got a little pissed at this point!  I might have cursed Dollywood and seriously considered asking for my money back.  Luckily Joe was in better spirits than me and suggested we go eat and figure things out better.  I'll admit, the burger and listening to Dolly music in air conditioning did help.  After that I was ready to try again.  Joe took L on some rides and I found some "baby" rides that Bean could go on.  And best thing about them....NO LINES! 

Daddy rode some of those baby rides too!

So did Uncle Cody!  Hehehe

Beyond this part of the park, Bean was actually very content to sit and ride in the double stroller we had rented for the day ($12 for a double and a nice ride), thanks to Uncle Cody who spiced up the ride with some CRAZY fast driving while pushing the girls around.  Joe and Cody (The Boys) went off and rode a couple of hair raising roller coasters while I took the girls to a splash pad.

Lu was fearless and would have ridden EVERY ride there if only she was 2 inches taller!  The only ride I was able to go on was the merry-go-round since I was obviously preggers.  Boo!  But we all ended up having a good time and we got our fill of Dolly music (that plays all throughout the park all day) for a very long time!

Whoo!  My one ride!

Joe and I nailed them with water guns as they rode by!

The next day it was back to the national  park, to a new section we had yet to visit.  We attended a Ranger program on water creatures and water quality.  It was geared to children and fine, but would have been better if we had been on time and both girls hadn't needed to leave to go to the far away, bathrooms right as we arrived.  But whatever, we did learn SOMETHING and got credit for another ranger class (of which you need 3 to get your Jr Ranger badge).  After that we walked around an old homestead farm that was located in the same area.  It had pigs and everything!  We really enjoyed this.  It was really interesting to see how people stored their crops and worked their farms 100 years ago! 

There was also a ranger station here that we visited with a museum that told more about how people lived during this time. 

It was here that I struck a deal with the store manager to give us his employee discount if I bought several jars of Smokey Mt preserves.  These are delicious preserves that are made by Mennonites that live in the area.  There are so good!!!!  And made great gifts to bring home. 

We stopped for a picnic on the way home and took some photos of The Smokies and some look out points.  Still, no bears!

Somewhere in here we took a day just to relax at the RV park.  Joe worked on RV repairs and I took the kids swimming and did laundry.  We went out to eat in Pigeon Forge at a family style restaurant.  It was pretty good. 

It wasn't long before we were ready to try out Dolly's Splashtown!  It was a nice, although I thought kind of small water park.  There were 2 large kid water playscapes, a wave pool, lazy river, and several big water slide type rides.  I pretty much hung out with Bean at one water playscape and on our walk to the second water playscape, took a dip in the lazy river and then the wave pool.  And that was our day.  The boys took off to do a few of the more daring water slides and took Loralai on one as well, while Bean took her afternoon nap on me and I watched Netflix on my phone.  Gotta love technology!  It wasn't too long before Joe returned that we saw an older man that worked there slip and fall.  This fall was pretty serious as he was bleeding and appeared to have passed out for a few minutes.  Lifeguards and Medics rushed to help him and eventually took him away on a stretcher.  Why Joe and I seem to witness more falls on vacation then anything else, I don't know?  We hope he's okay.  Once that passed, Bean woke up and we took turns playing with the kids on the water playscape and going down the water slide there with Lu.  Yes, even me!  Yahoo!  And then it was time to go home. 

Ready for the water park!

Tired Baby!

Water and phones don't mix  So that's all the pics I got.

We took another relaxing day after that and just hung around the RV.

They next day was a BIG HIKING day!  The most exciting hike of the day for us was hiking a very small, 3 mile piece of the Appalachian Trail.  This is a very famous trail that people often take 6 months of their life to hike!  The trail runs from Maine, down all the way south to Georgia.  Of course this sounds like and awesome thing for Joe and I to do and we are already discussing when we think our youngest (still a bun in the oven) will be old enough to join us.  12, 13 sound about right?

Had to climb EVERY rock!

This was after a 1 mile hike straight up to a look out tower.  Whew!  Exhausting!

Had to include this one!

Okay, so here is where I start adding photos and comments 1 year and some months AFTER this trip was taken...

Later that day we head back to Sugarland Visitors Center to collect Lu and Bean's JR Ranger Badges!

And we got our "Not-so-Junior Ranger certificates".  Cute and unique to just this park.

The last day of our time in Gattlinburg, was one, if not THE best day of the trip in my opinion!

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We went into town in the afternoon and just looked around.  I had seen these "sky lifts" and had a coupon for them, so we decided to take a ride.  Of course I would be the one that was TERRIFIED of them; my own idea!  But Lou comforted me on the way up and I was a little bit better on the way down.  Actually, I was probably worse!  Going down it's harder to ignore how far you have to fall!  But having Joe and Bean in my cart, made it better!



 

 





After, we went to eat at this funky restaurant called, The Mellow Mushroom.  All psychedelic and trippy mushrooms all over!  Really cool vibe and Joe and I thought it might be an original establishment, but later noticed some other Mellow Mushrooms in other towns on the way home.  Good food!  I got this thing in the photo above, but they specialize in pizza.  And it was fun sitting up above the town and being able to people watch.  There was a haunted  house across the street from us and these actors kept jumping out at people as they walked by.  Hilarious!

 



From there, we did a little  more walking around and stumbled onto this place!  Where they happened to be giving out free moonshine samples!  Here's Joe volunteering to drink those samples.  I mean, Tennessee Moonshine?!  Gotta do it!

 

And then we danced...  It was a pretty magical night!

 



 

And the next morning we packed up and headed out of Gattlinburg, TN!

 

 

We were headed home by way of Memphis, TN, with and overnight stay at Elvis' Graceland and RV Park!  Eekk!!!  We got there late and the park was Whatever.  The next morning was all about touring Graceland.

 

The entire tour was given by audio recording.  Really good!

This was the first room, right when you walk in the house.

The kitchen was my absolute favorite room!  I can't even really explain why.  It just seemed so cozy, and a little like my grandmother's kitchen. 

This room was called the "Jungle Room" and was just out from the kitchen.  Elvis decorated it himself.  Several songs were recorded right in this room. 

Green carpet, waterfall, animal hides on all the furniture and a standing ashtray by every seat!  It was the 70's y'all!

This was his lounging room, with 3 TV's and a bar, across from the pool table room that was completely covered with fabric, walls to ceiling!



Admin offices.

Play scape that Lisa Marie played on.





After the house and grounds, we entered another building that held lots of Elvis memorabilia, like his records and window scenes of different periods and events in his life, like his wedding, etc.  This is where they also had all his elaborate Vegas costumes on display.

 Then we went to see all of the cars!  So, so many!!!  This does not even scratch the surface!

Kids were getting tired at this point, so we took a minute to eat some BBQ at a restaurant on the grounds, of which there were 2, and then headed over to see Elvis' 2 planes!

Here's his "little one", Lisa Marie.

Later Elvis bought this larger plane, that I did not get and outside photo of, but check out the inside!  Lisa Marie had her 9th birthday aboard this plane.

Elvis' bedroom on the plane

Seeing Graceland was amazing!  And totally worth the 100's of $$$ we spent on the tour!  This trip would be followed by months of me being obsessed with the life of Elvis and reading several books on him!  Strange and very interesting man!

From there, we set back out on the road, headed for Arkansas for one more stop before we arrived home, at Diamond Fields State Park.  We were so impressed with Arkansas' State Parks!!!  Inexpensive and SO NICE!  Clean and great RV sites that were flat, with picnic tables, grills, and trash hooks and well spaced.  Not to mention, Arkansas is BEAUTIFUL!!!  Trees, trees, and more trees! 


This was the park we had intended on staying at on our way up to Tennessee, but didn't for various reasons.  I'm so glad we made it a stop on our way back!  Not too many pics, but the kids had fun mining for diamonds with Daddy and we hiked and ate at a restaurant near the diamond fields and spent a day at their little water park.  We loved it so much, that we stayed a day longer than planned!  It was the perfect end to our awesome vacation adventure!

Had to include this shot!  Uncle Cody loved playing with the felt board!

So this trip definitely had its bumps, but looking back on it from a year later, I have nothing but good memories!  I love the RV lifestyle!  And love that we were able to bring my brother along with us!