April 30

DollyWood!

DollyWood - What a fun place! We got there when it opened and left at 7:00 when it closed. It is a great sized park for a days visit. It is in a lovely setting, has some great rides, and numerous stage shows going on all day. Being Dolly fans, we enjoyed the Dolly Parton Museum with her memorabilia and took a tour of her bus that she retired four years ago. We got to talking to an employee and she filled us in on some things not talked much about in the displays. Her husband of over 40 years really stays out of the limelight. He is a millionaire on his own but still does things like being in the park to help set out new plants in the spring!

Inside Dolly's Bus

It was the last day of the Festival of Nations. The music venues were from various countries. We saw a great Irish show with dance and singing and listened to a Slavic group while we had lunch. In the afternoon we caught a group called Ashelin from Newfoundland that was fabulous. The group consists of five very talented sisters from 15 to 20 something. They really know how to entertain! Glen would have some ideas that would help them out with the sound systems. Dolly’s next festival, Barbeque & Bluegrass, will be starting later this month. If you lived nearby it would be great to have a season pass and come listen to the music. Many of the senior‘s seemed to be very happy doing just that.

Ashelin from Newfoundland - Fabulous!

They have four very different and breathtaking roller coasters. I did all four! The newest, the Wild Eagle, just opened in 2012. It is the first wing coaster in the US. Your feet are dangling with nothing but air above and below you. You fly on the edge at more than 60 miles and hour doing loops and dives. The beginning is terrifying but by the end you get a feeling of soaring. I had to do that one twice. Two of the other ones take you straight up and then straight down before doing some loops! I just about rattled my brains to pieces on the old fashioned wooded one. The amazing thing is that there were no lines. I guess on the weekends the line for the Wild Eagle can be two hours long. Chris and I did the obstacle course practicing for our debut on the Amazing Race. They strap you into a harness that is pretty intensive time wise for them. They have various levels of difficulty so younger kids and older ladies can do it. We didn’t take the easy path! My arm pit muscles are hurting today from holding on for dear life. We did a couple of the old fashioned carnival rides and took the narrow gage train out into the countryside. We skipped the water rides but they do have a drying compartment that blows you dry in just a couple of minutes. The park is very family oriented with lots of things for the little guys as well. They have a “family trade” thing set up so that if one of the kids in the family isn’t tall enough for the ride, one parent can stay back while the other rides, then the other parent is right at the front of the line for the next ride. Great idea! All in all we thought Dolly and her partners have done a wonderful job. The place is “cute” with an old Tennessee mountain feeling, clean and fun! We had a great day!

Ready for the Wild Eagle Roller Coaster!

Making my way through the obstacle course.

Dave, this one's for you!