it's called the Dixie Stampede....

All over Pigeon Forge are billboards.. which are kind of strange to us, because we don't have billboards around here. They advertise all these "entertainments".. and after asking around, we chose to go and see the "Dixie Stampede".. partly because it's "part" of Dollywood (so we expected it would be good) and partly because it was all about horses. We also made plans to meet up with our friend Glen for dinner, and since he had never seen a show, he thought it might be fun to go and see.




It's both dinner and a show, and since we didn't know much about it, we went over to buy the tickets and scout it out. One thing for sure, they certainly had a beautiful barn.....













and horses!!!!













Now THIS feels like home ... wonder what they need Percheron's for????

The outside doesn't look that big.....

So, we arrived for the show, and started off browsing in the gift show. The first thing that caught my eye... a Painted Pony. I collect them, and the Dixie Stampede has their very own (sadly, none in the shop to be bought... though I did find another but I would like to get my hands on one of these!!!)

They do a "pre show"... it was very, very good. These folks are awarding winning performers and I thought if this is just the pre show, we're in for a treat with the real show....

Here's the arena... They serve a four course meal during the show. It was super good.....but then they announce NO pictures during the show, so the few I snuck in will have to try and tell you how good it was.

They had a number of musical numbers.. one was a tribute to the native Americans... complete with Buffalo!!! (so wished I could have snap a pic of them)... it was excellent... and then a number about the north and the south.. and just all kinds of things. But towards the end I just loved this show with the horses, lights and flags....

At the end, they allowed photos, and you could go out onto the floor with the performers and horses...

It was so good, it's almost too hard to describe.. but if you get the chance to catch a show do go.. and the Percheron's... were used to pull the covered wagons...(of which there were two)... so the Dixie Stampede... tops on my list. We had such a good time, meal and enjoyed the evening with Glen (which I should have taken a photo of us together!!!)

Just for the record... Camille thinks traveling is very tiring!!!!

the great smokey mountains...

Today, the weather was a little better, though we had heard on the news that tropical storm Lee was a slow mover. So, expect showers and maybe some down pours every now and again. After getting so wet yesterday, we really weren't in the mood to walk around, and decided that a drive up in the Great Smokies might be a fun thing to do.








We had never seen them up close and I am so glad that we took the time to check them out.














The views were amazing and even those these photos are pretty good, they just don't compare to the real thing.










Another couple was trying to take their photo, so I offered a trade, I would take their picture if they would take ours. (wished I had looked in a mirror before we did.. I look a bit wind blown)...but since the wind was really howling, oh well......

I thought this was kind of funny. "My dog can do such a good stay, that I can leave her in one state, while I go to another one!!!!" I am in Tennessee, and Camille is in North Carolina!!!!

The rest of the photos, will simply speak for themselves. But if you ever do travel south, take the time... certainly one of God's most beautiful work!!!!

a visit to Dollywood

After our "not so comfortable night, and Camille had to sleep in the truck", we arrived late in the day at Pigeon Forge, TN. I knew we would have a "Camille can come in "room this evening, because I had been calling ahead. We found a very nice Super 8, that was not only pet friendly, but was also just one traffic light away from the road that took us to Dollywood. We had two main reasons for our trip - other than our anniversary - one to visit with our friend Glen, and the other to visit Dollywood again. We have been there twice before, once in the late 80's when she had only opened the park a few years before and the other was in the mid 90's when we took the girls back and went to Dollywood with Glen and his kids. I guess what I really like about the park is other than the usual theme rides (and there are plenty).. Dolly "saved" this park and area, the park was close to going belly up and the economy in this area was very bad. When she took over the park, both thrived. It is also a place where she has young musical talent come and perform and often it's the break that they need, she has a whole section of the park that is dedicated to the old crafts of the mountains, and she also has an eagle rescue that she is very involved in. So, needless to say, if you really aren't the scary ride sort of person (and I am not) there is plenty to do and see.



Monday morning we awoke to this... pouring - pouring rain!!! Tropical Storm Lee had come to Tennessee just about the same time we did. Sadly, Dollywood is open part time this time of year, and Monday being that day. So, it was either go in the rain or forget it, and not go at all. Since I already said, this was on of the reasons for our trip... it meant going in the rain.














The Great Smokey mountains were certainly living up to their name that day!!!!



























When we first arrived, we had to drop Camille off at "Doggy wood"... a nice little kennel on the property. Smart idea, people do travel with dogs, and you couldn't leave one in your car while you did the park... so having a kennel on the property.. now someone was thinking!!!!













The runs were quite nice, and the building was cozy on this rainy day. Camille was certainly going to have a drier day than us. You need to return to check on your dog every so often, but I didn't mind doing that. I told Cam she was going to have a good day, but she didn't totally agree with me....

and here we are......

Interesting message for a day like this......

It's a beautiful park, even in the pouring rain. The good thing is, there are places you can duck into and we certainly did. The weather went from everything to heavy mist.. to pouring rain....

We picked up a couple of those "plastic bags" just to keep some of the rain off.. and actually they worked pretty well for most of the day. (though I think my hat weighed about five pounds before the day was over) Oh well... Happy Anniversary to us... we have com thru rain before!!!!

Since we aren't the "ride" kind of people, we had a great time going thru the shops and craft barns. They make beautiful buggies in Dollywood and we had a great time chatting with this gentleman.

It would be so cool if we could have bought a buggy like this to bring home.

This is the eagle rescue. Dolly is quite involved with this, and they have released several hundred bald eagles back into the mountains. They also serve as a home for the birds that can not be released back into the wild.

This is the eagle "pen"

And the birds look fairly happy... there are also a couple of nesting pair. Eagles mate for life by the way.....

We did try a couple of the rides. I am a HUGE fan of carousels.. and anytime that I can ride one... I do!!! This was a beautiful carousel and it was hard to pick the "perfect" horse. I finally chose this noble steed, because I liked his "wild" mane... kind of reminded me of Ginger (and her wild hair). I was the only adult riding, but you know... I didn't really care!!!!

The train was a nice rid as well, it's a real steam engine.. and it takes you for a nice ride aorund the park and a bit into the moutains.

This is a replica of the cabin that Dolly Parton was raised in. I guess the real one still stands.... according to what we were told, it housed 13 people at one point in time.... thinking it's about the size of our little camp, and the fact that we lived in th littl camp one summeer with just three adults and one baby (plus dogs)... makes me appreciate how it might have been.

The last show of the day was about the various eagles and other birds of prey. It was very good and I enjoyed learning about them, and watching them fly

Course, the bald eagle was the most stunning. They do thse shows all over the country, and it was so fun to see the birds up close and personal

The park was getting ready to close, Ed and I were about as wet as we could be. And as we were walking out, the heavens opened once again... we were pretty happy to be going "home". However, this one particular family didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry.

We got Miss Camille from her place in Doggywood.... climbed into the truck and rushed back for a couple of hot showers and a comfortable bed. Despite the rainy weather it was a really good day, and we have already made plans to bring Abbie here when she is a bit bigger....

thanks, Dolly!!!!

heading south

First day of our trip.... NOT as smooth and unstressful as I had hoped. I probably did not make the wisest decision to bring Camille with us. Nothing do with Camille herself, she is a great little traveler.. just that for the most part, we are NOT a dog friendly place, and finding hotels/motels that will take a dog can be tricky. Also the fact that we were traveling on a holiday weekend..... began to cut out chances way down.

We got a late start because I had to work in the morning, And after that, we still needed to take the other dogs down to Kas and Nate's. So it was close to 3:00 before we were really traveling. We got about six hours in and began to look for a place to sleep. The first stop, we found only one place that would take a dog... however, the bigger trouble was... the whole town was filled with work trucks... electrical and tree. Crews that had traveled to New England to help with storm damage... never thought about them!!! The one place that would take us and Cam, (full with work crews) suggested that we travel another hour south and see if we could get away from the damage area.

So, on we went. This stop was no better.... I didn't even get to ask about Cam, because we were told.... "HUGE soccer tournaments in the area" all hotels had been booked for weeks.... best keep heading south.

We didn't find a hotel, but we did come across the "Orange county choppers"... yup the real ones that are on TV!!!!

Sadly, they had closed about 10 minutes before we came across them, it would have been fun to poke around their place... but we had to do with looking from the outside in.

I didn't realize that they weren't that far away from us (about six to seven hours) so, sometime this might be a fun weekend thing to do. Drive down (without dog!!!) find a place to stay, and visit.

It was getting really late. I was beginning to think that we might really have to pull over and rest in the truck. But finally, one place that had just a couple of rooms open.

It was "ok".... clean, but beds as hard as bricks, and guess what - no dogs!!! Ed was so tired that he said he had to take it and just lay down for a few hours. So, we took it and Cam found herself sleeping out in the truck (I couldn't even sneak her in because you had to walk by the front desk to get to the room) Several times I went out to check on her. About the third time threw the night clerk wanted to talk. She went on and on about "why" they didn't take dogs (like I care) I was tired and mad... and then I asked her - what about a service dog. She said "well, they had one room that they would let a service dog in - and only if the room was available". I asked, what would you do if that room wasn't available, and she said - "probably tell them no dog"... really???? it's three o'clock in the morning, I am tired, mad and now you're telling me that you would break the ADA laws... it was more than I could handle and I went back to the room before I got myself in trouble and got us kicked out. Goodness, the public needs some major education with service dog laws!!!!!

Needless to say, we were out of there first thing in the morning. Ed got some sleep (I got none) and we just wanted to be on the road. The weather was grey, but a welcomed sign began to make us feel better. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel.... maybe day two of this trip would be better.

Grateful to all the crews that helped during the storm. We had no power for four days, so I am happy to see extras... but when we saw this line of trucks, no wonder there weren't any motels to be found last night!!!!!

We stopped for fuel and found this beautiful creature... a praying mantis.... I'm taking him as a symbol of "good luck" for the rest of the week!!!!

doors, docks and digger...

Ya know... it never fails, the day before we are heading out for a week's vacation... "everything" happens on the farm!!! Actually, the storm from last weekend really messed things up in the "schedule", so, you just have to go with it sometimes. First to arrive --- the garage door folks. Ed has been so excited to finally get "real" doors on his garage!!! (and after his fake one was ruined in the storm - it was none too soon). So, they're working on them...






And we had pushed everything around just to give the guys some room to work. Think my dear hubby needs to do some organizing in his space here!!! He tells me this will be as neat as pin, now that his garage doors are in place... hummmmm... let's see!!!!








But I must admit, they are pretty nice and this winter when I don't have to wipe snow off my truck... I know I will appreciate them.










Just after the garage door folks started, here came the digger again. We needed to fix those nice little "river bends" made by the hail, and get the grass seed down, before the warm weather passes us by.....










So, that was going on in the back yard..... and on top of those two projects....












Kass and Nate and grand doggies arrived. I had asked them to help us get the docks in before we left. Nate is so wonderful, he is always willing to help us out, and I just hope he knows how much we appreciate him!!!! I didn't want to tie up their whole day, so I had to pull Ed away from the others to go and get this done!!!

(Banjo loves coming to grammy's house... big yard for sticks and a swim in the lake - what could be better??? Except his other grammy, who has acres of woods to run in..... this is one lucky dog!!!!)

We had a bit of a mess left over from the hurricane.... Ed was sad to be bringing the dock up so soon. But with the way the weekends are looking for Sept, if we didn't do them now, it might be October before they could b done. We've brought them in - in October. But the weather is just too cold to be doing that, and I figure if we have someone willing to help... we need to think about them!!!

The poor paddle boat was FULL of water. After all that rain last weekend, good thing they are nearly unsinkable. Nate held this up a good 10 minutes before it got most of the water out and they could pick it up over the rocks...

And everything got tucked into place. Docks are up, digger is done with grass seed down, and the doors work great...

now we can start vacation... which is a celebration of our 30th anniversary... Tennessee here we come!!!!

happy birthday brothers!!!!

They came to us as "fosters"... two little brothers, just 10 weeks old. They were an "impluse buy" and when that buyer realized how much work one puppy is, let alone two... off to rescue they went.

But, we fell in love, and so... TEN years later... Hunter and Trevor are "our boys".....

Happy birthday, Brothers....

Hunter (who wears the green collar) and Trevor (who is dressed in yellow).....

Happy Birthday Ginger!!!

Just wishing "service dog in training" Ginger (and her brother Leo, and sister Clover) Happy 1st Birthday!!!!

(and for the record... power was restored last night!!!!)

where's the power????

It's Tuesday... still no power.. other than the generator. I cancelled dog classes for last night - which turned out to be a good idea... and then was called into work at the post office. Which was interesting with no power. Talk is the power won't be on until Thursday... I hope it won't be that long, because even with the generator... it's a lot of work. The crews are out everywhere... both electrical and tree folks. I appreciate the long days that they are putting in and keep them in prayer for their safety. We're hardy up here in the north... it will be OK.