Monday, July 15, 2013 – Pigeon Forge, TN
Today was tourist day. This morning we headed into Pigeon Forge, TN the birthplace of Dolly Parton and home of DollyWood. We knew it was going to be a campy touristy type of place, but as the saying goes “when in Rome…". No sooner did we get off of the freeway than we were mired in traffic. I’m convinced that the communities of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg purposely time the lights so that you hit everyone of them. Afterall, they would hate for you to miss one of the several Cracker Barrels, Shoney’s or the Titanic museum (identical to the one we saw in Branson, MO), or the 99 signs advertising the Hatfield vs the McCoys Dinner show. So after actually wondering if we should go to the hillbilly soap opera, we finally got to the DollyWood parking lot, snapping us back to our senses. After plunking down our $10 to park and parking next to the family with the screaming kid and then sitting next to the family with the screaming kid on the parking tram and waiting in line to buy our tickets next to the family with the screaming kid…we began to think maybe it was a mistake to come to DollyWood. But once we got in and the screaming kid finally shut the heck up, and we were amidst the trees and made our way into the park and saw that the crowds weren’t that bad, we were actually impressed with DollyWood. We didn’t partake in the various rides and instead went to the many entertainment shows and visited the many shops that feature actual craftsmen and women plying their wares. We made our way to the Dreamsong Theater to see an interesting show called “My People". This show featured a film of Dolly Parton on her “old country back porch" speaking to the audience. In front of the screen were performers and musicians. The footage and storyline was integrated with the live performance, so it was sort of like having Dolly right there with us. The performance uses Dolly Parton’s music to discuss her family and life growing up poor and one of 12 children to share cropper parents. While neither of us can profess to be a huge Dolly Parton fans, we were touched by the story and moved by the music. Making it more special was the fact that many of the performers were actual family members. It was very good. After that we made our way to the Dolly Parton museum which was very interesting. It included her many different photos with celebrities over the years, her many awards, her many different outfits and most impressive were items from her childhood growing up.
Dolly was born in 1946, the third of 12 children and began singing as a young child. At the age of 9 she began performing on a local radio station and even recorded an record. She was very musically inclined. She learned to play the piano, dulcimer, autoharp, guitar, bass, penny whistle, etc. Most of all, she loved to sing. When she graduated from high school in 1964, she headed off to Nashville under the management of her Uncle Billy Earl Owens. She was a prolific song writer and a few of her songs were recorded by other artists in those early days. Her big break came when she landed a part on the Porter Wagner show and the rest is history. It was a lot of fun.
DollyWood stands on the site of an old amusement part that was built in the late ’60s and then expanded in the ’70s. Neither one did very well until Dolly purchased an interest in the park and it was doubled in size and renamed DollyWood. The park directly employs over 3000 people and is now one of the biggest employers in what was once a poor rural part of TN. Add to that the numerous other venues, hotels, restaurants and shops and this area draws over 3 million visitors a year making it an amazing economic success story. Not bad for a little girl who was daughter of a poor share cropper. “She done her people proud.”
It was now about 4:00 and we decided to head back to our campground, but not before we stopped at a couple of antique stores. Unfortunately (maybe fortunately) most of the shops were closing around 5:00 pm. The selection of the items was very nice. There were a lot of very nice antique toys that were in very good condition; perhaps some of the best quality we’ve seen anywhere. But because of the touristy setting the prices were crazy and we didn’t find much we could buy. So we headed home.
Tomorrow, we head up Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah mountains to Staunton, VA. We will savor the drive up one of America’s most beautiful byways and we will be spending the evening with our friends Jan and Tim.
Photo 1 – Me at the entrance making past the gate and showing some relief that the screaming kid has finally stopped.
Photo 2 – Elisa enjoying the sights, the shade and cool temperatures
Photo 3 – Dolly’s tour bus
Photo 4 – the Dolly museum
Photo 5 – The blacksmith demonstration – making a fireplace poker that will be for sale later that day.
Photo 6 – The Smokey Mountain String Band – The music was great but they all seemed a little hung over for the first performance of the day.
Photo 7 – The Carriage Works where they actually build and sell carriages
Photo 8 – The steam engine that makes its way around DollyWood
Photo 9 – the actual “Coat of Many Colors" that Dolly wrote a song about.
More later.
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