Tennessee 2009 March 20th to 21st Page 3

We left to hotel at 4:30 just a few miles down the road to the birth place of Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Colonel Sanders original restaurant built in 1937. The diner is like stepping back in time when the Colonel created his secret of 11 herbs and spices for that finger lickin' good chicken. The museum has many artifacts and memorabilia from the early days. http://www.corbinkytourism.com/sandersKFC.htm
http://www.corbinkentucky.us/sanderscafe.htm

We arrived back at the hotel at 5:30 and the hotel clerk saved some pillow cases for us. She was not sure if the cleaning people had got to our room yet. When we arrived at the room the lady was in the room putting on the last pillow case so I gave her the clean one the front desk gave to me. After a day of being on the road for 12 hours the hotel pool and hot tub was looking good. Eva and I went swimming for about an hour while Mike wanted to just relax in the room. After drying off and walking back to the room we were all hungry but did not want to go to a restaurant for dinner. Eva said she seen a sign in the window advertising hot dogs at the truck stop. Eva and I went to see what we cold pick up for a quick dinner. We brought the food back to the hotel and watched TV for the rest of the night until we fell asleep.

Tennessee 2009 March 20th to 21st Page 2

We had 63 miles to our destination for the day in Corbin Kentucky. http://www.corbinkytourism.com/

The scenery was sure getting better from the many horse farms and bales of hay to the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains and the Daniel Boon National Forest. http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/boone/index.shtml

The hardwood and pine forest shade the byway as you drive through the Renfro Valley. We arrived in Corbin Kentucky at 3:35 p.m. We checked into our hotel at the Comfort suites. http://www.comfortsuites.com/hotel-corbin-kentucky-KY100?promo=yapics
When arrive to our room we found that they were not done cleaning the room. It appeared that everything was done except none of the pillows has clean covers on yet. We waited for a bit and looked out in the hall way for one if the cleaning people. I asked at the front desk for some cases and we would put them on ourselves but they were still being washed and someone would be up as soon as they were done.

Tennessee 2009 March 20th to 21st Page 1

Friday March 20, 2009

Today is the day before we leave for our Tennessee Vacation. I have all day off from work but Eva has to work all day. I was all packed and ready to go. I started off the day making breakfast. After I pored a fresh coffee I sat down for one last look through the maps and travel books.

I loaded my luggage in the van early in the day and checked my list so that I would not forget anything. The rest of the day was relaxing. I programmed the GPS unit and then just waited until Eva called to say she was on her way home. I took the beef jerky and granola out of the refrigerator that I made a few days ago and left for Eva’s house.

After arriving at Eva’s house we cleaned out the van, washed the windows and loaded any luggage we were not going to need that night. Eva called her dad to confirm what time we would be leaving for the road. We went to bed early so that we could get up at 2:00a.m.


Saturday March 21, 2009
When that early alarm went off we were both up and going right away. It took lass than an hour to get ready and we were on our way to Eva’s dads Mike to pick him up shortly after 3:00a.m. We were on the road by 3:25 a.m.

Within 2 hours we were through Chicago and on I-65 S in Indiana. Our first stop was just North of Indianapolis at 8:25 a.m. for gas and Coffee. We disused stopping for breakfast but neither one of us was not that hungry yet since we snacked on granola bars. A short way down the road we stopped at a Stuckey’s for a nostalgia pecan log. I remember as a kid on family trips to Nashville we always had to stop at the first Stuckey’s in Indiana for them.

After reaching Indy we took I- 74 East to Cincinnati. Once we reached the Ohio state line I wanted to get a photo and video of the skyline so we pulled over and Eva’s drove so that I could work the cameras. We were following the GPS directions and it directed us onto the bypass I-275 so we never got to see the city but it was a strange trip. Following I-275 4 miles we crossed back into Indiana and we were thinking that we had missed a turn or the GPS is directing us wrong. We stayed the course and drove 3 mile further and then we crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky. In less than 10 miles we traveled through 3 states. It was strange. Once out of the city we stopped at the Cracker Barrel at 11:30.










Crosing Ohio River


After Lunch our next stop is 84 miles away in Lexington, Kentucky. I wanted to stop and see two road side attractions just off the highway. Bondurant's Pharmacy in Lexington, Kentucky is housed in a building shaped like a giant mortar and pestle
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/528
Dixie Cup Corporation located in Lexington in 1958. At that time, a water tower was constructed in the shape of a Dixie Cup. It was about a 20 minute side trip but we were back on the road soon. Still on I-75 S we stopped in Richmond for gas at 2:29 p.m.

Tennessee Road Trip Planning 2

February 15, 2009

Eva and I made dinner together last night for Valentines Day. We had some god cheese and sausage for a starter and then made a pepper crusted pork tenderloin with scallops and steamed asparagus. It was an enjoyable dinner.
After we kicked back for the night and looked at the many brochures we have received for out Tennessee trip. It has been a long time since I been in the Gatlinburg area when I was a kid. We do have a tentative itinerary now and a few ideas what we want to see and do.

1st Day
Leave from home about 4a.m. to avoid the Chicago traffic.
Drive to Corbin Kentucky and stay over night.
Visit the place ware Colonel Sanders invented his secret recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Visit the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park

2nd day
Visit the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Drive to Gatlinburg

Other items on the list to do are
Drive the Blue Ridge parkway
Visit Mount Airy Home of Andy Griffith
Harrah's Cherokee Casino & Hotel
Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area
Smokey Mountain National Park

Tennessee Road Trip Planning

January 11, 2009

Well hear it is shortly after we returned from our weekend in the Wisconsin Dells Eva and I are talking about a vacation in Tennessee. We had talked about doing this trip for a long time. It took a few days for us to pick the dates and request the time off from our jobs. The official date of travel will be March 21 to 26, 2009. We decided to spend most of the time in the Smokey Mountain Area near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

January 19, 2009

After setting the dates for our travel I started to email all of the state and cities Convention & Visitors Bureau for information on there areas and stopped at AAA motor club for maps and tour books. In about a week I started receiving information from all the area we would be traveling. Now the long but fun task of reading through all the books, brochures and searching web sight to decide on our itinerary. We already know we want to stop one night on the drive to Tennessee and then spend several nights in the Smokey Mountain area and then stop one night on the way back home.


January 27, 2009

We have been making some quick progress in out Tennessee road trip planning. We started looking at hotels in the Gatlinburg area and found some nice places to stay but after looking at a few web sights on cabin rentals it was a better bargain to rent a cabin than a hotel. There were two places we were deciding on Cabins USA http://www.cabinsusagatlinburg.com/ and Hartland Rentals http://www.heartlandrentals.com/ both places had many good choice and styles of cabins and it was hard to narrow it down. We thought we had the place picked out at Cabins USA. If you make your reservations on line you get a discount. Eva tried several time to book the place but the web sight would not let the reservation go though. Eva also tried calling. There reason for the problems was that they were making changes to there web sight and the lady answering the phone was new so she did not know how to handle some of the issues. Between the web sight and phone calls it was not working out. The cabins were booking up fast and we did not want to loose out on a place we really liked so we decided to book with our other choice of Hartland rentals. We had no problems with them. The booking went through and Eva got the confirmation shortly after.

A few days later we booked our hotel in Corbin Kentucky for our first night stop over. http://www.corbinkytourism.com/ Our itinerary is starting to come together now and we have our first two places book and confirmed.

Wisconsin Dells Day 2 and 3

Wisconsin Dells Day 2
January 2 2009

Well Hear it is Day 2 in the Dells and after waking up we went down to the room the hotel serves there continental breakfast. It was just your basic hotel breakfast. They had cereal, mini muffins, toast and waffles along with coffee and juices. After we ate I called my friends to check what time and place we could all get together. We decided we would meet at a place called Kuckleheads. It is a indoor amusements fun center with some rides and a bunch of games and bowling alley. It also has a few places to eat to.
http://www.dellsknuckleheads.com/

We arrived just after they opened for the day. It was a lot larger inside that I thought it would be. Shortly after Eva and I arrived Ted, Diane and Jacob arrived. We played some of the games like duck pin bowling, wheel of fortune and Deal or no Deal . We all won several tickets that you can later turn in for prizes. Eva and I did well on the Deal or no Deal game. Between us we won about 800 tickets. We took a break and all sat at t table to chat. Ted and I got a beer. After chatting for a wile Eva and I wanted to go to the casino for a wile and Ted, Diane and Jacob stayed at Knucleheads for Lunch.

We spent a good part of the afternoon at the casino playing the slot machines called Hot Shots. Both of us did well but ended up putting it all back in the machines. It was time to leave back for the hotel. We all met back at the hotel in our room to decide what to do for dinner. We decided to go to Marleys a favorite place of all of ours. They specialize in Caribbean food. http://www.marleysclub.com/

As usually the food was fantastic. We all enjoyed our dinners and the company. After dinner we all went back to our hotel and went to the pool. The hot tub was still way to hot for my liking but it was fun to watch other guest walk into the hot tub and last only a few minuets like we did the first night. We all just went in the pool for a wile and then the sauna to take the winter chill out your bones. Once we all had enough of the pool we left to change cloths and met in our room for some drinks and visiting.


Day 3
January 3, 2009

Last day we all met in the breakfast room, we ate our breakfast and checked out the weather for our ride home. After we all said our good buys and then went back to our rooms to pack our stuff up and headed home. We checked out of the hotel and stopped at one of the gift shops to look around. The hotel was nice for the price but it was an old place and could see the sings of age through out the building.

We go one the road about 11:00 a.m. and arrived home about two hours later. It was a nice few days away.

Leaving For The Dells

Leaving for the Dells
January 1, 2009

Well we woke up this morning and were not in a big hurry to leave since we could not get into our hotel until 4:00 p.m. but we still wanted to get there early enough to look around town and do something a little fun before settling into out hotel. We left the house about 9:30 a.m and it was a cold morning about 12 degrees but at least it was not snowing. The trip should be about 2 hours long and 120 miles one way. See map at link.

http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=Wisconsin+Dells,+WI&saddr=53228&ie=UTF8&z=9

About 30 miles out of town we stopped for gas, a breakfast sandwich and coffee. We had a nice ride to the Dells arriving about 11:30 in the morning. We drove around town and checked out a few things before calling my friends to see if we can meet up with them later in the day. I wanted to check out Ishnala a place to possibility go for dinner I seen in a vacation guide.

http://www.ishnala.com/contact.htm We found it but the gate to the road was closed meaning it is probably a seasonal restaurant. We stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall http://www.tangeroutlet.com/wisconsindells

We walked around and checked out a few of the stores and of course bought a few items to. The mall is an open air mall that has a roof over it and keeps most of the elements off of you but being winter it was still cold walking from store to store. after spending some time there we made one more stop at ah cheese shop next to the mall and then to the local Walmart to pick up a few snacks and drinks for our hotel room. After checking into our room we just relaxed a bit. It was getting to be dinner time and I tried to call my friends one more time to see if they wanted to join us. They had just ordered a pizza for there room so we just went on our own. We decided to go to the local sea food buffet called Crabby's but when we arrived the restaurant was closed. I do not know if it was because it was New Years Day or if it is also a seasonal place. We decided to go to the Colossal buffet that we seen open earlier in the day. We arrived and yep it was closed also. I guess at this time of year they are only open for breakfast and lunch. Not wanting to drive around to much more because it was getting colder out and the roads were starting to ice up. Our choices were either a pizza place or an Italian place called Sarentos. http://www.sarentosrestaurant.com/index2.html

The restaurant was a nice surprise find. The parking lot looked like it was busy but we were seated right away. Shortly after we ordered and then just enjoyed the atmosphere and talked until our dinner arrived. The food along with the service was very good. I would go back again. After dinner we just went back to the hotel and relaxed for a wile until we decided to go to the pool. I was excited to sit in the hot tub after being out in the winter air. There was only a few other people in the pool when we arrived. I went right for the hot tub but was not able to stay in very long because the water was very hot. Every one who came after only stayed in a few minutes and then got out also. The pool and sauna was nice though. We stayed for about an hour and then went back to our room for dry cloths and then watched some TV until falling asleep.