Smoky Mountains

The last two entries were probably, to be frank, quite rubbish. I've been very tired and think my brain has sunk into an American Stupor. (I'm surprised it took this long for it to happen to be fair!)

ANYWAY.

So I left the last post at Chattanooga. From there we caught the megabus to Atlanta. Surprise Surprise, it had broken down and we spent a jolly afternoon stuck in a car park on the outskirts of Chattanooga. (Although to give them credit, we'd been given a part refund before the bus even arrived..) After picking up the car, free upgrade may I add, we headed to where we were staying on the Outskirts. We were only really in Atlanta for two days, one for Coca Cola World and the other for the Aquarium. Coca Cola world was fairly interesting, even if I was distracted by stalking to Coca Cola Polar bear and the other very scary 'mascot'. 64 samples of coca cola products and a free bottle of coke later, we were done.  

The aquarium was amazing. They even had penguins. I was so excited to see them I ended up headbutting the glass at the side of the tank and broke my sunglasses, it was tragic. They had everything you could imagine apart from Great Whites which I was very upset about. Although was promptly cheered up by the all singing, all dancing dolphins. 

Was mildly impressed by Atlanta, having gone with no expectations after the bad press it receives, it was actually quite pleasant. Even their over the top Paddy's day celebrations were good. I would never have thought to put luminous green dye into the fountains.... Only in America.

We then began our road trip to the Smokies. We had a brief stop in Lynchburgh to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery. Was an interesting tour and the free samples at the end were even more interesting! We had 3 free measures, one NO.7, one Gentleman Jack and one Single Barrel. Three guesses what my favourite was?!

So from there, we drove up via Alabama to Pigeon Forge, a strange 'Blackpool-esqe' gateway town to the Smokies. Here we celebrated Snipe's birthday, we spent a Gin fueled few hours Zip lining down the side of a mountain, which proved to be great entertainment. We had a leisurely walk up a mountain, which turned out not to be so leisurely. Especially when we turned a corner and where met with a noise that sounded like a bear, lots of branches snapping and rustling, after nearly having a heart attack we discovered that it was actually a squirrel..

We went to Dollywood for a day which was a random place, the only thing I can equate it to is Lightwater Valley, only with Dolly Parton. After sitting through what seemed like three hours of Bollywood dancing, Dolly herself popped onto the stage. It was very surreal, we met her again later in the parade through the park. Highlight of the week.

A very good Birthday present for Snipey.