Day: October 10, 2021

Dollywood

This morning, I went for a run, and I loved it. Also, this morning Lydia and Mary delighted us with a slide show about Greek Mythology. You will hear my foot stomp partway through the video. That was to kill a centipede. Bugs have definitely been a thing on our Carolina/Tennessee trip. Our place in Raleigh was riddled with cockroaches and had massive spiderwebs in the backyard trees (that could probably catch birds). A funny anecdote is that Lily commented to me about our Tennessee tiny home that, “it’s way better here, there haven’t been any bugs”. That’s when I broke the news of the centepede I saw during the girl’s presentation, as well as the millipede I saw first thing when opening the door to enter the place for the first time. Still, it was a way better bug situation than in Raleigh.

Then we all went to Dollywood. It is a theme park owned by Dolly Parton that celebrates life and culture in Appalachia and is a super legitimate theme park. We started the day on one of their car rides. Ammon loved it!

After the car ride, we did the train ride and the merry go round. The train ride was super memorable for me. It was a true coal-powered train engine that even served during war time in the US. It was retired at one point and then repurchased and commissioned for this park. It’s name is Cinderella, I think because it’s known for shooting hot cinders out of the top of it. They even told us first aid for what to do if a hot cinder gets in your eye. They said it used 5,000 pounds of coal per day, and when it was running, it produced a massive plume of black smoke that we originally thought might be a forest fire before we knew it was a train. Very neat experience, although obviously mixed with some concern about its environmental impact.

The train was also super super load, as evidenced by Clarissa in this photo.
Lily bought a wooden spoon from this locally renowned wood carver from Southern Illinois. Lily was enchanted especially because the man looked, talked and had mannerisms like Lily’s grandmother Clarissa.
The wood of Lily’s spoon is osage orange. It was the hardest wood that he carved (both hard substance and his most difficult one to work with), but it was his favorite wood for spoon-making.

We also happened to catch a bird show about an eagle. I was so blown away by how majestic this bird looks. Very cool that it is our national bird.

At the end of the show, they had a bird that grabs donations from people’s hands.

I don’t remember what line this was for, but I have a vivid memory of a line for a rather intense kids roller coaster. Everyone was allowed to go on it, but Mary didn’t want to. We spent an hour negotiating with her to go, but in the end, we respected her wishes to not go. It was actually quite intense. Ammon, Clarissa, Lydia and I loved it. Ammon and Clarissa especially will be my future roller coaster buddies. Even at their young ages, they are all about the thrills.

Ammon on a fun roller-coaster ride for kids
One of our last rides was a ride where people pull themselves up by a rope and then gently fall back down. Lydia made a friend in line and offered to share a seat with her since otherwise she would have been alone.
Ammon pretending to sleep
They had really cool Halloween decorations up. There were human-sized figures made out of pumpkins throughout the park (very reminiscent of the we-witches figures), and also at night, these hanging pumpkin ghosts and other lit up decorations were very fun to look at.

We had a great day at Dollywood!