The cabin was nice, minus the fact that it was infested with ladybugs. Normally, I would be excited to see a ladybug...but 20-30 of them flying around the upstairs ceiling lights and crawling on the bed is NOT so exciting. We were told that aphids were destroying the trees in the area and the government released ladybugs to control the population, since they eat other bugs. Now they are dealing with an over-population of ladybugs! NICE!
We visited Dollywood, which was a little disappointing. All the roller coaster rides were closed, since they cannot operate unless it's over 40 degrees outside. Bummer! Would have liked to have know that BEFORE we spent $250 to get in!!! Thanks Dolly!
So what to do...we went and ate an awesome lunch buffet in the park. Oh, and dished out another pocket full of money of course. Mental note not to go back in the winter. I'm sure it would be a lot of fun in the spring/summer time. They also have a water park section.
That evening, we went to Dixie Stampede. We thought Dolly needed some more of our cash. HA! We loved the show and the food...well, except for Holden. He woke up in the middle of the night and got sick from something he ate. Fortunately, it was a one time event.
They had some really cool go-cart tracks there. That was a blast! I would have taken more pictures, but my fingers were freeeezing!
Since this was a last minute planned trip, we had to switch cabins in the middle of the week. The second cabin was at the top of a mountain and had an awesome view. The first day there, I was driving up the road. Well, I attempted. Close to the top, our minivan decided it didn't like the steep incline and was spinning out in the gravel. We all vacated the car and Rob backed the car back down the road a ways and then booked it up the road to get the the top. Oh the nice smell of a burning engine. Oh, and the bridge to get to the cabin was a sad attempt of a slab of concrete over a drain pipe. No edges, no lights, just a nice drop into the river below. I was praying it didn't rain and freeze to ice the bridge.
The cabin looked beautiful and the view was amazing. But that was about it.
We learned it was a bank owned foreclosure and the realtor finished it enough to rent. Let's say the bare minimums! No baking pans, utensils or dish towels. Everything seemed to be bought from a scratch and dent and had something broken or disfunctional. The hot/cold water was reversed in the shower and we had toddler sized towels to dry off with. It had a vaulted ceiling, so all the heat went up to the roof. The bathroom had an open ceiling too, so forget taking a hot shower!
The linens on the bed felt like sleeping between two sheets of school paper.
The boys stayed in the room downstairs which was surronded by windows with no blinds (nice view though). They about froze! We had to keep the heat running all night, even with all the upstairs vents closed. We felt liked shriveled raisins in the morning being so dried out.
I was excited to NOT see a single lady bug in the cabin. However, instead...it was infested with WASPS and flies on steriods! We killed about 30-40 wasps. We think they nested in the air ducts, since the house was sitting vacant for awhile.
The boys really wanted to go snowboarding, but it ended up raining and wasn't quite cold enough for good skiing conditions. We tried to make the best of everything though. We left on Friday, only to find out that the road through the Smokies to get home was closed due to heavy snow and ice. We took some looong winding back road way, which scared me half to death. I drove 7 miles of winding roads with a shear drop off the side- it seemed to take forever and I was exhausted after that!
It took us 12 hours to get home! UGH! I think I need a vacation!
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