Last Camping Trip 2017

I cannot believe it is already the end of our camping season!  We have big plans for 2018, which I will tell you more about soon.  But first, we wrapped up this year with another trip to our favorite Gatlinburg campground, Bear Cove RV Park.

It's a good looking vehicle, ain't it?

Doing a little homeschool on the road. This week we were learning about westward expansion.

Beautiful day for a drive!

And this is why they ride in their carseats! The camper has a sleep inducing effect on them.

Camp all set up!

This year, we were joined on our adventure by two families that have been a part of our journey since the very beginning, The Wendels and the Greens.  The Wendels brought their 5th wheel camper and were next to us.  The Greens rented a cabin up the hill from us and were able to walk down to the joint sites.  These guys have kids the same ages, plus the Wendels have a 4 year old, so everyone had someone to play with!

The Wendels arrived Thursday night, just in time to set up camp and join us at the Dixie Stampede.  It was a bit of a dash to get there on time, but we made it.  If you have never been, its a dinner show with horses.  There is no silverware, which was Ryan's favorite part.  They gave everyone soup, a cheese biscuit, a whole chicken, pork roast, corn on the cob, and a potato, plus an apple turnover for dessert.  The food quality is what you would expect when 400 people are being served simultaneously.  And their system works really well.  My only complaint was about the sweet tea.  I don't drink tea very often, but I was having a craving for it and thought it would go well with the meal.  But it tasted like Nestea or some other fake tea product. Gross!

Because I was eating and enjoying the reactions of my kids, I didn't get many pictures.

The grand finale of the show is all about America, with lots of flag waving, a video montage of American scenery, and Dolly singing.  It was touching and brought everyone to their feet.  The highlight for me, was looking over at my son, standing on the bench with his hand on his heart.  Totally unprompted.  Not going to lie, I teared up!  

Of course, you exit through the gift shop, but we steered the kids out to the paddock where you can see the horses who perform in the show.  On the way out the door, there was a woman dressed as a southern belle wishing everyone a good night.  She gave Anne a hug and called her "sugar."  It was by far Anne's favorite part of the night.  

The Greens were set to arrive Friday afternoon around 4.  The Wendels were bound for Dollywood that morning, but since we went last year (and since we are headed to Disney soon!!!) we decided to go explore Great Smokey National Park.  We found a scenic drive, which had a short hike on it.  This worked out so well for us, as we could stop and see things when we wanted to. The weather was perfect for a drive and the national park is never short on things to look at.

Family love!

I think this Trail was .8 miles, which was great for us.

Most of the trail had this planking to walk on.

Science lesson with tree rings.

When you take your kids into nature, you have so many opportunities to teach them. Rotting logs give food to new plants!

Seriously, just one picture where we are all looking at the camera!

It's hard to tell what is going on in this picture, but the trees Rob is pointing to are all growing out of the root ball of this giant tree that fell over.

Anne really wanted me to take her picture crouching under this tree. She threw a fit when Ryan got in the picture too. So now, I have a picture of what appears to be Anne going poop under a tree and looking upset. Ryan, as usual, looks like Joe Cool.

Seriously. Just.One.Picture.

After driving through the National Park, we returned to our camp site and met up with our friends.  We grilled out dinner, and the men had much buffoonery, including drunk karaoke, but I didn't get any pictures of that,

Saturday we had a leisurely breakfast, then headed into Gatlinburg to ride the gondola up to Over Gatlinburg (Oktoberfest fun!)  We thought this was a great idea.  So did 20,00 other people.  It took 2 hours from the time we parked the car to buy tickets, wait in line, ride the gondola, and get our food.  We were all a little hangry by then!

After eating, the big kids played in the arcade, the little kids rode the carousel, and a few people had good German beer.  Then we took the scenic skyway back down the mountain.  The Greens and Schneiders took the wrong turn and missed the bypass.  This resulted in another hour of traffic.  Luckily, the Wendels went the correct way and we were all ready to roast hot dogs, steak and burgers when we got back to the camp sight.

New friends!

Unfortunately, Sunday morning we had to be out by 11am.  We were able to have breakfast all together before breaking camp.  Breakfast was a bit wet though, because it had started to rain.  And let me say, packing up camp in the rain is NO FUN.  Driving a camper home through the hills in the rain, NO FUN.  But a weekend in Gatlinburg with friends, lots of FUN!

Now the Four Winds has been winterized and bedded down until the Spring, getting her rest before the biggest adventure we've ever planned!

​But don't worry, we have a little more travel planned for 2017!