Our much anticipated trip to pigeon forge Tennessee finally arrived. It was time to hook up little booger to Kong, secure D.D. In his designated spot, and meet the car crew for a Tennessee good time! ( more on the car crew later).We left home at 7 am, at about 60 degrees outside. We made our way to the southern end of Virginia to Wytheville. We grab a bite to eat at Denny’s, and topped the gas off so we didn’t have to stop anymore until we reached pigeon forge. (Diesel was $3.13 a gallon.) Dallas, carol, Becky, and Steve (part of the car crew) pulled in flying j’s just as we were pumping gas. They topped off their tanks, and off we went. James and I arrived at Creekside RV Park about 2:30ish pm. We set up the camper and made plans to meet everyone at Timber wood grill, for din din. The group we were meeting I like to call the car crew. 
All of them have classic cars and enter them regularly in car shows. The “crew” members are Dallas, carol, John, Betty, Don, Mike, Shirley, Jim, Ulrike, George, Joan, Steve and Becky. We met everyone at Timber wood Grill about 6ish. 
We ate with Dallas, carol, don, Steve, Becky, Ulrike, Jim, Mike, and Shirley. The dinner was delish, James and I had chicken pot pie and salad. After dinner Dallas, carol, don, mike and Shirley went to the moonshine store. 
They tasted samples and each of them bought 3 bottles of moonshine. We called it a night at the late hour of 8:30pm. 😁
Thursday was a pretty boring day. (Especially for hubby) We woke to cloudy skies and temps in the 60’s. For the last couple years I have made a hair appointment with Tony at the dazzlers hair salon. Today I had an appointment to get a perm put in my hair, it took about 3 hours. Hubby hung in there with me the entire time. 
Nothing much happening after my new doo, just hung out at the campground and watched the rain on and off all evening. Temps did reach about 83 today though.
On Friday we woke to 60 degrees, seems to be a pattern happening here. 2 things on the agenda for today. 1- watch the spring mountain music parade and 2- EAT AT BIG DADDY’S PIZZERIA!! The parade did not start until 6, but we like to get to Big Daddy’s about 3:30, order a large pizza, some salads and wait for the parade to start. 
The pizza as always was DELICIOUS!! We still had some time to kill, so we went to the arcade and played pinball, and skeetball. 
I beat James at pinball, plus 1 game of skeetball!! He beat me in 1 game of skeetball.
(Everyone gets lucky once in a while 😁). The parade started right on time with Cal Ripken and Paula Deen as the Grand Marshalls. 
I didn’t even recognize Paula until she had already almost passed by, she had her “incognito” sunglasses on, plus her hair was much longer than usual. Needless to say I guess, I missed a picture of her, but I got Cal! 
After the parade we went to meet up with Dallas, carol, Mike, Shirley, Don, Steve, and Becky, we talked until nearly 10 pm then we headed back to the campground. The day was nice with temp about 82 degrees.
Sat. 60 degrees in the am only reached about 72 degrees today. Overcast all day and had several rain showers pass through. We stayed at the campground today watching tv because of the weather. Around 5 we met Shirley, mike, Steve, Becky, Dallas, carol, don, Ulrike, and Jim for dinner at the applebarn restaurant. The dinner was good, I had chicken and dumplings, James had fried chicken. We all met back at the valley forge motel and talked until about 10pm. We came back to the camper and about an hour after returning it started raining again. Suppose to rain all night.
Sunday we woke to more rain and about 60 degrees. The plans were to go to Cades cove and checkout the wildlife, but with the weather being so bad we didn’t expect much. We were pleasantly surprised to see 22 turkey
, 3 deer, and a bear! 
We also saw horses, but they are not wild horse. 
It seemed like there were turkeys in every open field we came to, but we definitely saw a bunch. I was excited to see the bear! He was enjoying himself some grub, below the trees sort of out of the rain. He didn’t seemed to be bothered by all the spectators watching him, but something spooked him because he took off running to the woods and then climbed a tree, and that’s where he stayed. The 3 deer were small, but very cool to see. After our big safari ride we headed back to pigeon forge through Gatlinburg. Chilled by the camper a few hours then headed to Paula Deen’s Restaurant for din din. 
Dinner was delish! Spare ribs, chicken and dumplings, collard geens, green beans, cream corn, and poppy seed salad. dessert was ooey, gooey butter cake…….so good! The restaurant is located at “the island”. There’s a large water feature right in front of the restaurant. We went out there after dinner, watching the water, listening to music, and people watching. People watching makes for an interesting evening. 
The car crew called said they were back in town, so we headed over to their motel for gabbing and catching up on the days events. It was a nice evening, talked until about 10 and headed back to the campground. Even though a lot of the Day was overcast and rain it still managed to get to the mid seventies.
Monday another 60 degree start off temp. We decided to eat breakfast at Mel’s Diner. Cool little retro diner, decked out in 50/60’s decor. It usually pretty busy, but luckily today we got a table right away…,no wait! After breakfast we headed off to Cherokee NC. It’s about a 45 minute drive from Gatlinburg due to crossing through the smokey mountain park at 35 miles an hour. BUT, before we get there, we had a little “detour” in our travels. We were heading to Gatlinburg to go through the Smokey’s and we came to a fork in the road. One way to go to Cades cove, the other to Gatlinburg. James turned to Cades Cove. I said, “where are you going?” He said, “Cherokee” I said, “no you should have gone to Gatlinburg.” This conversation went back and forth until I decided it wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I sat there in silence, just waiting. When we got to Cades Cove he just shook his head and said, what was I thinking? Of course, I said, “told ya so!” I didn’t rub it in too long 😁. Needless to say we were about 45 minutes later getting to Cherokee because James took his little detour, but we made it eventually 😁. After getting to Cherokee, James dusted off his ego and we went in a few souvenir shops, bought a coffee mug, a couple rings, then headed back to pigeon forge. The Smokey Mountains were absolutely beautiful, I’m glad it was a nice day for a drive. We got back to pigeon forge and hung around the old mill restaurant until about 6ish. We met Dallas, carol, Steve, and Becky for dinner at the pottery cafe and grill. The food was very good, the company was great. We called it an early evening so we could go back and start getting packed up for the return trip home tomorrow. It was a nice day about 80 degrees.
It was a little chillier at 57 degrees Tuesday when we left at 9:30. We decided to eat at Denny’s on the way out of town, bad choice, the food was not that good. We started home about 10:30. Fortunately, we had an uneventful trip on the way home, and arrived safe and sound about 7:30pm.
Next up Lake Anna!
There were people young and old participating in the event. When I mean young, I mean young. The youngest I saw in the arena was 5, and he was helping the Rodeo clowns. The oldest was a rider, and he was 40 years old. I’m calling him old merely because he was competing against some “young bucks” of 20 years old and younger. Even the announcer sometimes called him the “old man” of the night! They all did well, and we got to see many awards handed out because it was the last night. 
Those young teenage participants girls and boys sure were proud of their belt buckles they had won. I was proud for them, because all of them handled those horses and cattle very well! If you are ever in Cody, and you do nothing else……..go to the Rodeo! It was awesome! You will not be disappointed! I can not wait to go back!
Tomorrow………final day in Cody!
Today, we decided to hang around Cody again, since we did so much driving on Tuesday. Today we decided to checkout the Buffalo Bill Dam, hang around Cody and take in the gunfight in town.
I got a little weak in the knees a couple times looking down! 
It was an interesting visit, learned a little more about the area from the movie.
This gunfight was not really anything to “write home about.” It was a very short skit put on in the road, beside the restaurant. They were all dressed in authentic clothing from the time period. They had props for the scenes and it ended with a gunfight. A very short gun fight. I think from the time it started until the end was about 15 minutes total. Again, it was something we had never seen before so it was another one of those ….been there, done that moments. 
It was a fairly cool morning in Cody, but it was suppose to warm up for the rest of the day. It was also calling for some rain in the early afternoon. We were hoping not to get the rain since our plans for the day was to go to Yellowstone National Park and go to Old Faithful. 
Everything about it is just beautiful! We have never been this far west before, I am so glad we made this trip. I was just amazed how massive the mountains are.
AKA …the ole blow hole! 😁 we had about 20 minutes to kill before the next “BLOW!” James went out to ole blow hole to find a place to sit, and I went into the visitors center to check out some info, and go through the “museum” part of the center. The information center had interactive areas to learn more about the hot springs and Geyser in the Park. I’m not what you call a biologist nerd, so I did a little exploring, but then I got bored so I headed out to find James. While waiting we heard a little biology lesson from a ranger. He answered some questions, and then the BIG MOMENT arrived!!! With a few little spits and spat preparing for the main event……..THERE SHE BLOWS!!! 
Old faithful was right on time, blowing water into the sky! I’ve always wanted to see old faithful, up close and face to face ever since I was a little girl. After seeing it in person, I was a bit disappointed. I guess I was expecting so much more from the experience, but wasn’t that big of deal to me. I’m glad I did go….check off the bucket list ya know. But if someone were to ask… “how did you like old faithful?” My response would probably be “been there done that.” Anyway……on ward!
Luckily it is right there across the field from old faithful itself, so we left ole blow hole and took off to see the inn. Reminds me of a ski lodge on the outside, but wow the inside is definitely something to see! ITS HUGE! 
We didn’t make it up to the observation deck, but we did go in the restaurant and eat. The food was pretty good, but we thought it was kind of expensive for what you got, but you know you always expect expensive at a tourist attraction. I loved the inside of the Inn though, again glad we got to see it.
Monday morning we were armed with a plan. We planned on visiting Old Trail Town, The Buffalo Bill Museum, and The Cody Rodeo.
To be honest I wasn’t to sure I was going to like this old western town, but it was actually pretty cool. They have purchased, relocated, and reconstructed actual old buildings and homes from the early western days. 
Very cool! There is an old school house, homes of butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, a bar, and even an old barn. 
It was really cool to see all the collections that were there. It was also the burial ground of Jeremiah Johnson. 
If we ever get back to Cody again I would definitely go back to Trail Town!
There are several different museums in one. There’s a gun museum, Native American museum, Buffalo Bill museum, and even a art museum. I personally liked the Buffalo Bill Part the most. 
James like Buffalo Bill part as well as the gun museum. The gun museum was way overwhelming to me. 
Rooms, and rooms full of all types of guns. The Buffalo Bill museum is a really nice “salute” to Bill Cody. 
We spent a majority of the afternoon there.
The food was pretty good, and the “atmosphere” was fun. It felt like you were sitting in a bar and restaurant in the 1800s. The bar was huge, it filled an entire wall. 
A very looonng wall.
Friday morning we left earlier and drove to Sioux Falls, SD. 
We stayed at a rest area on the interstate and around midnight a terrible thunderstorm came through the area. Thunder, lightening, and heavy downpour. We didn’t sleep well that night, but we were up fairly early the next day to get started. Saturday we made our way just outside of Gillette Wyoming. We stayed at a truck stop.
The Badlands National Park near Rapid City South Dakota. 
We are so glad we did! What a beautiful park it is! The mountains, colors and formations were just amazing. We were lucky enough to see wildlife as well. 
It was all just beautiful!
We went in and bought lunch, looked around the souvenir shop, and James got an ice cream cone. 
It was definitely a fun drug store! We left there and stopped in Gillette, Wyoming. Next stop Cody!!
We checked in at the Yellowstone Valley Inn and RV Park in campsite #2. WOW!! What beautiful views!! The RV park is about 15 minutes from Cody and 30 minutes from Yellowstone National Park.
What a great theatre!! Wow! It was 14 theaters, huge lobby, and the best part fully reclining chairs!
Tuesday March 14th I was sleigh riding down my front yard with my grandkids. Wednesday March 15th we left home with 3 inches of snow on the ground. By Thursday March 16th I was walking barefoot on the sandy beaches of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! What a week!
Camping Campbells: James, Casey & D.D. 