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Winter Trip - January-March 2019
Pigeon Forge, TN

In the fall of 2018 we took a seniors bus tour to Pigeon Forge. We did a lot in a short time, but we felt rushed doing multiple things each day. As we went from place to place we noticed things we would like to do that were not on the schedule. We decided to return to Pigeon Forge and do some of these things at our own pace.

Pigeon Forge Itinerary
  Biblical Times Dinner Theater
  Christ In The Smokies
  Riverwalk
  Dolly Parton Stampede
  Conway Twitty Tribute
  Paula Deen's Lumberjack Fued

Biblical Times Dinner Theater
Our first night in Pigeon Forge, after checking in at the motel, we walked across the street and went to the Biblical Times Dinner Theater to see "Jesus Christ: Heaven's Hero". The kitchen was being renovated so there was no dinner included, but that was OK since instead of about 50 dollars each the tickets were 10 dollars each.
The show was good, if not what we expected it to be. We thought it would be a story about Jesus, but it turned out to be a comparison of people in the Bible to famous Tennesseeans. The show started with five people singing Christian based songs. Then it became a multi-media show, incorporating live performers, holograms, and video. The only live performers were the 5 singers, all other characters were holograms. During the second part of the show the singers performed songs based on the people or happenings being enacted. The end of the show was a tribute to pastors and other religious leaders from Tennessee. Some of the comparisons made were: Aaron & Andrew Johnson (Moses assistant & Lincoln's vice president leading their people out of slavery), Joshua & Sargeant York (winners of great battles against mighty armies); Gideon & Davy Crockett (battling thousands with just a few men). Jesus was mentioned after the comparisons were made, but just briefly. We found it interesting that before Jesus was mentioned, there was a little said about Ezekiel who appeared on a white horse, when Jesus was mentioned the same hologram was used for Jesus as had been used for Ezekiel.
For some reason many of the (Pictures) we took are blurry, some are so bad we couldn't use them.

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Christ In The Smokies
We drove to Gatlinburg to visit what is referred to as "Christ in the Smokies", the "Christ Museum & Gardens".
The main attraction is "The Story of Christ" tour. This is a series of dioramas of events in the life of Christ Jesus. They limit the number of people on the tour so everyone can enjoy the full impact of each scene. As the group walks up to each scene. the scene lights up and audio starts explaining the scene with scripture passages about the event. They space the tours far enough apart that one group is not hearing the audio of another group, so each person is able to concentrate on each depicted event. We were not allowed to take pictures of the dioramas, but we bought a souvenir book and scanned in the pictures to include in the slide-show.
At the end of the tour the group comes into the museum room that has a lot of displays about the end times. From there you can go into the gardens and other parts of the museum. There are some sculptures in the garden the most interesting one is Christ's head which whereever you stand it appears to move its eyes to look directly at you. If you look at this picture swaying your head from one side to the other, you may be able to experience it following you. Ernie started at one side taking pictures from different angles as he walked past it then put them in sequence in one picture.
There were other dioramas, sculptures & pictures throughout the museum that could be viewed without going on the tour and that we were allowed to take pictures of. (Pictures)

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Riverwalk
Part of the Greenways in Pigeon Forge is the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk is a paved walkway along the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River that is about 2.5 miles long.
On the Sunday we were in Pigeon Forge we decided to have a day to relax from doing tourist type activities. We went to the morning service at the First Baptist Church on Parkway in Pigeon Forge. After the service we went to Patriot Park where we thought we could access the riverwalk. We discovered that to access the riverwalk we had to cross the Patriot Park/Old Mill area parking lot then walk the length of a side street across from the parking lot. The walk to the riverwalk was probably no more than ½ mile. Once on the walkway we traversed the approximately 1.5 mile distance to "The Island", had lunch at "The Island", then retraced our steps back to the car. Along the way we saw quite a few birds including ducks, geese, and great blue heron. We saw what we think was a muskrat on the opposite shore. We were walking on the opposite side of the river from Parkway, so we were walking behind businesses on Parkway. Behind one of the hotels near the river were frog statutes in a stump that Dale liked. We stopped and talked with some men that were fishing, they told us that the most abundant fish in the river was rainbow trout with some small bass also there.
The next day while Ernie was on the computer paying bills and updating the website, Dale walked to Christmas Place near the motel. She discovered that we could get to the other section of the riverwalk near to where we were staying. One morning we walked this section of the riverwalk. We joined the riverwalk at a midway point, walked to The Island then walked back the way we had come and followed the riverwalk to where the walkway was veering away from the river then turned around and made our way back to where we had gotten onto the riverwalk. We again saw the same types of birds as the first day and spoke with someone who was fishing. We did not eat lunch at The Island just walked through a few shops and watched the dancing waters of the fountain a little.
The Island in Pigeon Forge is a tourist trap type area with a lot of shops, some restaurants, and a few amusement areas. There is a fountain with dancing waters that is always nice to watch. When we had lunch there it was at Paula Deen's Country Kitchen. The restaurant is on the second floor above a large Paula Deen store. The food is served family-style and is all you can eat. The option we chose was two meats and four sides. We had catfish, ribs, candied yams, collard greens, summer squash casserole, and green beans. Dessert was also included, Dale had peach cobbler and Ernie had banana pudding. The food is good and the price is kind of high, but not outrageous.
We took (Pictures) the first day, but not the second.

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Dolly Parton Stampede
The Dolly Parton Stampede is billed as "The Most Fun Place To Eat". It was fun and we ate there, so it is "A Fun Place To Eat", we do not know if "Most" applies but maybe it does. In some of their ads they mention "Rodeo" or "Rodeo Expereience". There was some fancy riding & rope tricks, but rodeo it is not.
The night started with a trio, Mountain Ruckus, playing and singing in the waiting area. The waiting area is basically a honky tonk, a huge area with tables and a bar. Mountain Ruckus were good. We did not have our camera with us, but Dale tried to get some pictures with her flip phone. It was way to dark in the arena where the main show was, but she did manage to get a picture of Mountain Ruckus. that is not horrible.
The main show was really entertaining, especially Skeeter, the comic relief of the show.
There is no way either of us could have finished the meal we were served. We normally split a cornish game hen, the whole chicken we were each served was about the size of 1.5 cornish game hens. So that part of the meal alone was about 3 times how much we would normally eat. The meal started with a cream soup, normally Ernie does not go for cream soups, but this one was so good he was wishing for more.
We enjoyed Mountain Ruckus, the stampede, and the meal, so it was a really good night.

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Conway Twitty Tribute
Ernie was thinking we should go to the Tribute to Red Skelton show, then he heard there is a Conway Twitty Tribute show in Pigeon Forge. We felt we had to chose between Ernie's favorite comedian and his favorite country singer. We decided on the Conway show, but thinking about it later we probably could have figured out a way to see both. Hopefully, we will be able to attend the Red Skelton show sometime in the future.
The Conway Twitty Tribute is a one man show starring Travis James. He is a really good impressionist of famous singers. The first half of the show was dedicated to Conway songs, in the second half he did a few more Conway songs plus impressions of other singers, such as: Neil Diamond, Mickey Gilley, Tom Jones, Elvis Presley & others. He also did a few numbers of his own songs.
The show is in the Main Event Theatre which is a very small venue. It seemed as if the seating capacity is less than 100, it could be more, but if so not much more. This made for a very intimate show, the stage is only about a foot higher than the floor and he came into the audience to sing a few times. The best part, especially for Ernie, was that on a few songs he invited the audience to get up and dance. Of course Ernie was always the first one up. We danced to two slow songs and one more upbeat song. When we got up for the upbeat song no one else was getting up so Ernie went up and down the center aisle waving for people to get up. We were finally joined by about 5 other couples. Travis James said that he had been inviting people to get up and dance to the upbeat number for a few months and that we were the first ones to actually get up and dance.
We had a great time at this show. Once again we did not have the camera with us. After the show Dale took this picture of Travis James with her phone.

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Paula Deen's Lumberjack Feud
Our last night in Pigeon Forge we attended Paula Deen's Lumberjack Feud. We do not know if Paula Deen's company owns this show or she is paid a royalty for using her neme. Whichever, we were surprised that something with Paula Deen's name did not serve food other than some snacks. It did not really matter as we just went out to eat before attending the show.
This was another fun show, the lumberjacks in the show compete nationally. A couple of them are ranked in the top 5 of their specialty event. There is a lot of comedy mixed in with the competition. We again did not have the camera, but Dale got some (Pictures) with her phone.

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Last updated:   apr 11 2019