Pidgeon Forge - the entrance to Dollywood

After driving a while through Tennessee we came to Pigeon Forge. We had booked a motel room in Gatlinburg which was just on the other side. Gatlinburg is an entrancetown to the Great Smokie Mountains national park and we wanted to have a look around there. Pigeon Forge is also an entrance town. To Dollywood. Dolly Partons own Tennessee Themepark. This has apparently turned Pigeon Forge into a veritable Hillbilly Vegas. It was frightening.

Before the carnival sphere started, there were just huge billboards everywhere displaying the wonders of the place.
In between the commercials for Comedy Barn there were the ones for the Christian musical "Miracle"... and in between the carousels and minigolf there were crammed gaudy churches with electric billboards running gospel quotes and invitations into the arms of Jesus
.

Comedy Barn seemed to be something especialy scarry. I mean look at this guy holding that pig. He really looks a little too happy about it.

And there were Bears. On Display! To be fed and looked at. I cant help but wonder how the Bears really felt about that.

Gatlinburg was much the same really , but I must say that Pigeon Forge is the must disturbing place I have ever been.

Mia and the Wild Animals!

I haven't met the Bear yet. I have met a lot of other animals though. Thankfully mainly cute or just impressive ones. It seems that giant hawks are everywhere. And Squirrels. Squirrels are everywhere too and very very very cute. This inspires horrible images of squirrels being swooped upon and eaten by Hawks!

In Shenandoa we met a deer. It didn't care one little bit about us.

Also I found a very cuddly little bunny-rabbit eating grass and leaves close by me. It didn't care about me either.

Im still a little worried about meeting the Bear and I also found out that there are Bobcats as well! And that they are much more aggressive than Bear!

Its not at all like Bar-kitty.

Shenendoa

The national park Shenendoa in the appalachians...What can we say... it was beatiful. We spend most of the day driving through on the Sky Line road stopping for the spectacular views over the mountains. We also parked the car and went on a hike in the forest. At one point we were looking into the trees in a place with a light-green, soft and even undergrowth of some sort of grass or flower. It looked almost fairytale-like. Then a huge hawk, that we had been staring right at but not noticed took of from a branch maybe 5 m from where we stood. At the end of our walk we came upon a clearing filled with flowers and millions and millions of butterflies of all colors and sizes. Pictures couldn't capture it, but here's one anyway.

The whole day was just amazing. Im just going to put up a bunch of pictures!