Tennessee

19. Tennessee

Pictures: (click on the album to view)

Tennessee

Tennessee Day 2

Day 1
I got up bright and early to leave the house by 6:30am. I went to Hertz to pick up my rental car. The rental car will be $123 for 2 days. I got a full size car at 17.99 per day and 14.00 for LDW and around $50 for the fuel purchase. I got a good discount on my rental since I work for Hertz. I got an Altima hybrid.

It was 200 miles to Gatlinburg, TN from Charlotte, NC. The drive was pretty peaceful with no traffic. I took pictures and made video while I was driving. hehe. We arrived at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park around 2PM. The picnic area was a pretty long drive! We just stayed in the park for a little while to eat lunch.

Next we headed over to the salt and pepper shaker museum. The only salt and pepper shaker museum in the world. Its pretty interesting. There is a woman who collected over 20,000 pairs of salt and pepper shakers and made a museum. The museum has been featured on "Unwrapped" on the Food Network. Its a very large collection! It only costs $3.00 to enter.

http://www.thesaltandpeppershakermuseum.com/

Cost: $3 admission entitles you to $3 off of the purchase of a salt and pepper shaker. (Most of them are around $20). Children 12 and under get in free

Hours: daily 10am-4pm

Then we headed to the Sky Lift. The tickets were $12 each. The Sky lift is like the lifts you ride at a ski resort. You ride high up the side of the mountain. At the top you can get off and look at souveniers. While we were in the gift shop it started raining heavily and the ride stopped. The weather was so nice, but all of a sudden it started raining.It rained for about 10 minutes probably so we shopped and waited for the ride to start again. You can see a great view from the sky lift!


http://www.gatlinburgskylift.com/


OPEN DAILY

April - May 9AM-9PM
June - August 9AM-11PM
September - October 9AM-10PM
November - March As Posted

RATES
Adults $12
Children (3-11) $9

Then we headed to our hotel. Its pretty nice for a 2 star hotel in Pigeon Forge. It was pretty expensive, too. I paid $67 in all for one night. The room has 2 queen beds, a mini fridge, microwave, ironing board, iron, TV, free wifi, hairdryer, and coffee maker. The interior of the room was clean and well maintained. I thought there was a free breakfast but I got a menu which says $5 breakfast buffet.

Day 2

I slept in and then went to get breakfast. The breakfast was pretty good. Then we headed out to the Deer farm. The traffic was horrible. I waited and waited and waited and I just couldn't get out. I wanted to cross all 3 lanes and make a U turn but it wasn't going to happen. Finally I got out and pressed the gas and sped over to the next place where I could make a u turn.

We took a short drive to Sevierville to see the Smoky Mountain Deer Farm and Exotic Petting Zoo. You have to drive down this long and winding road to get to it. It was really interesting. We bought a 22oz of food to feed the animals for 2.50 and then purchased a refill for 1.26. We got to go into the goat pen, but you have to leave your food outside because they will jump on you. I held a baby goat. Those goats are aggressive when people are feeding them. When they see someone at the fence with food they all gather around. There are some of the goats who will push other goats out of the way so they can get food. We also fed a lot of the other animals. I fed the camel, goats, and deer. When I got done my hands were nasty! They slobber all over your hands! It was a good experience. I've seen exotic animals in zoos before, but I never got to pet them.

http://www.deerfarmzoo.com/

Cost: 10.95 (you can find a $1 off coupon in some of the coupon books that you get at the TN rest area)

Hours: 10-5:30 daily. (weather permitting) closed on Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Then we drove non-stop 5 hours to get home.

I really liked driving the hybrid. If I had the money I would consider buying one. I got 558 miles on a single tank. (Its a 20 gallon tank) When I pulled into Hertz it said the fuel range was about 89 miles. Combined MPG =34.

Total miles driven: 558