Kentucky and Tennessee- Day 1, 2 , 3 & 4

Sunday morning I found out my mom was in the hospital- her heart was putting her pace maker to use. It's always scary when your parents are in the hospital. I'm grateful for her pacemaker and for doctors that got her heart back on track. Unfortunately she had to do a lot of waiting and it meant that she wasn't going to be able to fly out to Tennessee with Mike's family on Tuesday. Instead they ended up coming out Thursday night. That was a bummer but I'm glad her and dad were still able to come. 

Monday we started our vacation. Our first destination was London, Kentucky. We had a bit of a slow start, Tyler had to get something from Home Depot to better fit his tools in with all our luggage- he doesn't like to take the Suburban without tools because it's such an old car.  It took almost an extra hour for him to get the tool organizer and get them all settled. Then we were only a half an hour into the drive when he was pulled over for speeding and he was given a ticket. Not a great start.  But after those hiccups, everything went very smoothly. We stopped to stretch, use bathrooms, and eat every 1.5 to 2 hours. Our stops were a little bit longer with a baby but Ruby did really well. For lunch we stopped at Culver's and met another large family that we shared quite a few similarities with- Tyler and him both have 5 siblings and are the second born. His wife had a small family similar to me, one brother.Buc-ee's was one of our favorite stops- while there I was changing Ruby's diaper and a little boy was getting his diaper changed next to us. Ruby was indecent and kept staring at his private like, what is that thing? Ruby only got cranky near the end of the trip. Our last stop was at a grocery store for TV dinners and breakfast food and then we arrived at our airbnb. Our airbnb had a pretty view of green hills and an old barn. The weather was perfect so we soaked in for a bit before the kids turned on a movie and I put Ruby to bed.  

    

Tyler picked a super long movie for the kids (some Wall of China movie with Matt Damon) so they all stayed up longer than I liked. He also told the kids that the guy who took care of the bnb's was named Jimbo and that he might murder us at night.  There really was a southern, sketchy looking man there,  weed whacking, so that helped his scary tale.  All the kids talked about how they could hear him walking around outside at night.I'm sure. 

Tuesday morning we got up and moving fairly quickly and then headed to Cumberland Falls. I thought you had to hike to it so I Googled to find the best trail to it. I was so wrong. As we were hiking we came up to a parking lot that was right by the falls. We could have just parked by it. The weather was really hot and humid and it was pretty much up hill and up some stairs on the way back so nobody was very happy with me. But the falls were pretty and there was a rainbow by it so I'm glad we got to see them, even if we took the hard way.

    

After our unnecessary hike, we stopped for some food and then headed to Brian and Pattie's house for a short visit. It was awkward with the kids at first but after we took a tour of their new remodeled house, the kids started hanging together- they rode some quads, played some VR, made a small plastic dog with their 3D printer and played on the trampoline. Ruby and Lucy were really the only ones who hovered near us. I feel like our lives are very different and I can't quite relate with Pattie anymore but Brian and Tyler are still good buddies and enjoy making inappropriate jokes. They are good people- they shared their Dollywood passes with us and always welcome us- and because of Tyler and Brian's long lasting friendship, I am sure they will still remain part of our lives.

After hanging with them, we entered the chaos of a Walmart in a tourist town to get breakfast groceries and then headed to our airbnb. Shortly after our arrival, we had a visitor. The kids watched from the balcony and windows and we watched our dumb neighbors from across the street feed it marshmallows. It was poor choice for them to feed the bear because it hopped their gate to their balcony- they all exited very quickly. After settling we went on a hunt for a pack and play so we could put Ruby to bed but had no luck- it was missing. We messaged our host and he ended up telling us to go get a new one and he would reimburse us. That meant Tyler had to make another trip to Walmart- about 30 mins away without traffic... but there was traffic. Meanwhile I rocked Ruby to sleep and watched her on my bed while the rest of the kids swam in the pool spa (it was like a double wide hot tub). I felt nervous leaving them alone, especially after the bear sighting, but it was what it was. Thankfully they all were fine and then Tyler came home and I could put the baby to bed.  The host felt bad about the situation and reimbursed my mom $200 for our troubles. That was a nice gesture. Late that night, when we were all asleep, Mike's family arrived. They had a flight delay which caused them to miss their connection so they didn't get in until 1am.

Wednesday we had a chill morning and then we decided to go on a mountain coaster- a first for all of us. There are a ton of options and we ended up picking Goats on the Roof. Just to be confusing, I guess, Goats on the Roof had a dinosaur theme...

I went on the mountain coaster with Penny and it was a lot of fun. At first it was really slow but about half way in it got some speed- at that point we had the option to slow down and I only slowed down a few times for Penny. It was really fun and I was all excited to do it again because for some reason I thought we could go on it as much as we wanted in a day. That was a very incorrect assumption that I had mistakenly shared with everyone. You could only go on it once and all of us were disappointed. It really was so much fun.

After the coaster we went to grab lunch at a place by a waterfall- Red Jasper Beer Garden- but their kitchen was closed so once again I disappointed everyone- especially all the hungry kids. Ugh. But at least we got to view the pretty waterfall. 

We left the waterfall and went to Mel's diner instead. We had a fifteen minute wait which felt longer to me because I decided to wait outside in the hot, hot heat with Ruby. Everyone else stayed in their cool air conditioned cars like smart people. Once inside I was reminded why we don't go out to restaurants much these days- Ruby is such a wiggle worm and she doesn't love just sitting in a high chair. She was all over the place but some how we made it through dinner.

Then it was back to the bnb for some pool time and chill time. I did at one point attempt to go visit the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum with Mike, Penny, Lillian and Ruby and after walking down the hill to it, we discovered it was closed. It was not a happy walk back up the hill. 

    

    

Thursday, July 4th, we went to Dollywood as soon as it opened. It was another day in the 90's with 90% humidity and I am not sure if I ever stopped sweating. We started off in the kid area where Ruby got to go on her first rides and all the kids were able to have some fun. I think the bumper cars were a big hit with everyone. 

At some point Tyler left with the older 3- Steven, Ben and Lucy- to go ride the roller coasters. The rest of us spent the morning in the kid area. After lunch I think we were all feeling tired and hot and cranky so I suggested we go to the Gazillion Bubble Show so we could sit in some ac and maybe get a second wind. The Bubble Show was pretty cool- at the end we were showered with a gazillion bubbles and the smoke bubbles were particularly cool. Even Ruby did a good job sitting through it. It was really nice to cool off.

After the show we went to another area that had some things geared towards younger kids. Everyone went on a small roller coaster while I hung out with Ruby. At that point I was honestly starting to get super cranky because I literally hadn't gone on a single ride- not even a baby one- and I was just super hot which didn't help, so I sent Tyler a text to call me. It took him awhile to get off the ride he was one and call me but it was a relief when we finally met up with us. It meant I could finally go on a ride! I decided to take everyone who was willing on the Dragonfly- we had done that one before as a family. It was a long wait and during it Penny started melting down and getting scared. I kept telling her that she didn't have to go and she could go hang with Tyler and Ruby instead but she was insistent- through tears- that she wanted to ride it. She was not helping my own nerves at all. At last it was time and she was sitting in the seat and silently crying. The attendant was nice and *lied* and said they would make her seat go slower. I am not sure she believed her but it was good distraction. This roller coaster had a big drop and was fast and pretty much convinced Penny to never go on one again. I think she decided it absolutely lived up to her fears. Matilda, on the other hand, asked if she could go on it again.

After that trauma, I went with Ben and Lucy on the Big Bear Mountain Coaster and that one was fast but no big drops, it was pretty fun. They loved it and wanted to go again. Mike and his family were done at that point so they headed out- taking Steven and leaving Lillian. We were almost done but Lucy and Ben wanted to do the Big Bear coaster again so I had them take Tyler on it. While they did that, I took the girls on a couple kid rides. When we were all done, we went and got ice cream, visited the souvenir shop and headed back to the bnb to scrounge up some dinner. 

That night Mike picked up my parents and we were happy to finally have them join us. Also that night I was awoken by the Midnight Parade in Gatlinburg- the drums were loud! Apparently not so loud that they woke anyone else up but they certainly woke me up so I went outside and watched the parade for minute from the balcony. From my vantage point it was like a tiny ant parade but at least I can say I saw it ;)