Knoxville and the free trolly

Knoxville is a nice little city, though very quiet. The city center is only about 5 blocks by 8 blocks (rough estimate), so it's quite walkable. It's also clean and there aren't a lot of vagrants around. Aside from Market Square there doesn't seem to be much signs of life. Maybe this was because of the poor weather, or maybe it's because I'm used to NYC. I did end up at a movie on Tuesday night, I was the only person in the theater, I almost felt bad about it.

One of the most interesting thing I did there was ride the free trolley. I did it for 2 reasons. One, it got me around the city for free, two - I would be able to see some different ares of the city without walking. I found so much more then just a free mode of transportation, I found a social experiment. The trolley takes you from a couple different areas outside the city center to the city center. Basically on the West side of the city is World's Fair Park and after that is the U. of Tennessee and the suburbs, the park kind of separates the city from the rest. Being free, the shuttle doesn't attract high society. Actually, as a "Northerner" it seemed to have Southern goobers... The people seemed to be one step above being homeless. I expected

to see more students and tourists on the trolley, I saw very little of either. After taking the trolley the first day, I decided to drive the following day. But I did get to see quite a bit of the city. I should have known there wouldn't be many tourists on it since there were very few signs showing where the trolley stopped even though it stopped quite often. But the trolley is a good deal if you're visiting the city and can figure out where it stops.

When I packed for my trip I forget the wire to charge my ipod and ended up going to Best Buy, this took me through the suburbs of Knoxville. They're like the suburbs in most other places. Residential areas and then sections of strip malls with all sorts of shopping along the major roads. All the same types of stores you'll find in other areas of the nation.

One of the nicer spots in Knoxville is Volunteer Landing. When I had heard about it before I thought it was going to be a 2 mile stretch of waterfront with fun and cool activities. It's really just a 2 mile stretch of walkway along the water with 3 restaurants and a fun activity or two. Half of the walkway has a view of the docked river boats. If you're looking for a spot to walk and see the water, it's great, if you're looking for a good time, you might have to go somewhere else.




I visited the Woman's Basketball Hall of Fame. I'm not a huge fan of Basketball, but it seemed interesting and admission was only a few dollars. I was the only person there, but the museum was nice. It was fun to look at all the funny uniforms woman wore over the years. I also liked that I got to see real Olympic medals. The museum has a downstairs section where kids or adults can practice different types of basketball drills. I would rate the museum as a good place to take children. It will only take an hour or 2 (maybe 3 if you're really into it) to go through the museum.

Dollywood

As a fan of Disney, I wasn't overly impressed with Dollywood. But, for the location and price I thought it was a good park. It's a cross between a Renaissance Faire and an amusement park. There are sections with the "good" (faster and more daring) rides, then a section with more traditional fair types of rides. There is also a section with renaissance faire types of shops and attractions - leather making, hat making.

The good: It is a nice theme and felt homey and countryish. It also had a good selection of food throughout the park, though when I was there several places were not open due to smaller crowds. I ate at a buffet place with BBQ types of foods, the food was good though I hadn't intended to spend quite so much on lunch. The lines were very short, I never waited more then a couple minutes for any ride.

The bad: You "may" get wet on almost every ride, not a great selling point when it's not hot out. It's a long walk (unless you know the back way up the steep hill) to get to the better rides at the back of the park. The park layout wasn't very good. I don't like going to an amusement park, paying admission and then being asked to pay the regular rate to play a carnival game that I can play at any street carnival. I'm also not a fan of carnival rides at amusement parks, I prefer a better themed ride that's more complex and that I can't find in other places.

Overall it's a good park and a nice place to spend a day if you're in the area. If you're used to a Disney Park then you'll be a bit disappointed at the atmosphere. If you're used to Great Adventure parks you'll probably be disappointed with the rides.

Zorbing

The thing that attracted me to Knoxville was the idea of going zorbing. I figured Tennessee was a lot closer then New Zealand so I would go there, and I Knoxville is a city so I could spend time there, done!

Zorbing is a fun activity created by the Kiwi's, like many other fun activities. They put you in a giant plastic ball and roll you down a hill. There are 2 ways to do this, wet or dry. For the dry version you get harnessed into the ball and your body does whatever the ball is doing, upside down, sideways, etc. When doing it wet, which is what I did, you are put inside the ball with a bucket of water and when you are rolled down the hill so you slide around in the ball, primarily laying down on the bottom of the ball. I found that your head tends to point downhill most of the time. The website says it takes about a minute to roll down the hill, and it was plenty of time for the thrill. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is that it is like going down one of those giant water slides, for a minute. It's a lot of fun. The wet version has two different tracks, a straight hill and a zig zaggy hill. I did both, the zig zaggy hill does send the ball back and forth a lot more so your body shifts around a lot more as you're going down the hill. I have tight muscles in my neck and shoulders, mom didn't want me to do this convinced I was going to get hurt. However, I had no problems. If you have a similar minor problem you should probably stick with the straight hill wet zorb at least the first time, the zig zag does put a little more stress on the body. If you have more serious neck or back problems you should probably avoid this activity. You can also try and run in the ball as it goes down hill, but you'll need socks for that.

Getting into the ball was interesting. The first time I did it the guy put the hole to the ball in front of me, shoulder height. He told me to take a step back and do a superman jump into. I thought he was joking, but that's actually a good way to get in. To get out they point the hole towards the ground and you go out feet first, it's not graceful, but it gets the job done. Then you have a photo session with the ball. It's clean old good fun and safer then trying to do this on your own...

Zorbing is pricey though. Each roll down the hill is about $40 with tax, there are discounts if you buy packages of rolls though. You can also buy an outfit to wear, the outfit wasn't as nice as I thought it would be, but I have a Zorb t-shirt now. Whether you buy the outfit or not, it's not a bad idea to wear a bathing suit as you will get wet! They also take photos as you go down the hill and after with the ball, the disc for each roll is $20, a rip off, but since I was by myself I didn't have much other choice. $20 seemed particularly harsh when on my first roll the camera wasn't working when I was coming down the hill, I only got pictures of me with the hill and the ball.

Pigeon Forge - Vegas for kids

Zorb Smokey Mountains is located in Pigeon Forge, TN. It's a place I had never heard of and it seems the NYC bubble was keeping an interesting place off my radar. Often people not from large cities think that the people in large cities are out of touch with what goes on in other places, sometimes it is true. I actually only know one person who knows what Pigeon Forge is, everyone else I know couldn't even figure out why you would go to Knoxville let a lone Pigeon Forge.

Pigeon Forge struck me as the type of place that people who live within a half days drive might go to for a family summer vacation. It's Vegas for kids! Driving down the main road in Pigeon Forge is like a miniature Las Vegas Blvd. The road is lined with chain restaurants, mini golf, souvenir shops, hotels, go-cart places, arcades and other random attractions for families. It's cheesy middle america and I loved it! There is also Dollywood and its water park. A family could spend a week here as long as they bring plenty of money. I overheard someone from my hotel say that he goes there every other month, I suspect that he's not unusual. There's a lot of fun things to do there and while it's not fancy, it's entertaining. Pigeon Forge also has a couple different outlet centers. I went to one small one but wasn't impressed with it, I didn't even get out of my car. I went to the Tanger Outlet and that had a much better selection of stores. I didn't have much room in my luggage, but I did get a couple things there.

5 miles south of Pigeon Forge is Gattlinburg. Gattlinburg is a nicer area, though similar to Pigeon Forge in some ways. It's more of a walking type of place, a smaller main road and a quainter feel. The road is lined with hotels (if I went back I would look to get a hotel on the river with a view of the river), restaurants and shops. There are also touristy activities - Rippleys Believe it or Not, a Wax museum, and you can take a chair lift to the top of a mountain. I didn't do too much when I was here as I had already spent quite a bit of money that day. I think Gattlinburg is a better place for older children and adults, but either way it's a nice spot to spend some time if you're in the area.

Adventures in Pigeon Forge, TN

I thought I would try a different way of posting. I thought I would tell everyone what I did in one big post, then do reviews on particular things in later posts.

I flew out of NY on Sunday evening and after a stopover in DC landed in Knoxville around 9:45 at night. I stayed at the Airport Hilton, which was a good move since the airport and probably the city was dead at that hour of night. I don't even know if I would have been able to get a rental car.

Monday morning I picked up my rental car around 8:00 and drove to Pigeon Forge. I decided since this was going to be the only day when the weather was supposed to be nice that I would Zorb and go to Dollywood. First, I Zorbed, which was tons of fun, then I went to Dollywood. The timing worked out well since Zorb opened at 9am and Dollywood at 10am. I stayed at Dollywood until 4:30-5:00 and went back to Zorb since the guy forgot to give me my CD with the pictures on it. After that I checked into my hotel, Comfort Inn. I rested for a while since I was exhausted from all the fun I had been having. I decided then to go for a drive to Gattlinburg, a nice little town 5 miles south of Pigeon Forge. I didn't do much more then just walk around and check out a couple shops, but it felt good to be out and about and seeing things.

After that I decided it was time for some shopping in Pigeon Forge, I tried one of the outlet centers, but it was lame so I went to the Christmas shops. I did get myself and ornament for my Christmas tree. Back at the hotel I opted for a quick dinner at Denny's. It was actually one of the better Denny's I've been to, and then took a dip in the hot tub, ahhhhhh.

The following morning I was heading to Knoxville but decided to take one more roll down the Zorbing hill. And what kind of trip would it have been if I didn't go to the outlets? I stopped at the Tanger outlets and they were very good, a nice selection of stores. I was also able to get myself a belt and a new pair of sunglasses, both things I had forgotten to bring on the trip. I did buy myself a new wallet too, I was at the outlets so obviously I needed to buy something that was just a good deal. At this point I noticed one of the benefits of only using a carry-on, I couldn't buy much. If I had a full size suitcase I probably would have bought more stuff, but since I had limited space I found myself being very careful as to what I bought, this probably saved me a bunch of money.

What does the future hold in blog posts? Reviews of Pigeon Forge, Gattlinburg, Hotel reviews, My experience Zorbing and at Dollywood.

Booked my flight

I've booked my flights to Knoxville and Pittsburgh! Well that's one less thing to worry about. Now I'm working on hotel rooms and rental cars. any suggestions?

For my first night since I'm getting in around 9:30-10:00 I'm going to stay at a hotel airport so that I can save a day of the rental car and the drama of trying to find my hotel in the dark. I'll probably stay a night in Pigeon Forge near Dollywood and the Zorb place, then my last 2 nights I didn't figure out yet. I'm considering staying downtown, but the hotel prices are a little higher then I really want to spend. I would rather spend money on fun activities then on a hotel.

Figuring out my fall plans

Well I'm up to plan "Z" now with planning my fall vacation, but I think this might actually work! I'm off for 2 weeks from September 12 to the 27th. September 12 is supposed to be my nephews birthday party so I plan to start my trip September 13. The details are rough right now and subject to change at a moments notice, but here is the plan:

Leave on September 13 for Knoxville, Tenn. What is there to do in Knoxville was my first question... Apparently there is some Civil War stuff there, which I'll have to check out. There is also the University of Tennessee. Most importantly there is Zorbing, I love Kiwi's!

I'm going to stay there until September 17 when I will fly to Pittsburgh to visit my friend who had a baby in March. I'll fly back home on September 19. Then on September 20 I will drive out to Hershey, PA and meet another friend of mine to visit the Hershey Spa - after a week of running around I'll be happy to visit a spa. We'll return on the 21st, which is a Monday. Hopefully then I'll get to relax!