When you are free

[Jersey Girl]

I have to say this. I was just checking in here while going through Amazon in the wee hours. This time of night/morning is when I end up ordering something I probably don't need. Jersey Boy is fast asleep and I'm picking out cheap dresses. If I am not set free pretty soon, I am going to go broke over here!

p.s. I didn't order anything. Yet.

[Some Schmo]

Have you ever gone to Dollywood, Jersey Girl?

Hey Schmo I was just watching a Dolly Parton video on YouTube and remembered your post here. The answer is no. When we visited Pigeon Forge, Dollywood didn't exist. I still have pieces of Pigeon Forge pottery that I bought in the shops there. The whole place was so pretty and I have a scary story about driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in fog. An unforgettable experience!

I seem to remember you mentioning the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I thought you loved it. You've driven it more than once, I assume?

Here's what I'll say about Dollywood (I took my daughter a couple times): if I'm going to go to an amusement park at my age, I'll take Dollywood over any Disney park any day. It has something for everyone.

We've been through most all of the U.S. except the middle states and if I could pick just one destination to travel to again, just one, it would have to be hands down, the Grand Canyon. I've never seen anything like it in my life. If you ever have a chance to go there, do it. I promise you'll never regret it and you'll never forget it!

I believe you. That one is already high on the priority list. Gunnar's flight story made me very jealous (although it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy).

[Jersey Girl]

Theme parks really aren't my thing but Dollywood sounds really nice. I'm wondering if Dollywood has more of a laid back vibe?

Yes, you must see the Grand Canyon. In my opinion, it's the most impressive natural land feature in the entire country. I can't think of anything else that would rival it.

Oh the Blue Ridge Parkway story. I think we drove it on the same trip as Pigeon Forge but only one way. I'd have to check the maps to figure out if it was the same trip. Anyway, we were driving in my old 68 VW Beetle. Started out in the afternoon thinking that it would be a short run, not anticipating how slow the drive would turn out to be as the fog started to roll in and the sun set. There were no cell phones or computers. When we planned trips we did so over the phone, booked the next motel before leaving whatever one we were at and navigated our trips with a regular road map and always carried the motel directories. If we wanted to switch reservations, that meant doing it from the motel or pulling off to use a pay phone some place.

It was a dark and foggy night..........(cue up the spooky music) and anyone who ever drove an old Beetle will tell you that the defrosters don't work worth a darn on those old models and neither do the heaters for that matter. You are constantly using a jacket or gloves or whatever to swipe the windshield from the inside. The road where we were was particularly curvy and it was like a combination of hills on one side and a guardrail on the other side where you could possibly fly over the guardrails to your impending death. I think it was that way based on what we saw during daylight. We were on the hill side of the two lane road that we shared with cars and semis. Whenever an oncoming semi suddenly showed up in front of us or behind us, it would startle the crap out of us both. The fog got so thick at one point, that I had to open the driver's side door to see the line down the middle of the road. I am NOT exaggerating.

I told my husband that this was like one of the survival stories in Reader's Digest where a couple drove off a cliff in the dead of night and survived for a week by eating trees or each other before they were found by rescuers who dragged their half dead or eaten bodies out of a smashed up Volkswagen.

After hours of driving like that, we finally saw light through the fog. We decided that we didn't care what it was, that we were pulling off. Turned out to be a truck stop! Best food ever! I think that after that we drove a bit further to an actual motel based on our conversations in the truck stop dining room because when we pulled off the road, we had no real idea where we were so I'm thinking we talked to folks in the truck stop and they helped us figure out how far the motel was down the road.

One thing that is a shame is that we never got to see the beauty of the whole Blue Ridge Parkway. My only recollect is that of a white knuckle drive in dark pea soup fog and scary lights coming at us either way! The lights on that truck stop though...that was like finding heaven in the chaos!

[Gunnar]

After hours of driving like that, we finally saw light through the fog. We decided that we didn't care what it was, that we were pulling off. Turned out to be a truck stop! Best food ever! I think that after that we drove a bit further to an actual motel based on our conversations in the truck stop dining room because when we pulled off the road, we had no real idea where we were so I'm thinking we talked to folks in the truck stop and they helped us figure out how far the motel was down the road.

One thing that is a shame is that we never got to see the beauty of the whole Blue Ridge Parkway. My only recollect is that of a white knuckle drive in dark pea soup fog and scary lights coming at us either way! The lights on that truck stop though...that was like finding heaven in the chaos!

Speaking of truck stops, have you heard this story?

A truck driver stopped at one of his favorite truck stops for lunch, and ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a coke. He had just sat down at a table with his order to enjoy his meal, when 3 Hell's Angels burst into into the restaurant, and seeing the trucker, made a beeline for him.

The first grabbed his cheeseburger, the second grabbed his fries, the third grabbed his coke, and all went to another table and began to devour their pilfered food.

The trucker said not a word, calmly got up, went to the cashier by the entrance, paid for his order, and exited to his waiting truck, and drove away, as the cashier watched through the window.

After finishing off the trucker's food, the leader of the Hell's Angels ambled over to the cashier and said, sneeringly: "He's not much of man, is he?"

She replied, "He's not much of truck driver either; he just now ran over three Harleys!"

[Jersey Girl]

After hours of driving like that, we finally saw light through the fog. We decided that we didn't care what it was, that we were pulling off. Turned out to be a truck stop! Best food ever! I think that after that we drove a bit further to an actual motel based on our conversations in the truck stop dining room because when we pulled off the road, we had no real idea where we were so I'm thinking we talked to folks in the truck stop and they helped us figure out how far the motel was down the road.

One thing that is a shame is that we never got to see the beauty of the whole Blue Ridge Parkway. My only recollect is that of a white knuckle drive in dark pea soup fog and scary lights coming at us either way! The lights on that truck stop though...that was like finding heaven in the chaos!

Speaking of truck stops, have you heard this story?

A truck driver stopped at one of his favorite truck stops for lunch, and ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a coke. He had just sat down at a table with his order to enjoy his meal, when 3 Hell's Angels burst into into the restaurant, and seeing the trucker, made a beeline for him.

The first grabbed his cheeseburger, the second grabbed his fries, the third grabbed his coke, and all went to another table and began to devour their pilfered food.

The trucker said not a word, calmly got up, went to the cashier by the entrance, paid for his order, and exited to his waiting truck, and drove away, as the cashier watched through the window.

After finishing off the trucker's food, the leader of the Hell's Angels ambled over to the cashier and said, sneeringly: "He's not much of man, is he?"

She replied, "He's not much of truck driver either; he just now ran over three Harleys!"

Nope!