Very late responding, but my husband and I just listened to this and we wanted to put our two cents in. We were literally just talking about trying to convince his more pretentious family members about renting a cabin in Gatlinburg, but they're apprehensive because it's not something they grew up with. I turned my husband onto it when we got together, as he's from central Virginia, and I am from Southwest Virginia, so it was not a place he grew up going to.
A place that his family went to that I did not get go to go as often was Busch Gardens/Colonial Williamsburg, VA. Corey, you being a history buff and your wife a teacher, I highly recommend you guys check out Colonial Williamsburg. It's something you truly appreciate with age, with the living history including reenactors. They've got it all, including ghost tours, witch trials, carriage rides, and staff performaning colonial era trades.
Busch Gardens is a theme park that even if you don't get down with rides is something everyone can enjoy as it's separated into 5 different countries: Germany, England, Ireland, and France. ADDED BONUS: They've got one helluva outlet mall-SKEW!
Hope you guys get to check it out sometime, and we're able to convince our fam to go in on a bad ass cabin in Gatlinburg.
So, you want to know about Gatlinburg, Corey? You mean the place where my Mom convinced told me about my Older Brother Fred? THAT THEY LEFT WITH THE BEARS?!?!?! Oh, I can tell you about Gatlinburg. My Mother told a young me, five or six years old, that they had left my Brother Fred in the mountains outside Gatlinburg with the bears, because Fred was a BAD BOY! Now, even at that tender age, I had my doubts, so I asked my Aunt Betty about Fred, and she got this sad look on her face and said "poor Fred, he was bad, now he is with the bear". COREY MY MOM LEFT MY OLDER BROTHER FRED WITH THE BEARS OUTSIDE GATLINBURG! So, that Summer my family was going to take a weekend trip, and where were we going? GATLINBURG! I spent the trip the best behaved little boy ever in the backseat of the car, because I KNEW that because I was going to Gatlinburg, I was about to join Fred and the bears. As we drove up the mountain past Pigeon Forge, my Mom pointed out a group of bears, which in those days could be seen on the roads around Gatlinburg I burst into tears BEGGING them not to leave me with Fred. I WOULD BE GOOD! I WOULD BE GOOD I PROMISE! And my Mom just looked at me in confusion until it dawn on her WHY her only son was crying in horror and my own mother, and I do LOVE her, started laughing her ass off because she had forgotten the silly story she told me about "Fred and the bears" entirely. Her sister, my own aunt, had backed her play without ever ONCE hearing the original story. That is my FAMILY y'all, that is my MOM! Oh, sure, it is funny now, but I tell you for serious, there is a tiny little part of my brain that STILL thinks that MAYBE, just maybe...Fred is out there, near Gatlinburg. With the bears.
Being from your area. Gotta TCB⚡ in PCB, baybah! Used to go go Hilton Head which is just nose in the air frufru PCB. Now I'm older, I like Grayton better. Good Wisconsin place is Door County. It's like the PCB of hunting and fishing in the woods. Go in the summer and the sweet corn and cherries will make ya smack ya momma.
Wow! My better half and I went to Gatlinburg on our honeymoon in '91 and at least once every year since until last year. It's fun and cheesy and crowed. We've stayed in cabins, cheap hotels/motels, and past few years at the Hilton on River Road. The cheesiest attraction there, still going since '91 is The Earthquake ride. After 20 years we refined it to certain restaurants, shops, and bars. As a child we didn't have a "tourist trap" town we went to, but we would go to what I lovingly refer to as the poor mans Kings Island...Camden Park in Huntington WV. We live in eastern KY and it was just an 1.5 hour drive. At any rate I think you'll have a blast! Take care and stay safe!
I ❤ Gatlinburg! I have very fond memories of visiting as a teenager. We have Wisconsin Dells here, with the duck rides & the massive water parks. It used to be more cheesy & more fun with the little parks like Fairy tale gardens & the deer park and the tourist shops. Now it's too many condos for Bachelorette parties & too much stuff for the grown ups
Also btw I'm complete cynic and I will still stuff my face with corn dogs dipped in nacho cheese and completely ignore the carnie manning the flying bobs when he said if you don't keep your arms inside your Bob I'm gonna make it go faster.
I've been to Gatlinburg once - traffic was INSANE. But there was a knife outlet I went to with my father-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew, and it was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. You could get a machete (3, 4 and 5' blades) for as little as $19.95. Couple of guys were bitching that they weren't a specific grade of steel, and all I could think was, "Well, even shit steel's gonna take off somebody's head."
Next time you're in Wisconsin, visit Wisconsin Dells. Dells are like stalagtites from caves but they come OUT of the water of this man-made lake. There are these amphibious vehicles you can take that everybody crowds in on, and you leave the parking lot and just drive into the lake. They call 'em duck boats because most of them have a duck's head on the front. All sorts of garish stores and attractions, including The White House as if had been in a tornado and was flipped upside down.
Tons of good and bad accomodations, but the best I stayed at (for a seminar) had theme rooms on the ground floor. My wife and I had only been married a few months, and the company we did work with put us in the S&M Suite. Furry handcuffs, restraints on each post of the bed - the whole nine painful yards. Obviously Wisconsin's answer to Gatlinburg's saltwater taffy is cheese. And it's almost all that petroleum based garbage you get on a dozen crappy taco chips they charge you $25 for at the Braves game. The locals laugh at everybody eating that crap - you might as well dump it in your gas tank for fuel as eat it. I always picture a gang from an oil rig mixing it with real cheese out back, with signs all over forbidding smoking or any open flames.
Santa Claus Indiana is, as you would expect, Christmas themed. It makes Gatlinburg feel like Monaco. Way out of the way though.
Oh yes, I've heard about Gatlinburg.😊 The best carnival you can visit in the world, 365 days a year.
I love Pigeon Forge, but Gatlinburg don’t hit for me.
Very late responding, but my husband and I just listened to this and we wanted to put our two cents in. We were literally just talking about trying to convince his more pretentious family members about renting a cabin in Gatlinburg, but they're apprehensive because it's not something they grew up with. I turned my husband onto it when we got together, as he's from central Virginia, and I am from Southwest Virginia, so it was not a place he grew up going to.
A place that his family went to that I did not get go to go as often was Busch Gardens/Colonial Williamsburg, VA. Corey, you being a history buff and your wife a teacher, I highly recommend you guys check out Colonial Williamsburg. It's something you truly appreciate with age, with the living history including reenactors. They've got it all, including ghost tours, witch trials, carriage rides, and staff performaning colonial era trades.
Busch Gardens is a theme park that even if you don't get down with rides is something everyone can enjoy as it's separated into 5 different countries: Germany, England, Ireland, and France. ADDED BONUS: They've got one helluva outlet mall-SKEW!
Hope you guys get to check it out sometime, and we're able to convince our fam to go in on a bad ass cabin in Gatlinburg.
I love Blue Ridge, GA. The Bigfoot Museum is FANTASTIC! And the Rum Cake Lady restaurant. Cuban food and yum!
So, you want to know about Gatlinburg, Corey? You mean the place where my Mom convinced told me about my Older Brother Fred? THAT THEY LEFT WITH THE BEARS?!?!?! Oh, I can tell you about Gatlinburg. My Mother told a young me, five or six years old, that they had left my Brother Fred in the mountains outside Gatlinburg with the bears, because Fred was a BAD BOY! Now, even at that tender age, I had my doubts, so I asked my Aunt Betty about Fred, and she got this sad look on her face and said "poor Fred, he was bad, now he is with the bear". COREY MY MOM LEFT MY OLDER BROTHER FRED WITH THE BEARS OUTSIDE GATLINBURG! So, that Summer my family was going to take a weekend trip, and where were we going? GATLINBURG! I spent the trip the best behaved little boy ever in the backseat of the car, because I KNEW that because I was going to Gatlinburg, I was about to join Fred and the bears. As we drove up the mountain past Pigeon Forge, my Mom pointed out a group of bears, which in those days could be seen on the roads around Gatlinburg I burst into tears BEGGING them not to leave me with Fred. I WOULD BE GOOD! I WOULD BE GOOD I PROMISE! And my Mom just looked at me in confusion until it dawn on her WHY her only son was crying in horror and my own mother, and I do LOVE her, started laughing her ass off because she had forgotten the silly story she told me about "Fred and the bears" entirely. Her sister, my own aunt, had backed her play without ever ONCE hearing the original story. That is my FAMILY y'all, that is my MOM! Oh, sure, it is funny now, but I tell you for serious, there is a tiny little part of my brain that STILL thinks that MAYBE, just maybe...Fred is out there, near Gatlinburg. With the bears.
Being from your area. Gotta TCB⚡ in PCB, baybah! Used to go go Hilton Head which is just nose in the air frufru PCB. Now I'm older, I like Grayton better. Good Wisconsin place is Door County. It's like the PCB of hunting and fishing in the woods. Go in the summer and the sweet corn and cherries will make ya smack ya momma.
Duluth MN- eat walleye and wild rice, walk the banks of Superior
Slovang CA-fun and whimsical as F
Kochi Japan-go to Hirome Hiroba and eat something from every booth
https://tabigo-media.net/hiromemarket-recommended/
Listening to this was a really positive way to start the day in Hertfordshire, UK.
Our equivalent of Gatlinburg? Southend on Sea, Margate and Clacton on Sea that I visited as a child.
I've heard Niagara Falls is kooky between the cities on either side of the border.
Please dress in drag if you go to Tennessee, and get drunk in that brewery where the taproom is basically wood, antlers, beer, and more wood.
Also, outlet malls hit.
Now you’ve got this PA girl wanting to make that 10 hour again. Walking through The Village would be awesome.
I haven’t been to Gatlinburg but I think Frankenmuth in Michigan would fit the bill. Plus it’s 30 minutes from a leeeegit outlet mall.
Wow! My better half and I went to Gatlinburg on our honeymoon in '91 and at least once every year since until last year. It's fun and cheesy and crowed. We've stayed in cabins, cheap hotels/motels, and past few years at the Hilton on River Road. The cheesiest attraction there, still going since '91 is The Earthquake ride. After 20 years we refined it to certain restaurants, shops, and bars. As a child we didn't have a "tourist trap" town we went to, but we would go to what I lovingly refer to as the poor mans Kings Island...Camden Park in Huntington WV. We live in eastern KY and it was just an 1.5 hour drive. At any rate I think you'll have a blast! Take care and stay safe!
I ❤ Gatlinburg! I have very fond memories of visiting as a teenager. We have Wisconsin Dells here, with the duck rides & the massive water parks. It used to be more cheesy & more fun with the little parks like Fairy tale gardens & the deer park and the tourist shops. Now it's too many condos for Bachelorette parties & too much stuff for the grown ups
I’d like to put in a second plug for Leavenworth, WA, a town that’s got Bavarian theme.
Lincoln City, OR is a cool, cheesy beach town that has an outlet mall and Otis Cafe, some of the best home-cooked food around
Also btw I'm complete cynic and I will still stuff my face with corn dogs dipped in nacho cheese and completely ignore the carnie manning the flying bobs when he said if you don't keep your arms inside your Bob I'm gonna make it go faster.
I've been to Gatlinburg once - traffic was INSANE. But there was a knife outlet I went to with my father-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew, and it was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. You could get a machete (3, 4 and 5' blades) for as little as $19.95. Couple of guys were bitching that they weren't a specific grade of steel, and all I could think was, "Well, even shit steel's gonna take off somebody's head."
Next time you're in Wisconsin, visit Wisconsin Dells. Dells are like stalagtites from caves but they come OUT of the water of this man-made lake. There are these amphibious vehicles you can take that everybody crowds in on, and you leave the parking lot and just drive into the lake. They call 'em duck boats because most of them have a duck's head on the front. All sorts of garish stores and attractions, including The White House as if had been in a tornado and was flipped upside down.
Tons of good and bad accomodations, but the best I stayed at (for a seminar) had theme rooms on the ground floor. My wife and I had only been married a few months, and the company we did work with put us in the S&M Suite. Furry handcuffs, restraints on each post of the bed - the whole nine painful yards. Obviously Wisconsin's answer to Gatlinburg's saltwater taffy is cheese. And it's almost all that petroleum based garbage you get on a dozen crappy taco chips they charge you $25 for at the Braves game. The locals laugh at everybody eating that crap - you might as well dump it in your gas tank for fuel as eat it. I always picture a gang from an oil rig mixing it with real cheese out back, with signs all over forbidding smoking or any open flames.
Santa Claus Indiana is, as you would expect, Christmas themed. It makes Gatlinburg feel like Monaco. Way out of the way though.