Weekend in Gatlinburg

We decided to make an overnight trip . I said " There shouldn't be many people in Gatlinburg between now and Christmas , so we'll get a motel when we get there." I checked out several websites and we chose Midtown Lodge as our first choice. When we left Pigeon Forge we noticed a sigh on the side of the road that said PARADE TONIGHT ...Uh O....When we got to the city limits , we noticed lawn chairs lining the streets on both sides as far as we could see.

The clerk at Midtown Lodge said, "Sorry , we don't have a vacancy...you may find something up Airport Road."

We walked down the sidewalk and I said, " Well let's try Riverside Hotel ."

We stayed there years ago for a Square Dance Event. We walked into the lobby and saw a big sign ...THUNDERBOLT REUNION...World War II veterans were sitting around the big fireplace reminiscing.

The clerk said "I have one room left. It doesn't have a window or a balcony and it has one bed. I said "We'll take it", because it was a good location where we could walk outside and watch the parade. We moved in and then we walked up the street to our favorite Best Italian Restaurant..The salad and the vegetable lasagna and the garlic rolls are always good.

After we ate, we went to the Civic Center to the Glades Road Craft Show. All the shops were there with samples of their wares. One reason for our trip was to check out the Ogles broom shop to see if they would put a new bottom on my broom that I bought there years ago. They said to take the broom to the shop and they would do it for $10.00 . A new broom like mine would cost $87.00. That's our next trip.

We walked the streets and shopped . It was cold so we would stop by our lobby and sit by the fire and listen to war stories and then go again.

It was low 20's by 7:00 p.m. when the parade started, but we were wrapped up and we enjoyed the crowd and the parade.

We went back to the fire, and then to bed. Our room was quiet and warm..we got up at 8:00a.m. and went to Pancake Pantry for blueberry pancakes.

We shopped some more and then drove home in snow. It was falling and sticking to the trees and ground in the mountains, but no sign of it here.

We got a call from Todd and he said he was coming over to watch the football game with us. Gpa built a fire and I made boubblins...It was a nice evening.