After the Creation Museum we traveled down to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, definitely my highlight of the trip. I have never been there before, so I didn’t really know what to expect from the area. Looking back on it, the place seemed a lot like Branson with lots of shows and entertainment opportunities in the mountains.

I love this place and could probably live there when I get older. The scenery is terrific, there are great shows that I can watch, and there’s Dollywood. We arrived at our cabin late, as we were traveling all day, so we just laid low for the night to get ready for the next day. On the first day, we hiked in the Smokies, cruised through Gatlinburg, and spent the evening at Dollywood.

This would be the only new park for me this year, so I planned to soak in as much as I could since I probably won’t be going back for a while. We first headed to Thunderhead, as it was right near the entrance. It was a small wait, about ten minutes, and we sat near the middle of the train. I was blown away. It was amazing! It wasn’t just helix after helix like Wildcat at Hersheypark. Instead there were tons of S-Curves and plenty of airtime. I tied it with my number one slot with Beast and El Toro. It’s impossible to compare an amazing twister, an awesome airtime machine, and an epic and legendary terrain coaster; they’re just so different from each other.

Next up was Mystery Mine. I really didn’t know what to expect, as it was my first Eurofighter, but I enjoyed it. It was just…weird. With the wall turn, two vertical lifts, and the outside turn at the beginning, it was nothing I had experienced before. The lifts were a lot different from Fahrenheit, as both the lifts of Mystery Mine are surrounded by theming. I really don’t know about the last two inversions. They also went into the “weird” category of elements.

Continuing up to the back of the park, we were feeling a bit hot, so we rode Splash Battle. It’s a very fun ride, and you will get soaked, no doubt about it. You’re blasting water at targets that trigger targets that make you wet. Also, there are people on the sidelines shooting at you, and people in other boats that are also blasting you with many gallons of water. Great ride for cooling you down.

Next we did one of the main reasons that I came to Dollywood, Wild Eagle. This monster is awesome! It dominates over the whole park, is super smooth, and is just beautiful. The station is very nicely constructed, with most of the queue beneath the loading platform. The only problem for me was that it felt too much like a floorless coaster, and I didn’t get the illusion of being on the wings, even though I sat on the outside seat.

Then we did Adventure Mountain, a ropes course that doesn’t cost any extra admission fee. It was pretty cool, and I did get some great views of the surrounding area and Wild Eagle.

After that, we did Tennessee Tornado. I loved this ride! It was smoother than all of the other Arrow coasters I’ve experienced, and the huge loops were just awesome. I feel that it could have been a little longer, because it pretty much slams into the brake run.

Then we did Blazing Fury. I liked this ride, although it was a bit painful. I kind of knew what to expect, as I had been on Fire in the Hole at Silver Dollar City a couple of years earlier. The theming was very well done, and the drops gave some decent airtime in the back. The ride is definitely worth a small wait.

Next we did Daredevil Falls. It reminded me a lot of Splash Mountain, with the two across boats, and the theming. The drop that made me the wettest was probably the smallest, like always, but it was still pretty fun.

We came back the next day and repeated the cycle, while enjoying other rides and the tasty, decently priced food that was available. After lunch, we rode the train which wasn’t as good as Silver Dollar City’s but still gave good views of the park and some nice theming around the tracks.

In between lunch and the train ride, we experienced something that most enthusiasts would die for. We went through the Roller Coaster Museum, a temporary exhibit. It was amazing! It showed tons of old track pieces, control panels, and other accessories of defunct coasters like Big Bad Wolf, the old Texas Giant, and Mister Twister. It showed many great pictures of historical rides, coasters according to manufacturer, and some nice videos of roller coasters in movies that would make coaster nerds laugh. Pictures are available to view in the park gallery article for Dollywood.

By then it was smoking hot, so we did the river rapids ride. Now, Dollywood’s rapids ride is different from any other rapids ride. For starters, there is no “bad seat” that guarantees that you get soaked if you’re sitting in that seat. No, every seat is a bad seat. All of us were soaked. The ride also kind of knows you’re wet enough, so they turn off the waterfall when the raft is inches away. Nonetheless, it was a great ride, but I only needed to get soaked once.

My brother and I went in a reverse circle around the park while our parents watched a show. We first did Tennessee Tornado and then went to Wild Eagle. Unfortunately, it was stopped at the bottom of the lift. The line was closed off, but, because we were first in line, we decided to wait. Then we saw the train move very slowly up the lift, not at all at the desired speed. They tested it a couple times, and then it stopped when the train was halfway out of the station. It eventually made it to the lift where the speed was back to normal, but then stopped again. And the cycle repeated for about an hour. We decided that if we want to finish other rides, then we should move on. We did Mystery Mine in the front row this time. Riding in the front makes a load of difference from the second row. This time, we could see the scenery in the building and the explosion on the holding brake.

Then we did Thunderhead twice more. This ride, by far, is the best wooden coaster GCI has built. Nothing compares to the perfect combinations of s-curves, turnarounds and airtime. We then headed out with another park under our belt.

My brother told me to make sure I put down two words: Krispy and Kreme. The reason for this was because it was our first visit to a Krispy Kreme when the light was on, so we got amazing donuts for FREE!!!. Okay not totally free, but they were freshly made and still warm, but you get the idea.

For the rest of the week, we were hiking in the Smokies, watched two shows, and got in a close encounter with a bear. Video of the bear encounter can be found here. The one show we saw was Hatfield and McCoy, a hilarious dinner show about a feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families. They also had a small audience participation thing at intermission, where the people selected before the show had to get into teams of five and try to get a spoon through their clothing, for women it was up through they're shirts, for men it was down their shorts. My dad was selected as one of those ten people. Then it went back through. The second show we saw was the Smoky Mountain Opry, a great show that’s filled with a lot of music of all styles, with some small bits of comedy in between.

Two down, two to go! Stay tuned for the next part in the trip. Busch Gardens!