The Savvy Tourist

Delta disappoints.....Part Deux

Back in February of this year I started my "Travels to Tennessee" series which I hope you have all been following. The trip did not get off to a very good start thanks to Delta Airlines and their inability to get anywhere on time. Luckily for us the delays did not create any real problems and we eventually got where we were going, just a few hours later than expected.
Now, it was time to return from whence we came and this time it was a little more critical because hubby had to depart on an International flight for work the very next morning. We were supposed to depart Nashville en route to San Diego at 1:30pm, with a scheduled 1 hour stop in Atlanta. I know that just seems wrong to travel East to go West, but if you had seen my choices you would understand. Since it was the dead of winter I was trying to avoid places like Chicago and Denver and Minneapolis due to possible inclement weather conditions, so Atlanta seemed like a reasonable choice. We arrived at the Nashville Airport in plenty of time only to find out that our airplane had not arrived on schedule. They had posted a 20 minute delay with hopes of a speedy turnaround once the airplane arrived. I was growing concerned since our scheduled layover in Atlanta was only 1 hour long. I wasn't sure just how much running time we were going to need to get from one gate to another. A few minutes later it dawned on me that everything would be just fine because, after all, I was a paying passenger! You see, usually we fly on a "stand by" basis for a seriously discounted price because of hubby's job. As glamorous as this may sound, believe me when I say it leaves a lot to be desired in the way of "perks". As a "stand by"  or "non-rev" as we are sometimes affectionately known as, we get to board last, if at all. We get to hunt all over the plane for a place to stow our luggage, which is usually 10 rows behind where we are sitting and we usually get stuck in the middle seats between 2 much larger people and we are separated from our loved ones, no matter what age they are. (Although, the last time they sat my 2 year old between 2 strangers, someone graciously offered to switch seats with me...ha ha....I wonder why!) If at the last minute a late passenger shows up, you get courteously removed from your seat, you must retrieve your luggage, your loved ones and your dignity and exit the plane immediately. Now imagine a big problem like a canceled flight, a weather delay, or an oversold flight. What do you think happens to us poor "non-revs"? Nothing! We are brushed away to the side and left to our own devices. We do not get hotel vouchers, meal vouchers, taxi vouchers or one free phone call home. We do not get re-booked on the next flight because it is more than likely already full with paying passengers. We could easily be stuck in an airport for days waiting for a seat on a plane. I have actually been known to get on any plane headed in the right direction in hopes of eventually getting to my destination of choice. If you've seen Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, then you get the picture. Anyway...back to being a paying passenger on Delta Airlines. Even though there was possible trouble brewing, I wasn't worried because I  was a paying passenger and would be treated with respect. Well, the 20 minute delay turned into a 30 minute delay and then a 40 minute delay and then there was an announcement. "Everyone scheduled with less than an hour and a half on the ground in Atlanta, please approach the podium". Well, that was us, so off I went to see the nice gate agent at the podium. I am being quite serious when I say he was a nice gate agent. He was very nice and efficient while explaining to me there were no more flights available that would get me to San Diego tonight. I could take a flight to Austin, spend the night and get the first flight out. That wasn't going to work at all, so he started checking other airlines. Luck was with us...we could run over to this other gate and catch a flight on Frontier Airlines through Denver and only arrive in San Diego about an hour late. He even gave us a meal voucher so we grabbed a quick sandwich on the run while headed over to the Frontier gates. It was a pretty full flight, we got on last, we were separated and our luggage was only 3 rows behind us. Beautiful, this time I paid good money to be treated like a "non-rev". On a positive note, they handed out free headsets while we boarded the plane and I saw that every seat had it's own TV screen. I found myself feeling somewhat excited about my new found adventure on Frontier Airlines, right up until I found out that you had to pay $8 to watch a movie. Free headset my foot!!!

    The flight to Denver was pretty much uneventful. The plane was nice, quiet and clean, the flight attendants were nice and courteous and I paid my $8 and watched a movie anyway. I am such a sucker for convenience. We arrived in Denver and guess what? It was snowing! Just what I tried to avoid in the first place. It snowed and it snowed and I just sat in front of the glass and watched it snow. It was beautiful, but I had resigned myself to camping out in the Denver Airport given the circumstances. Well, my pessimism subsided as soon as they called for boarding to begin. I guess a little snow doesn't bother the folks in Denver. It's like sunshine in Arizona. So, we were off to San Diego, on time surprisingly enough. We arrived in San Diego just an hour behind our original schedule as promised, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I just wish air travel was the way it used to be years ago. You paid a premium price, but you were treated like you were important, served like you were royalty and assisted in every way possible. It used to be a pleasure to fly somewhere. I firmly believe the first airline out there that starts concentrating on customer service will win the "War of the Airlines". The industry needs an Extreme Makeover-Airline Edition!

Scenic route back to Nashville

After our fabulous lunch at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. we meandered through a few stores admiring the local wares until it was decided we needed to head for home to beat the traffic. Traffic? What traffic? I guess the idea of "traffic" in general depends on what you are used to. I live in Southern California where it can take 5 hours to travel 80 miles to the Los Angeles International Airport. That is traffic! What I observed here in quiet little Gatlinburg, TN. was a few cars traveling slower than normal. I figured they were all just savvy tourists trying to take in all the sites. If you have been following this series, you will remember that I am not driving and I really have no clue where I am going from the backseat so I go where the driver decides we go. That being said, we decided to go another route that would be more scenic and have less traffic. Now again, if you've been following this series, you know this doesn't usually go well for us, but we did it anyway because...well, I don't know...we're tourists? Instead of heading North on Rt. 441 out of Gatlinburg towards more civilization, we headed in more of a Southwesterly direction on a road known to the locals as Little River Road because it travels beside the Little River.
The sun was shining through broken clouds and the river was rushing alongside the road like it had somewhere to be, making me feel like we had traveled back in time. This is what being in the Great Smoky Mountains is all about. This was a beautiful drive that I will never forget. We were able to pull off the side of the road safely and take pictures along the way. We finally got some good photos to commemorate our trip to Tennessee. We eventually rounded the bend near civilization, the small road turned into a parkway, connected with U.S. 40 towards Nashville, and we were headed home from our little adventure. It is amazing what you can see when you are just along for the ride.

Here are a few photos that we took along the way. You can click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

Now that our 3 hour tour had been canceled (Gilligan should be so lucky), we decided it was time to eat again so we traveled back down the road a bit into the town of Gatlinburg. Yes, you heard me correctly, we were actually in the town of Gatlinburg. There were cute little shops and restaurants and it was just so quaint. It was a little busier than I would expect for February, but I soon learned that Gatlinburg is pretty much a year round destination. There is skiing in the winter, river rapids in the summer, and festivals all year round. There is always something to do in Gatlinburg, whether it is shopping, dining, or playing.
Now, back to the eating.....one of my most memorable moments on this particular trip was the fabulous dining experience at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant. The atmosphere was friendly and fun and the staff was very helpful since it was our first time visiting. They had wonderful recommendations, all of which I took. I started out with Jenny's She-Crab Soup: An Alabama twist to a low country favorite. It was very creamy and rich and just perfect. My main course was the "I'm Stuffed!" Shrimp: Large shrimp stuffed with crab, baked in garlic butter, and topped with Monterey Jack Cheese served with Jasmine Rice.   Of course I started the whole meal out with a Peach, Love, Rock 'n' Roll: DeKuyper Peachtree and Razzmatazz, Cointreau and Pineapple Juice and Lemon-Lime.

Needless to say, that set the mood for the rest of the day!!

 

The waiter started our experience with a few Forrest Gump trivia questions:

What was Forrest's favorite drink?

What did Forrest say to JFK when he met him?

That was my little dose of trivia and I answered them correctly....can you?

Cabin Sweet Cabin

I was never so happy to see that cabin as I was at this particular moment. Now that the panic had worn off, we all realized we were utterly and completely famished! It was necessary to re-heat our dinners in the oven since we had taken a little detour with our food. Now that all was back to normal, it was very cozy to be at the cabin with the fire burning and the smell of those ribs permeating the room instead of the trunk of the car. We decided to make it a family night and play some games and watch some movies. Actually, it turned into just watch movies because we couldn't decide which games to play. We should have just brought one game with us so that we didn't have a choice to argue over, but as usual we were well over-prepared and indecisive. It's in our genes!
So, we stayed up late watching movies with plans of sleeping in late, going out for breakfast, maybe taking in a few sites and then heading out of town at a reasonable hour to be home in time for a pre-scheduled dinner engagement with friends. And this was going to be our easy day!
As luck would have it, bright and early the next morning the sun decided to show it's smiling face for the first time since we had arrived in Tennessee. Much to our dismay, that also meant my mother-in-law showed her smiling face with her usual "Goooood Moooorniiiing" (you have to hear it to fully appreciate it) much earlier than promised. Since we are all budding photographers at heart, she felt we needed to get up out of bed and catch some photo ops that included sunshine. She was probably right, although very difficult to admit before the first cup of coffee. So....change of plans.....we had to hurry up and get ready so we could go do the Motor Nature Trail in Gatlinburg which takes several hours. This is a slow, gorgeous drive through the Great Smoky Mountain wilderness on Historic Nature Trail (formerly Airport Road), which turns into the Park's Cherokee Orchard Road. There are many hiking trails along the way where you can see waterfalls, wildlife, the famous rhododendrons and the river running through the trails. This seemed like the perfect place to put our amateur photographic skills to the test, except for just one small problem....it was closed! This Motor Nature Trail happens to be open from early Spring through December 1st. Since this was February, we can only imagine what we got out of bed early to see. Oh well, maybe next time! Here's a picture I grabbed off their website.

Lost in the Woods.......

.....like Hansel and Gretel! That's where we were just moments after retrieving my misplaced credit card from the store. You see, we were curious as to how far we actually were from our cabin (you know, as the crow flies) given it felt like we had traveled in a circle to get where we were (are you confused yet?) so we turned on the GPS. That was our first really bad idea. If you have been following the series at all, you will remember that I mentioned we were forewarned that the GPS might not be very accurate in the mountains. They weren't kidding!!! After leaving the store, we made an immediate right turn onto a small country road that looked pleasant enough, but wasn't exactly easy to find on any map we had in the car. The driver (you remember who that is, right?) was confident that the GPS knew exactly where it was going, so off we went. Keep in mind we are also trying to beat the eerie darkness from getting to the cabin before us. We traveled for a few miles, made a few uneventful, seemed like a good idea at the time turns and there you had it....we were officially lost. One of the many things that I think contributed to our situation was that if a road was "unmarked", the driver was pretty sure that was the road we were supposed to take. The other problem was the GPS did not know her right from her left. I will call it a her just because it spoke so sweetly while telling us to turn left to our death all the while highlighting a right turn on the screen so as not to arise any suspicion on her part. This GPS was very confused (or hateful, I'm not sure which). We decided to pull off the road stop in the middle of the road and reset the system by turning it off and turning it back on, allowing it to clear it's head and think about where the heck we were. That didn't really help. The closer it looked like we got to our destination, the more the GPS wanted us to turn around and go the other way. The scariest part for me was that it seemed we were just going higher and higher, yet not really getting anywhere. At one point my sister-in-law had to get out and walk ahead of the car to make sure we could actually drive where we were headed. I think that is about when some of the panic started to set in, or at least that is when we admitted the panic was setting in. I had felt the tension building for awhile now, especially since I was sitting in the back seat with most of it. After a few more times of foolishly going where the GPS suggested, we actually got close to the road the cabin was on. You could see the road from where we were, but you couldn't exactly get to it. If only we had a 4-wheel drive, a pair of bolt cutters and a few pairs of hip waders we would be home free. We didn't have any of those things therefore we were left to stare longingly at the road we wanted to be on, while contemplating going back the way we came, whichever way that was. Good thing those bears were hibernating because our trunk still had our carry out rib dinners from Damon's Grill that were permeating the air around us. Had it been Spring, we would have been followed and eaten for sure. I won't bore you with the twists and turns and nice words that we used to get down the mountain and finally back to our cabin one and a half hours later (some shortcut). Just rest assured we made it, despite ourselves and our helpful little GPS system, and we lived to tell about it....obviously!

After looking at our trek on Google Earth, it became clear to me where we went wrong. It was that first right hand turn when we thought it would be a good idea to take a shortcut. I have included a picture of the area with labels on the Arts and Crafts Community and our cabin. Enjoy finding your way from one to another. You can click on the image for a larger view. Happy Trails!

The tale of three cities......

All that fresh mountain air made me sleep like a baby. It really does feel good to get away from it all every now and again. The first thing we did was grab a fresh cup of coffee from the Tassimo machine and head out onto the back deck. Any other season would have been more colorful for photographic purposes, but there was a certain peace and serenity in the mountains that morning that was easily captured by the camera.

   

It was very quiet and very still (I swear I'm gonna call Stephen King), almost like every living thing was just waiting for Spring. The woods were filled with wild rhododendrons just waiting for a sign that it was time to bloom. I can only imagine the beauty that overtakes this area when the weather warms up a bit, but for now, it is still winter. The bears are hibernating and thankfully so were the snakes. Don't get me wrong, I love bears.....but from a distance.....or stuffed. Snakes, I am not as fond of and was very happy not to have to look out for them while I was crawling through the wooded paths in search of an unsecured Internet connection with hubby's new iTouch. It takes me awhile to acclimate to my environment and I was so craving access to my blog life. Luckily, we also took the camera on my search for civilization and came up with a few nice shots.

   

It didn't take long for the peace and quiet to end, moments actually. It was apparently time to go on our daily trek down the mountain and see some sites. My mother-in-law had a few specific things she wanted to see and when she sets her mind to something, well let's just say, there was a reason she was doing the driving. She probably wouldn't get to do anything she wanted to do if she didn't have us all trapped in the car like rats headed in the direction of her own agenda. Hopefully when she gets done curling her nose up at this remark, she will laugh because she knows I am right!

At this point I am still hoping to catch a glimpse of Gatlinburg, although I am realizing that there is a fine line between Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Even the GPS got confused. I told you about some of the exciting attractions in Sevierville, but you may recognize Pigeon Forge as the home of Dollywood, Dolly Parton's Great Smoky Mountain Family Amusement Park. At first I thought this to be a little hokey (even though I am a huge fan of Dolly's singing), but I am finding out that hokey is part of the fun around these parts! Dollywood offers rides and attractions like rollercoasters and kiddie rides. There is also shopping, crafts, shows, and many special events including Five of the South's Largest Festivals. The dining experience is renowned at Dollywood with it's famous southern cooking and choice of venues. We did not actually go to Dollywood this time around, but I think I might suggest it for next time. I hate to admit it, but it sounds like fun.

We were headed to a place called Alewine Pottery that had caught someone's eye on a TV ad. We were finally headed to Gatlinburg so I was cool with this plan. We drove down the road a piece (about 4 miles) and lo and behold there it was....Gatlinburg. I was just starting to see a few stores and hotels and some more cabins on the ridge, when we hung a left and were headed back out of town again. Everything for the next few miles was all about goods and wares crafted by local artisans. A unique characteristic of Gatlinburg are the craftsmen who demonstrate their special talents and skills. An historic 8-mile loop has been designated as Tennessee Heritage Trail. Established in 1937, the artisans whittle, paint, sew, weave and carve to create original collectibles.

After making our way through the arts and crafts village, we decided that we would pick up an awesome BBQ rib dinner from Damon's Grill and head back up to the cabin before dark and enjoy a little family time with games and movies. This time it was me who threw a wrench in our otherwise grand plan. When it came time to pay for our carry out meal, I realized that while running my mouth in a cute little store where I bought a cute little stuffed alpaca bear, I forgot to get my credit card back from the merchant. In a little bit of a panic, we hurried back to the store to retrieve my card. This set us back about a half an hour which made getting back to the cabin by dark almost a problem. So, we decided to take a short cut.........with the help of the GPS.........in the mountains.......

The Gatlinburg Cabin.....in Pigeon Forge

We finally got off the "main drag" and headed through some pretty authentic Tennessee hills in search of our sight unseen cabin. We had a map (I use this term loosely), my mother-in-law was driving and my sister-in-law was navigating all while using a Garmin GPS system that we were informed might be a little sketchy in the mountain areas. We were all set, don'tcha think? Did I mention it was almost dark?
The roads were thin, wet, steep, and mis-labeled, but, believe it or not, we only made 2 or 3 wrong turns before finding the cabin. These cabins are controlled by lock boxes with key codes that are provided by the rental agency. We tried several times to unlock this lock box so as to retrieve the key to the door before being eaten by any stray hungry critters. No luck, we were idiots! Couldn't even work the key box, now what? While some of us were looking to see if there was yet another way into this place, others of us were looking at the picture and saying "this cabin doesn't look like the one in the picture". Of course it doesn't because we were at the wrong cabin. So, we backed out of this steep, thin, wet drive only to discover that we had driven right by our cabin in search of someone else's cabin. This was quite typical of us and we were actually quite proud that we did this well without any real event to speak of, so keep that in mind.
We had no trouble operating the correct key box and entering the correct cabin....

Only kidding.................
This is actually our cabin and it was gorgeous. The map says it is in Sevierville. the GPS says it is in Pigeon Forge, and I thought it was in Gatlinburg, but hey, we found it anyway!

You can tell from the picture why they call them the Smoky Mountains. It is very misty with a Stephen King kind of setting going on during the winter months. Wouldn't be up here alone, I'll tell you that much! The cabin was very cozy and inviting and I could've stayed a week in front of the fire or in the beautiful king size bed with the homemade quilts. There was a hot tub out on the back deck that was also very inviting. I could picture myself sitting in front of the window, watching it snow while the fire was burning and I was writing my memoirs blog. Only problem...NO INTERNET ACCESS!

On The Road Again....

It didn't take me long before I realized that particular Cracker Barrel wasn't that special. There just happens to be one located at every exit in Tennessee to meet all your hunger needs, anytime of day.

Usually I dread a long drive when I am riding in the back seat, but I settled in with hubby, the Tassimo machine and my trusty iPod and I was all set. It only seemed appropriate to listen to some country tunes while traveling through the hills of Tennessee. When in Rome......ha, ha! After a few songs I was definitely in the mood for this country adventure. There was just one thing I realized - folks in Tennessee do not do anything as fast as Gretchen Wilson sings. Maybe I should have brought some Merle Haggard instead.

The drive actually flew by since all the scenery was fresh and new to me. I kept myself busy trying to get a good picture of an old barn along the side of the road. I think they make the coolest pictures no matter what the season. Well, I don't care who you are, it is hard to take a picture from the back seat of a car while you're moving, but that didn't stop me from trying.

As we grew nearer to our destination, I never really saw a road sign leading to Gatlinburg. What I did see was Sevierville, TN. which I had never heard of and I didn't think sounded very inviting. Upon our arrival in Sevierville, I began to understand that this was the "Tourist Trap Capitol" of Tennessee. There were restaurants, souvenir shops, museums, attractions and just all around "goin's-on" for as far as you could see. Some of the attractions that Sevierville offers include the Black Bear Jamboree Dinner & Show, Cirque de Chine, Floyd Garrett Muscle Car Museum , Smoky Mountain Deer Farm & Riding Stables and don't forget to check out Wonder Works, an amusement park for the mind with over 100 hands-on exhibits plus the Hoot N' Holler Dinner Show. We, however were there for the 2 main attractions....the Tanger Outlets and The Apple Barn Cider Mill and General Store. I have to admit I was anxious to see The Apple Barn. I like apples and just about all things apple related. This place had apple everything, along with a restaurant that brings apple fritters and apple juleps to the table before even taking your order. The Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant has undeniable country charm and homestyle country cookin'. My mother-in-law made sure to pick up a few "fried apple pies" for breakfast the next morning, just in case.

Now I won't bore you with the Outlet Mall because as soon as my mother-in-law could not find what she came for, it apparently lost all it's appeal. We weren't there very long. We finally made our way towards our cabin as it was getting late and we didn't want to be cabin hunting in the dark. We figured we would get settled in and then go out for dinner afterwards. At this point I am still wondering where exactly Gatlinburg is, but I was pretty sure we would see it eventually, even from the back seat........

Gatlinburg here we come..........

Except for that 5 minutes into the trip we decided to stop for breakfast. We aren't exactly the world's most efficient travelers, but hey, we were hungry. We pulled into everyone's favorite southern fried restaurant, Cracker Barrel where they serve gravy as a beverage for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (They don't really, but it is a family joke so I had to throw it out there.) I have spent my fair share of time in the "South", but I never managed to be near a Cracker Barrel during eatin' time so I was pretty intrigued by "ye old homestead" ambiance that was rocking on the front porch. Just the smell of the place makes you want to live on a farm, raise your own chickens, churn your own butter, and milk your own cows.......okay, maybe not quite that bad, but it did give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. The menu offered a lot of everything including eggs, bacon, sausage, assorted potatoes, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, flapjacks (that's pancake to the rest of the world) and you know it......grits!!!! Now I know all you Californians out there think breakfast consists of granola and yogurt and some fancy named decaf latte, but let me tell you that you haven't lived until you have had real southern biscuits and gravy with some grits and flapjacks on the side. The coffee wouldn't be right either if it didn't come with the usual dose of good ol' southern hospitality, which loosely translated means that as soon as you get it fixed just right with equal amounts of cream and sugar, the waitress tops it off for you and you have to start all over.

After stuffing ourselves like Thanksgiving turkeys, we ventured into the gift shop. That's right, your meal is so memorable you need to pick up a souvenir to commemorate the experience. There are jellies and jams, country crafts, and homemade quilts. I could've spent all day in there, but like I mentioned before, we had bigger fish to fry and need to get out of Nashville and on our way to Gatlinburg. I am so glad we stopped though because who knows when I will see another Cracker Barrel.........

Getaway to Gatlinburg

Before I was so rudely interrupted by my  Las Vegas adventure, I started to tell you about my travels to Tennessee. Well, lets get back to the hills of Tennessee for a much more relaxing experience.
We arrived in Nashville late due to some unexpected delays on Delta as mentioned in my previous post Delta Disappoints. We were picked up at the airport by my in-laws and spent the night at my sister-in-law's town home in Nashville. We didn't really have time to tour Nashville on this visit, because we had bigger and better things to explore beginning bright and early the next morning.
I was under the impression we were just spending a few nights in a cabin up in the mountains, but by the looks of the packed trunk of my mother-in-law's car we were prepared for a month long pilgrimage. She is the queen of snack food and by God we had it all! We had to take the case of bottled water and stuff individual bottles in the spaces between the chips and canned chili. We had games to play, movies to watch, books to read and enough camera equipment to go on an expedition with. We even managed to get a few clothes and a change of underwear squeezed into the backseat between hubby and me, along with the Tassimo  machine and the laundry detergent. Keep in mind this is a 2 night trip. Despite all the crap we had managed to pack into the car, we were all looking forward to this peaceful outing in the wilderness. Now,when I say wilderness, or cabin, I am afraid many of you may get the wrong idea and think that I am roughing it in a cabin with just a wood burning fireplace for heat and an outhouse with a resident snake. Nope, not me! My mother-in-law rented us a gorgeous 3 story, 3 bedroom, 3 bath log home in the hills of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. She booked this cabin online with American Patriot Getaways which had many great cabins to choose from. Being the spoiled rotten travelers that we are, we opted for the cabin with the view and the hot tub on the deck. Our cabin was called Smoky Mountain Mist and we were anxiously awaiting our arrival there. Unfortunately, we had about 3 to 4 hours of driving ahead of us first............

Travelin' to Tennessee

We are off to Tennessee tomorrow morning. I actually bought my tickets online through Travelocity and we will be traveling on Delta Airlines connecting in Atlanta. Believe it or not, I have never traveled on Delta and I am very excited to see what they have to offer. After all, since I plan to be a famous "Travel Critic" someday, I better start paying attention to detail while I am actually traveling. I usually use travel time to completely zone out, but this time everyone better be on their toes, because here comes Annie, the soon-to-be much feared Travel Critic. (Okay Jay, you can stop laughing now!!) My hubby calls me "Annie Ego", after the not so beloved food critic, "Anton Ego" from Disney's Ratatouille.

The main focus of the trip is to visit family in Nashville, but we will all be headed to the Great Smoky Mountains for some much needed R&R in a beautiful cabin in the woods. How cool is that? This is also going to be one of those trips where we try to implement our amateur photographic abilities and get some really great pictures. So, I am being told I will be out of touch this weekend as there is no Internet access available up at the cabin. We shall just see about that!!! Isn't there a Starbucks like every 100 feet now?