Gatlinburg Bound!!

SURPRISE!! We took a little trip!!

You may or may not remember that last year, for our birthday trip, we went to the Tulip Time festival in Holland, Michigan. We froze the entire weekend. We wore hats and gloves at the beach. We were bundled up in lawn chairs to watch fireworks. And none of the tulips had bloomed because it was too cold. So this year, we decided to head SOUTH for our trip.

So Ryan took a half day off work last Friday, and when he got home, we jumped in the car and headed south. The trip was supposed to take seven hours. Yeah. Try TEN. Ten hours to make a seven hour trip - and we don't even have kids!! Isn't that kind of thing only supposed to happen to potty-training parents??

We blame construction and the misfortune of hitting Cincinnati at rush hour. But I'm excited to tell you about our week, and I thought I'd start with the trip, because it had its humorous moments!!!

We were kind of excited for a vacation.

Our first slowdown was in Oxford, Ohio, where our GPS routed us right through the center of town. It's a college town, and it seemed to be graduation weekend. The place was PACKED with tourists in for graduation, parents there to load up their kids' stuff to take it home, and unending construction. But that gave us plenty of time to enjoy this very cool bell tower:

{We also thought it was really cool that downtown, there was a Starbucks next door to a Chipotle, and both were in buildings with apartments above. We decided that would be pretty perfect: to live in an apartment above a Starbucks and a Chipotle. We would never cook. Or have money.}

We found the longest stretch in the midwest with NO McDonald's. Know how we know this? I had to go to the bathroom. You become acutely aware of the lack of fast food on your trail when you need a bathroom. About an hour later...we found one. And of course, there's the obligatory "thanks for the potty" purchase. 

Good thing we found it because the next thing we found was a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng stretch of construction and rush hour traffic.

No worries! It ended eventually, and we got to back to having fun - including car karaoke!

And...this was so cool. Random rainbow. No rain, that we encountered, anyway, but a gorgeous rainbow.

We picked a place we never get to eat {because we don't have one} for our dinner: Chick-Fil-A!!

We didn't linger long at dinner, so a little while after getting back on the road, we decided we wanted coffee. I did a search for the nearest one and found it...as we passed the exit. And apparently, at that point, we were in a Starbucks drought. So we stopped at a McDonald's instead. As we pulled up, so did two tour buses, and out poured DOZENS of military guys. Getting coffee just got comical at that point!

I will say, they did a fast bit of service there, and we got our coffee in no time!!

After getting back on the road, we missed an accident {didn't appear to be a serious one}, and just missed hitting a deer and a FOX. At that point, I just wanted to be there.

Finally, ten hours after leaving home, we rolled into Pigeon Forge, and found our home away from home for the weekend: The Spirit of the Smokies. {Photo taken later, in the daylight hours - in case you weren't sure.}

 Let me give you a quick review, in case you're looking to travel this way. We debated about getting a cabin and doing the whole outdoorsy thing the whole time we were gone, but we booked this so far in advance, there was NO way to know about weather. I hated to book a cabin and then be stuck in rainy weather the entire time and be so far from town that all we would do is drive back and forth. So we decided to stay in town, and after doing some research, we learned that still wasn't very cheap!

Ryan found The Spirit of the Smokies, and we got a good deal, partly because we were staying multiple nights. Some of the condo rooms have bigger kitchens and multiple rooms, but we chose a smaller one. It had two beds and a fridge and microwave, which was enough to keep us going for the weekend. It wasn't the newest hotel in town, and it was a little bit outdated, but it seemed clean, and we were comfortable. We liked it jut fine. We were gone most of the time during the day, and at night, we LOVED sitting out on this balcony, which we later learned had a lovely view of the mountains!

It may have been late at night, but Pigeon Forge was alive and happenin'! Not for the Shaffers, though. We were weary and ready for some SLEEP!!! Because we're vacation party animals that way.