As a result, they opened the dam without warning and flooded Nashville and the surrounding area. The river rose 53 feet in a mater of hours. I was told over twenty people died and the property damage was was in the billions. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel, Opryland itself and the huge shopping mall were all flooded to at least 4 feet. Nashville itself was flooded all the way to 4th Avenue in the downtown area. The KOA were we stayed was also flooded to at least 5 feet and many RVs were lost. It has taken a year to reopen some of the area, and the Opryland shopping mall will not reopen until next Spring. Thought you might be interested in this bit of history - your government at work for you!
We bid farewell to Joe and Jerri in Nashville on Thursday morning and headed East on I40 toward Knoxville. Our destination, about 40 miles Southeast of Knoxville, was Sevierville, TN and the Two Rivers Landing RV Resort. We arrived around 1:00 and checked in. The resort is about 5 years old and is very nice
with wide concrete pads and a wonderful view of the French Broad river.
The RV park is directly behind the Smokey Mountain Knife Works, and about about 3 miles from Sevierville, 7 miles from Pigeon Forge and a few more miles from Gatlinburg. The whole area is full of "tourist" attractions; everything from helicopter rides to zip line rides to Dollywood, to the ubiquitous Ripley's. The traffic is very heavy to say the least.The first night we headed for the Knife Works, what a place. They have every type and size of knife imaginable, plus a whole lot of other stuff. The walls are covered with stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes including a bull elephant. Not having a great need for a knife, or the head of a bull elephant, we headed off to a nearby Ruby Tuesday's (no Applebees in sight) for "happy hour" and to chat with the locals about the area. Later, we settled down for a quiet evening at the coach - little did w know! About 1:20 am the thunder and lightening began, and of course Dixie went apoplectic! This lasted, along with pelting rain, in closely spaced waves all night until 5:30 am. Let me just say that the sound of a pelting rain in a motorhome is not the same as rain on the roof at home. but I must say that there is something about thunder in mountain valleys that is majestic - at least to me, not Dixie or Suz. Majestic or not, there was not much sleep to be had what with the noise and Dixie.
On Friday, we groggily headed into Pigeon Forge for lunch and to stock up at the local WalMart. Later, we decided to spend the evening at home, sitting on the lawn in front of our coach. The view is great as you can see,
and later in the evening, the sunset was gorgeous. 
On Saturday morning, I visited the local Coleman outlet to see what gear they had - wow! Then it was off to the adjacent Tool Warehouse to browse the tools - double wow! After that, I took care of a few cores around the coach - there's always something - then Suz and I headed off to lunch and another visit to WalMart. It seems that I bought the wrong coffee and we had to return it, plus we had forgotten a few things. Later I cleaned up the grill and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the area (at least where we are!). This evening we are going to relax at the coach and enjoy the scenery.
Beyond Gatlinburg is what most come to experience - Smokey Mountain National Park. Spectacular. Highway 441 runs from I40 through the park to Cherokee in North Carolina, not far from Maggie Valley, our next destination. The road is a motorcyclists dream, but not recommended for a motorhome, at least not one carrying Suzanne! Many switchbacks and tight turns. As a result, we will be heading back onto I40 and circumventing the park when we leave tomorrow. The trip is about 90 miles the way we are going, so there will be no rush in the morning. Given the traffic on the North side of the park, we will try to tour the park from the South side from our base in Maggie Valley. We'll see how that goes. Until then, Cheers!
John, Suz and Dixie the Wonderdog.
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