A local ranks his favorite Ice Cream Shops in Gatlinburg Like pancakes, moonshine and go karts, ice cream in Sevier County is big business. From the Old Mill Creamery in Pigeon Forge and the Apple Valley Creamery – part of the Apple Barn Village in Sevierville – to the various premium ice cream purveyors in the Gatlinburg area, the Smoky
It’s easy to take the Dollywood theme park for granted for those of us who grew up with the beloved amusement park practically in our backyards. This is why, for years, I assumed my affinity for Dollywood was likely more biased than anything else. However, I’ve gotten older and expanded my theme park horizons. I realize there’s much more than a
The long-awaited 74,000 sq foot flagship Buc-ee’s Family Travel Center, complete with 120 fueling positions, EV charging stations and a car wash over 250 feet long in Sevier County opened in 2023. And along with the arrival of Buc-ee’s, came the congested traffic. Is Buc-ee’s at Exit 407 a bad idea? It is not. Buc-ee’s is a wonder. But the question we all had was if the infrastructure was
I don’t play the lottery often. However, if the prize gets up to enough money to start getting reported on the news, I’ll give it a chance. There are stories of people who win life-changing amounts of money only to fritter and waste it away. I would like to tell you that I’d be better than that. However, that would
It was the winter of 1988-89 and my stepdad Joe had an idea. He’d buy a pig, have it butchered and we’d have meat in the freezer to last us the winter. Joe was still a relatively new addition to the family. But the transition, I thought, had gone well. Providing for a family was new for Joe. And as a father
Hi. My name is John and I have a parking problem. Well, it’s not so much a parking problem as it is a competition problem. I like to pull into a full parking lot and get the best spot in the lot. I’m also willing to waste a ridiculous amount of time to get it. I say all that to
I’d like to think of myself as a discerning fellow. Certainly, I’d like to think my taste is immaculate, my standards high. Movies, television, music, food, wine, books. It’s nice to think of yourself as having a sophisticated palette for such things, to be refined. I am not those things. It turns out, I’m fairly easy to please fellow. I
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about “Jurassic Park”, Michael Crichton’s classic novel that spawned the multi-billion dollar movie franchise. In particular, a certain conversation in the book. The book was written just as the scientific world was taking a serious reappraisal of the fossil record. And of what dinosaurs would have been like. The dinosaurs they’ve created are quick,
I was a teenager when I moved to my adopted home state. And I was full of opinions and inherited attitudes toward mountain people based on stereotypes propagated through the media. And I didn’t want to be from the mountains. In other words, I didn’t want to be … tacky. I’ve spent a lot of time in small mountain communities,
I was on the road in Phoenix, Arizona for the National Championship between the University of Tennessee and Florida State in January of 1999. From lawns made of rock and painted green to picking breakfast off the citrus trees in the backyard, I was a stranger in a strange land. One day, while my friends were otherwise occupied, I asked