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Saturday, June 9, 2012

Day 1 - Ouch!

Our target today was to land at Walden Creek Campground in Pigeon Forge. We got off around 10:30 and joined the crowd on the road to the Ocoee Whitewater Center. The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) releases water from upstream lakes on the weekends so there will be whitewater on the Ocoee during the summer. As we drove past, we decided we will make another trip here in July to watch from the banks of the Ocoee River.

Our first stop was Cleveland, TN for a late breakfast. Cracker Barrel was the target. Other than a DQ Blizzard or two, this is the first national chain restaurant we visited since we left Texas in February. We knew they would have a place to park in the back parking lot. As it was, we stuck out about 4 feet on both ends of the slot.

After breakfast we headed north on I-75 to Knoxville, TN where I-40 merged with I-75. We continued on I-40 past Knoxville heading for Exit-407. Before we got there, we encountered a sea of red lights. UH-OH! This is not what I expected. The sea of red lights was caused by a rather large crowd getting off at Exit-407.
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We got off the interstate then crawled the 12 miles to Wears Valley Rd in Pigeon Forge. The road construction just cannot keep up with the traffic demands.
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The closer we got to Pigeon Forge, the more we realized this is a larger tourist area than we imagined. We found the Welcome Center, The Smokey Mountain Opry House, Wonderworks, The Titanic, and The Wax Museum. Yep this place smells touristy.
   Tourist Stuff
We finally made our turn on Wears Valley Rd and then on Henderson Spring Rd. Our campground was just down the road a bit. We pulled in, drove to the back where the office was, got registered, then headed back to the front to our site. I made the left turn then heard a very long SCRUNCH. I look back and saw -

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My first thought was, "Where did that truck come from?" That is when I realized I did not make a wide turn. I started to back up but thought I better get out and take a closer look.
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YIKES! This does not look good. I certainly hope we can find the truck driver. Fortunately she was near by and slowly pulled the truck away from the RV. Her truck had a broken taillight and some minor scratching around the light fixture. She acknowledged that tail gate did not latch properly before meeting our RV.
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Our RV got the worse end of the deal. Initial contact with truck's bumper was just below the bottom rear side of the basement cargo door, then a gouge below the utility access panel door, then a deeper gouge that just about took out the stinky slinky storage door, then finally the skin on the bottom front side of the driver's side slide got mangled. Fortunately, the slide rail did not get damaged. I'll get some better photos for tomorrow.
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We got parked and set up. Carol called our insurance folks and explained all the details. While she was doing that, I messed around with positioning the satellite dish. It just could not find satellite 129. I moved the dish around to several places and it just refused to make any contact with 129. I then decided it was time to stop for the day and chill a bit.

Carol found a local restaurant that had pretty good reviews. We enjoyed dinner at Bullfsh Grill. She ordered the Spicy Bullfish Shrimp while I ordered Shrimp and Scallop Pomodori. Carol's shrimp was too spicy for her and mine was pretty bland so she got my shrimp and I got hers. The place was pretty full of families who appear to be tourist.

Here we are nested in Site #2. Tomorrow, I will need to see what I need to secure on the damaged body panels and then take a leisurely drive through the area. We may decide to take in a game of miniature golf. We just have to do something touristy.
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Thanks for stooping by.

5 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about the "ouch" to your rig. I smashed my right outside mirror on my 1st day as a full-timer. Stuff happens. At least no people were injured.

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  2. Always sorry to hear about an owie to the rig. That's no fun at all. Sounds like you're making the best of it.

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  3. Ah yea, the old didn't turn wide enough trauma. Too bad about the damage. It happens to be best of us friend. When Len didn't turn wide enough he managed to separate the back wall about a foot. We could see the living room quite nice from outside.

    Pigeon Forge is good for a one time visit. Really too touristy for us. Do be sure to drive up to Cades Cove.

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  4. OUCH -- been there, done that! Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg are both very touristy. Don't take the RV to Cades Cove -- haven't been there. You can see deer, turkey & bear in the wild -- best time to go is early even around 6:00, but again, do NOT drive the RV -- or at least that's what we've been told. Be safe as you move on down the road.

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  5. Oh, Man! Not good! Maybe that comes with being someplace other than Texas and Oklahoma where you have all the room you want.

    Really glad that the damage is no worse than it appears to be. But, it could still be expensive.

    Based on two of the previous comments on this posting, I now need to research Cades Cove and see if I can find out why one doesn't want to take an RV there.

    Wishing better fortune for you.

    Wow! the verification words are hard to read. Especially the image part.

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