Dollywood

Who needs Hollywood when you got Dollywood.

It is really out of season here for climbing as even this early in the spring the heat and humidity are almost too much for me. I forgot that this kind of weather makes me very lethargic, oh yeah and there are lots of insects that seem to be eating me!

However, I am loving The South for many reasons but one in particular is because I got to visit Dollywood. What else is a girl to do with some free time?

My friend Justin, who hails from Sevierville, the home of Miss Parton, very kindly gave me a free ticket as his Mum works for Dollywood marketing. Southern hospitality, awesome!

As far as theme parks go Dollywood was pretty top notch and she gives a huge amount back to the local community etc, which is more than can be said for Disney. The piped music of good 'ole Dolly singing is much more pleasing to the ear than crappy Disney tunes. Granted I have only been to Euro Disney, and the French, well they are just not Disneyish.

Anyway that is all by the by, I had a great day out in the Dollywood hills and loved every minute of it.

One of the most fascinating parts of the day was the Dolly museum, which was jam packed with memorabilia. There were many displays of the clothes she has worn over the decades and it is not until you see these up close that you realise how tiny she actually is. I am led to believe that if Barbie was an actual human being she would not be able to walk due to the proportions of her body, well, Dolly must be some kind of super human because when you see her proportions on a mannequin doll it is quite fascinating to say the least.

25th Anniversary of Dollywood this year

Inspired. Thanks Dolly.

This is Cinderella a 110 tonne steam engine.

The Station

Choo Choo!

Oh Yeah!

Teaching used to be such a respectable profession

Sweet

Mmm, No.

It is a big closet

I was told by one of the very pleasant members of staff that Dolly will actually be in Dollywood next week with Kenny Rogers. I was just about to rearrange all my plans for a return visit when she mentioned that Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus were also going to be there. I changed my mind. Apparently the film is for the Hallmark channel if anyone gets to view that.

All photographs by Caroline Harvey

Utah to Tennessee

Utah road

All the photographs in this post were taken with my point and shoot that still has dust on the lens hence the dark splodge in the middle of the sky sometimes. They were also mostly taken through the windscreen with one hand, all completely safe though! So apologies if they are not the best quality.

My last few days at Joe's were not as full of climbing as I had hoped due to bad weather. On Wednesday 28th April I drove to Salt Lake City to give a friend back a crash pad I had borrowed. I needed a rest day so it was a good opportunity to get a short reprieve from Orangeville. The drive was fairly unadventurous apart from the snow that had started to fall on the high passes. I arrived at Steven's about midday and asked if he would mind if I stayed over rather than drive the 2 and a half hours back in the dark and the snow. He said yes so I thought I would just drive back in the morning and get 2 last days before leaving on the Saturday for Tennessee. I woke the next morning to about 3 inches of snow covering my car and it was still falling. I stayed an extra day. He has a very comfy sofa so I was not complaining. I occupied my time in SLC helping him with a 5ooo piece jigsaw that he was in the middle of doing and caught up with his usual funny stories.

I travelled back to Joe's on the Friday hoping to try and finish off a couple of problems I was getting close to completing, but alas by the time I got there snow was in the sky again and it was very windy, so the rock felt very moist and no good for the friction I needed. So once again I have unfinished business in Utah.

A very cold Saturday arrived and it was time to hit the road again. I set off towards Colorado, a road that I have driven a few times now so I knew where I was going and I expected some snow on the passes through Aspen and Vail which are both above 10,000 feet. I was right, there was snow but the roads were clear so the drive was not too stressful. I was only going as far as Boulder on the first day so it was a relatively short 8 hours. I was staying at another friends house, sadly he was out of the country but he very kindly let me sleep in his bed.

Colorado snow

More Colorado snow

I set off early Sunday morning and was just going to drive as far as I could. I managed 12 hours and got all the way through Kansas and 50 miles into Missouri.

The drive through Kansas was not very exciting a very long straight road and with not much to look at. I was hoping for a yellow brick road to follow but sadly the roads were just gray with a yellow line along the edge. The impression I am left with from driving through Kansas is, that it is very flat and basically just one big farm. Clearly a very religious state with many billboards telling me Jesus lives, weeps and can be trusted. I believe these are traits that apply to many people other than Jesus but nobody else seemed to get a mention. They also seem to be extremely pro life.

No yellow bricks to be seen.

lots of flatness

Did not stop to meet the Tin man.

Jesus is real apparently

Next was Missouri, very similar landscape and billboards to Kansas, it just took less time to cross. They did have a town called Emma so not all bad.

A slight hill, whoopie.

Emma has moved from Leith.

Indiana, thankfully was less dull to look at and had beautiful trees and fields of yellow rapeseed. It was strange to actually smell scents in the air again, there are surprisingly few in Utah and these smells reminded me of home which was comforting. It was starting to get hot though and my lovely Saturn does not have the luxury of air con so I was melting slightly. My impression of Indiana is that they are still fairly religious and pro life but on the other hand also like their adult stores. They also have a large number of very large firework stores. Weird. There is a town called Santa Claus in Indiana, or at least I think it was a town maybe now I think about it Santa might live here in the Summer months to get away from the cold...

Trees

Colour

Santa Claus

Not too much in Kentucky fairly similar to Indiana, although I did hit Louisville at rush hour which was lots of fun, I had to change gear and everything.

I also passed London, Manchester, Livingston and Birdseye.

131 miles to go.

Then finally Tennessee. Yippee. It was mostly dark so I assumed it was pretty similar to Kentucky. I arrived in Knoxville about 10pm and found a motel for the night. Sweet.

The next morning I was meeting Matt and Justin, the very nice Southern boys who persuaded me to come visit the South, and we went to a local crag called Obed where we did some sport climbing. I managed to lead a couple of routes which I was quite proud of as I have not been on a rope in a long time. I did get pumped by about the 2nd bolt but it was good fun to do more than the standard 6 to 10 moves of a boulder problem. The day concluded with a trip to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and margaritas. Happy days.

The only thing that annoyed me about driving all those miles was the mother truckin tail gaters. People will actually drive 2 feet from the back of your car on a 2 laned open road where they can over take and not just car drivers either the huge trucks do it too. I may have sworn a few times, but hey they will just think that I am some slow Canadian driver.

So far I am loving the South it is a sea of green lovliness.

More soon.

Peace x

Just in case any of you ever need directions from Utah to Tennessee here they are;

I - 70 East

I - 64 East

I - 75 South

Done.