Last Minute Trip

We have a trip to Tennessee planned later in the year with the Wills. And, we decided it would be a good idea to do a preview. Initially, we were going to come up over the long Memorial Day weekend and go to Dollywood. Then, somehow it turned into (almost) a week's vacation. We are doing some of the things we won't be able to do when the weather is colder and some things we will probably want to do more than once. I gave the family a list of options and had everyone rank them 1-8. Then, I averaged out all six of us and this was the family priority list:

1.3-Dollywood (four of us had this at number 1, Kara and Jack ranked it #2. Jack's #1 was ziplining, Kara's was Titanic Museum)
3.3-White water rafting 
4.8-Mountain Coaster
4.5-Titanic Museum 
4.5-Horseback Riding 
5.1-Zip Line
5.1-Splash Country
7.1-Ropes Course

We left on Friday at 6am on the dot. We had picked out breakfast and lunch food to minimize stops and pulled into our rental house at 4pm. The drive was okay. I feel like traffic has definitely gotten worse in the past few years (well, maybe decade). Thomas and I used to make the drive from Virginia to Florida all the time from 2001-2004 and 2007-2009. Then, we made it frequently from Maryland (2009-2019). But, I feel like the east coast is not as fun to drive as it once was.

Anyway, we got the rental house, checked things out and then went to Walmart for supplies. The house is nice and cabin-like. It has a cute barn, mountain views, and a farm across the street.

Sunday, we started the day with horseback riding at Deer Farm Stables. The ride was 45-minutes, so much shorter than the one we did last year in North Carolina, which the kids seemed to prefer. Almost everyone enjoyed it. Kara said she feels bad for the horses and that makes it hard to enjoy the ride. Fortunately, the horses seemed well taken care of, they had a weight limit, and list on their website all the ways they ensure the horses are given a good quality of life (no consecutive rides for example). So, hopefully, the horses are happy enough. My horse, Thor, was exceptionally well-behaved. He didn't require any direction from me. Jack was in front of me and his horse, Black Jack, was much more spirted. It was fun to watch while I relaxed on Thor.

After the horses, we went to our next event--white water rafting. This has been on my bucket list for years! I remember counting down to when the big kids would be old enough and then we had Luke and had to start all over again. The one we went to was for kids 8+ on the Upper Pigeon River. There were class III and IV rapids, but they were pretty quick and it didn't feel too scary. Thomas and Jack sat in the front and they bore the brunt of it. At one point, Jack almost flew off the raft, but Thomas grabbed him. There were a couple of people in our group who did fall out, but fortunately, no Wilsons. I am glad we did it and I would happily do it again, but I think my preference is the nice, relaxing, river float. Thomas and Anna also enjoyed the white water rafting, but said they prefer a relaxing float. Luke thought it was amazing and gave it a 10/10 and Jack and Kara similarly loved it and would prefer it to a lazy float any day of the week. All in all, I think we are off to a good start.

I'm not sure why everyone but Luke is looking worried, maybe because the water was so cold!