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Dollywood

On Wednesday, after the noontime awards, we went to Dollywood.  We all had a lot of fun but didn't see Dolly - her RV was there though - we assume for the large Fourth of July parade in Gatlinburg on Thursday night! 

I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful flowers there - the posts in the parking lot which were about 50 feet apart all had these beautiful plants hanging from them.  This was taken from the transportation vehicles that drove us to and from the Dollywood park to our cars.

This was the wooden roller coaster on which we all rode.  It was a lot worse than I imagined but a lot of fun for the rest of the crew.  (Actually, it was fun.)

We didn't all go on this Mystery Mine roller coaster - it had several rolls in it that looked like too much for some of us.

The line and wait for this one was longer.

And guess who was in the line waiting.  While they were in line (and we were sitting in the shade as best we could) we saw the Lytch Family, the Isaac Family, the York Family and the Eberle Family.  Dollywood, of course, was a popular place!!!  We also saw members of the Gardner family later.

The ride was too fast for me to really get the picture - the car on the rails had just gone through the area with the two or three rolls - it was like a sideways tornado and fast!

Think this was called the Tennessee Twister or Tornado.  The gang all came running back and told me how much fun it was and no line and before you know it, I was strapped in beside Scherron Lytch.  We were laughing about her saying "What tunnel?" because she had her eyes closed when she went through the tunnel.  She didn't see it the first or second time, but I didn't see any of it - I know I had my eyes closed the whole way - did I neglect to say that I'm not a roller coaster rider?  We all had a great time though and it was fun to share part of the day with other friends from home.  That's the wonderful thing about dance or gymnastics - all the families have a special bond and have great times together.

After the rides, we stopped for a break.  Madi, Kaitlin, India (Kendra's cousin) and Scherron.

Must have been a coke break - Kendra, Madi and Shelly

Kids didn't get to go on this ride - too long of a line. It was like a log ride and, again, too fast to get the log without getting a wet lens and camera.

Kids spotted this snake - first time for me to touch a snake, too.  Didn't bother them a bit though!

We all enjoyed checking out the large birds.  We saw a bit of the bird show with the large vulture and owls, etc.  As I recall, the beautiful eagle was missing a wing.  We also saw 10 - 13 eagles in a very large open area (I'm sure it was enclosed, actually, but we couldn't really see the enclosure part.  At first we thought there were only three eagles in the trees and as we looked around, we saw more and more eagles.

Soon after that, we decided we'd had enough fun and left to go back to the cabin before the park even closed.  We left, after going through the Dolly Gift Shop, that is!  Some in the group were true "Dolly Fans."

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