It looks like we hit it just right. How lucky are we? This was not planned or even thought of when I made reservations. We are in Pigeon Forge for three weeks just enjoying the area. We got an unexpected “bonus”. Little did we realize we were here in peak leaf season. This past weekend was also light-up night and the whole area is lit up like a Christmas Tree.

It was around 5:30 pm when we packed up the pups to take a ride. We wanted to see the lights after dark. With the time change, sunset was at 5:30 pm. The lights are beautiful but my camera doesn’t do the lights the justice they deserve.

Driving into Gatlinburg we drove under a display of bright lights that let us know we were entering Gatlinburg.

Pigeon Forge has an amusement area called “The Island in Pigeon Forge”. The highlight of this park is their enormous ferris wheel called the “Great Smoky Mountain Wheel”. It’s 200-feet tall, and sits in the center of the park at the foothills of the most visited National Park in the United States – The Great Smoky Mountains. At night, you can see this ferris wheel from miles away.

This amusement area has a huge parking lot. We turned down a major road by mistake and ended up in this parking lot. It was dark and we really had no idea where we were. This huge parking lot was full of parked cars. Little did we know we were in the free parking lot for the amusement park.

We followed the “exit” signs to get out. Below is the road exiting the amusement park’s parking lot.

Many of the major roads leading into Pigeon Forge had a tunnel of lights to drive under.

Many displays of lights lined the roads for miles and miles.

You would never know there is a pandemic. People galore. Cars and traffic on every road. Not a parking space to be had in restaurant and different attraction’s parking lots. Parking lots for show venues like Dolly Parton’s Stampede and the Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud were full as well. We’ve been to both of these dinner shows in past years. This year, with COVID and having the pups with us made us forego dinner shows and attractions like the Titanic.

Here is a nighttime view of the dreaded tunnel. I guess from this picture of the tunnel, it is plenty high for our 5th wheel. Especially in the center. I guess I was worried for nothing when we drove through it with our 5th wheel last week.

Another hurricane called Iota is out there in the ocean. When will the hurricane season end. We will be in Florida on November 24th. Is this something we need to concern ourselves with this winter. The storm below is a category five and will hit central America. Typical hurricane season is supposed to be from June 1 through Nov 30. Nothing is typical in the year 2020.

My morning ritual of drinking my tea as I watch the campground come alive, this morning I notice our camp resort is pretty empty. Not like this past weekend where every site was full. It’s cold this morning and the only activity I see are campers getting ready to leave.

We had a lot of rain here the other day and yesterday had threats of high winds. We had a few gusts of wind but nothing like what the media predicted.

In the middle of the night last night, I awoke to a familiar smell. Why would I say it was familiar? Back before we sold the old homestead, it was a weekly occurrence where we would have a skunk in the yard at night. If it were a night we had the windows open in the house, we would jump out of bed and close the windows before the smell penetrated the whole house. Last night, our windows in the 5th wheel were closed. There was nothing to shut.

God Bless, Stay Safe and Be Kind to Every Kind.