For Christmas, I got Grant a trip to the one place he has been dying to go, but that I always said “no” to. Wilmington, North Carolina. Or as Grant likes to call it, “Tree Hill, NC.” With the entire world to be able to see you may be wondering— why in the world Grant would want to go there? It is home to Screen Gems, which has produced some of his favorite TV shows including One Tree Hill and Dawson’s Creek as well as the latest Scream movies and many others.
JJ in Charlotte to JJs in Tennessee the JJ’s Know Best
As we deplaned from our American flight to Charlotte, our very unpleasant seatmate at the window called his mother (or only someone that could love him) to dive into a deep tantrum about how little the seats were on this flight. I snickered to myself thinking— this crybaby is complaining about the space in this seat... I could only imagine what he would be like on a Spirit flight. It did serve as a sharp reminder that each person has their perspective and people will view each situation differently.
With this in mind— Grant and I thought Charlotte was a bit vanilla. We had heard amazing things about North Carolina and had big expectations, but this particular part of the state just didn’t match up. We checked into our hotel courtesy again of Roger Sissom our sponsor/benefactor. This time we were able to get a suite so we were living the high life.
Upon checking-in to our hotel, we met JJ. A spunky desk agent who had an opinion about everything. He told us where we needed to go, what we should eat, and if prompted would have told us how to walk. We asked for restaurant recommendations, which was our downfall. He gave us a crazy piece of paper with red dots all over it ranking restaurants and we went to his favorite— Mert’s Heart and Soul. Afterward, we were told to check in with him again to give us a review. Followed by in the morning when we get up to speak with him to get direction for his other favorite. Grant said it was like he was an RA at a dorm.
Following dinner, we wandered around Charlotte’s downtown. I am not sure if something was happening in the city, but we were greeted with security guards and fluorescent lights everywhere. It was the best lit city we had ever been to. I don’t think the city thought about photos when making this decision as none of them came out well because of this excess lighting. We checked back in with JJ on our return and called it a night.
The next morning we got up and grabbed breakfast based on JJ’s suggestions. The city is clean and beautiful, but missing that wow factor. There seems to have been some fun water activities to do so we may have to return when it’s a bit warmer. Tennessee was calling so we jumped in the car and floored it out of town.
The real surprise on this trip was Gatlinburg. Thankfully Rachel and Emily Newman reminded us about this city as it did make the trip. Our original plan was to head straight to Pigeon Forge where we had tickets to Dollywood, but this small tourist trap is a must-do. Want to go to Ripley’s Believe It or Not— cool there are 8 different ones here. Want to go up high to look at the surrounding view— take your choice with a ski lift, aerial tram, space needle, helicopter, etc. Tip for this area: park and walk. Get your steps in. But be sure to park on the outskirts of town or else you are going to be stuck in traffic coming in and going out. The locals in traffic are extremely friendly in these parts and talk to pedestrians and they move by.
One of the most do things in this area was to stop at Ole Smokey Moonshine Distillery. They have a few spots throughout the area and of course, I convinced Grant to try a few sips. We were greeted by our bartender who also happened to be named JJ who poured Grant 7 different sips of booze. I think his favorite was the salted caramel whiskey and the mango habanero whiskey. They didn’t have a sample size so we couldn’t bring any back.
Time got away from us due to the unexpected traffic so we only got to walk half of it. We hopped back in the car and drove the rest of the way to Pigeon Forge. On the way from Charlotte, Grant and I wrestled with the idea of going to a show and due to limited capacity and availability, we settled on Pirates Voyage (think MidEvil Times with pirates). The show was Arggh-ful, but I think that’s kind of the point. It was fun watching the acrobatics and divers, but the story got lost midway through. Our “scarlet side” did prevail so we do have some bragging rights.
We bolted a smidge before the show officially ended because we still had the main attraction to go to— Dollywood. With traditional theme parks and haunted houses closed we decided to try and go somewhere that was a) open, and 2) had some sort of Halloween theme. Dollywood was celebrating the Great Pumpkin LumiNights so the park was decked out with some spectacular pumpkin displays. There were a lot of people in the park, but that was expected since it was Halloween. They allowed people to wear costumes so that was fun seeing those that participated wander around. We stayed and rode rides up until the close and then called it a night.
With daylight savings time and falling back an hour, we got to sleep in an extra hour, but not lose out on adventure time. Our first stop in the morning was the Old Mill Restaurant. Prepare for a long wait, but the food is well worth it. I would recommend getting there at 10:15 am and put your name down for lunch and get brought in at 11:00 am. Thankfully we made nice with the hostess Jan Jones (JJ x3) and she switched us from breakfast to lunch. Both Grant and I devoured the pot roast and chicken fried steak. Don’t expect substitutions at this place as they are by the menu, but that’s a good thing.
Since we didn’t finish Gatlinburg we wanted to make sure we got back over there first thing before our flight out of Knoxville. As you travel south between the cities you are going through the Great Smoky Mountains and its national park. The setting was amazing as the leaves had started to turn and so we stopped for a bit to breathe in the mountains and have leaves fall on our heads.
Once in Gatlinburg again, Grant was like a kid in a tacky candy store and wanted to do several of the silly touristy things there. The ski lift to the longest suspension bridge in North America was the first one we agreed up and so we boarded the lift and walked across the bridge. If your scared of heights this might be a bit of a challenge, but for those that can stomach it is rewarded with aerial views of the city and mountains. The next stop was an earthquake simulator. Why an ape was in a subway I will never know. Then finally we stopped at Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. Lots of the walkthrough was completely in the dark and would have made it terrifying for a kid to do. Thankfully we only act like kids and made it out unscathed.
The final leg of our trip was Knoxville so we mustered what leg strength we had and crawled to the car. It was not long until we were there and had no idea what to do. The research on this trip was a bit spotty, but our go-to is always to just hop on a scooter and just go wherever the scooter takes us. Grant loved that the main street in the city was Gay Street and kept snapping photos of any sign that mentioned it. After scooting for a while we ventured to the University of Tennessee Knoxville area before timing out and leaving for the airport.
Each person is entitled to their perspective. Some people will find Charlotte to be an exciting place; some people will find Gatlinburg excessive and trashy, but there is no denying that we are going home to the best city of them all—San Diego. Now where to find a JJ in this city?