A Day To Relax

When we were at Dollywood we saw a sign that made me laugh and nudge Rich. "Aunt Granny's Country Buffet" serves fried bologna! This has been an ongoing disagreement since we got married. Rich says he has never heard of anyone ever eating fried bologna while I on the other hand say everyone eats fried bologna. Every time I would cook this, he would just shake his head. I have explained it has to be cooked just right—at a slow temperature til it gets a bit crispy but not burnt. He has never appreciated the fine art of cooking bologna.

Aunt Granny's Restaurant

I made a little headway when the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" came out and the father asks the mom to pull out the bologna cake. But, this little restaurant has finally vindicated me after all these years.

So we got up early to get to the park before it opened and had breakfast at "Aunt Granny's." Since we were first in line at the gate we began to talk to the lady at the front and we explained our errand and disagreement. She was on my side and even told us that when they bring in the fried bologna sandwiches to the employee lounge the word spreads fast and there is a rush to get them. Yes, everyone loves fried bologna sandwiches. While we were entering the restaurant Rich asked the hostess out front if she were Aunt Granny, she explained that Dolly is Aunt Granny.

Part of the menu from Aunt Granny's

David has always shared my love for fried bologna and always asks why daddy doesn't like it. Well, it's a good thing they make lots of food because David really chowed down on the bologna and other food. Rich didn't have any bologna but there was lots of other good food for him to enjoy.

We hadn't planned on riding the rides yesterday since the previous day Rich's knees were bothering him. David even complained about how his legs hurt because they were so tired. I on the otherhand felt just fine thanks to my treadmill sessions. So we decided to take it a bit easy. That lasted until after breakfast and the rides kept calling David, please ride me. So we headed to the midway and rode a few rides several times before heading over to take some pictures and buy a few gift items we had spotted the day before. Our early day at the park lasted until after lunchtime.

One of the Lid'l Dolly's dressmakers

Then we headed to a leather shop to buy a gift for David for Christmas. Then we had to buy a Lid'l Dolly dress. These dresses are old fashioned ruffled dresses in pretty colors and lots of bows. We bought one many years ago before David was born for our little girl. It was eventually given away since she turned out to be a he baby. We also bought my neice one of these dresses. Now that our good friends the McKinley's are about to have a baby we wanted to pick one up and stash it away. If it is a boy then we will have to hold on to it until they have a baby girl.

Choosing just the right dress

The store is set up in the front with quilts, dresses, purses and pillows but in the back Monday through Friday you can watch them making these beautiful items. All the work is done by ladies sitting at sewing machines, no big mass production here. A had to buy a wonderfully intricate baby quilt and lap quilt. The prices are amazingly low and I had a 10% off coupon from an ad I picked up at the hotel.

We ate at Fuddruckers, which is a place I love. Then I found a scrapbook store that I could buy my Tennessee scrapbook items at.

Dollywood central fountain

When we got back to the hotel the guys headed to the pool and I headed for the laundry (yuck!) I hated having all these dirty clothes piling up and the thought of waiting until we got home sent me into action. I wasn't the only mom who had this bright idea. Just as I was taking my clothes out of the washer another mom was bringing hers in. There are only two washers and dryers and one of the dryers wasn't working. So I explained this to the lady. She told me "Well, I used to work in the hotel industry and I'm going to go to the desk and give them a piece of my mind." Since there were more clothes in the one dryer I told her it would take more then one cycle for ours to get done since I had washed two loads. As she was loading her clothes into the two washers another mom came in with her dirty clothes. She wasn't happy that someone beat her to the machines.

Dollywood's "Friendship Path"

As it came near to the time the second lady's clothes were due to finish washing, I sat outside of the laundry room. Sure enough she showed up just as her wash cycle was done (which was still 20 minutes before my dry cycle was done.) She said she thought she saw me take my clothes out already. I explained I had taken some of the dry ones out to allow the others to dry quicker but it would still be a while. She then told me the front desk hadn't heard the last of the situation since her husband was going to give it to them when they checked out the next morning.

The weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms this afternoon, but that's what they said for yesterday and we had wonderful weather. The plan at this point is to head to the water park and see if we can keep from burning today.