Do not i repeat DO NOT come to Gatlinburg, TN area on fridays even if you arrive before rush hour. OMG this is the worst traffic i have ever seen-- If i was paying for this trip i would have turned around and gone home. When we turned onto the Hwy that goes thru Seiverville, pigeon forge and Gatlinburg, traffic STOPPED, literally. It took us over an hour to drive 2 miles. Take into consideration i was alone in my jeep with my 19 month old daughter and my 5 yr old son who had just ridden 8 hours to get to Pigeon Forge, Tn to spend the weekend with my parents on a mini vacation they are footing the bill for. OMG. I will never do this again-- never ever ever. This place is horrible with traffic. I have never seen anything like it. Just a guage of how slow we moved traffic wise... my jeep has a counter that pretty accuratly tells you how many miles you have left on the gas that currently in your tank. When we turned onto the road it said i had 130 miles to go-- over a quarter of a tank of gas. We had to drive 9 miles. After 2 hours and only going 3.75 miles i had to stop and get gas before i ran out literally. My jeep was beeping at me telling me i had 15 miles to empty. OMG i used a quarter of a tank of gas to drive 3.75 miles in 2 hours. Thats with no a/c or anything running except the engine. it slacked up some today but when we "tried" to go to one of the outlet malls-- we got stuck in non moving traffic again, not to the extent of last nite but it was close. Tonite was better-- we got caught in some very slow moving traffic going up the mountain into Gatlinburg but that was right as we were entering the city of gatlinburg. I will just warn everyone now, dont come unless you get here friday morning or earlier in the week. We are leaving in the morning around 6 am to hopefully get a jump on the traffic. The time change has messed my kids up so they were up at 5 am this morning and my son went to bed at 6 pm tonite. UGHHH. Its gonna be a shorter ride home due to going a different way and its not as traveled either so hopefully it will be a much easier ride.
Remind me not to take any more trips for the rest of the month or at least until after christmas.
OTOH-- Gatlinburg area is great-- i highly recommend it for people with kids who can walk on their own and dont require afternoon naps. Its not for crowd o phobic people either. OMG there are people everywhere. Ohh and the "outlet" malls, LMAO that was a joke-- the prices were the same if not more than regular stores of the same brand. Food is good as is the Dixie Stampede. Well worth seeing the Dixie Stampede though, I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of age-- My 19 mo old daughter was getting into it good. My son enjoyed it too-- the food there is excellent too.
No pictures of my trip :*( i was hoping to get pics of the mountains but between the traffic and all the people there were never any opportunities.
Remind me not to take any more trips for the rest of the month or at least until after christmas.
OTOH-- Gatlinburg area is great-- i highly recommend it for people with kids who can walk on their own and dont require afternoon naps. Its not for crowd o phobic people either. OMG there are people everywhere. Ohh and the "outlet" malls, LMAO that was a joke-- the prices were the same if not more than regular stores of the same brand. Food is good as is the Dixie Stampede. Well worth seeing the Dixie Stampede though, I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of age-- My 19 mo old daughter was getting into it good. My son enjoyed it too-- the food there is excellent too.
No pictures of my trip :*( i was hoping to get pics of the mountains but between the traffic and all the people there were never any opportunities.
