Who Needs Dollywood When You've Got Lightning and Buses?

Day 5- Wednesday, June 15

I know, I'm a slacker, almost a month later, I am finally posting about the rest of our vacation. Well unfortunately, that's what the busiest month at work will do to you. Work's been crazy as we prepare for our big annual User Conference in Las Vegas later this month. Six nights in Vegas for me- oh joy!

So now back to the mountains. On Wednesday, we decided to start the day by hitting the Forbidden Caverns. We wanted to get there early to avoid crowds and we managed to arrive at about 9:30 am or so, after following Mike through the "scenic route". Not sure what was so Forbidden here, maybe the corny jokes or horribly thick TN accent of our tour guide, but either way, we had fun.

The tour lasted about an hour and we saw some pretty cool stuff. After our tour, we headed back to the cabin to rest up a bit, eat some lunch and then hit the waterpark that afternoon.

But just our luck, we arrived to Dolly's Water Country around 2pm or so and by about 3 or 3:30, it was shut down due to lightning in the area. The kids were so disappointed and now everytime we have to leave the waterpark at home (just becuase we are tired or overheated), William asks "is there lightning mommy?"

I have to say, the waterpark was pretty fabulous- very clean, nice variety of rides, great shade and trees all around. It had a fabulous lazy river and even better, three, yes, count them, three separate kids areas. They had one big kids area like you find at most local Hawiian Falls etc., but then a second area further away geared to toddlers. Plus a third area that was fit for all ages under 10 or so. The kids had a ball for the short time we were there. We promised to come back.

So back to the cabin we went where we enjoyed some great family time just sitting on the porch and watching the storm roll in, literally. The clouds were passing right through us. We really loved just taking it easy and enjoying the little show mother nature put on.

We did have a little excitement that night. We heard a lot of commotion coming from outside and discovered the church group across the street had bottomed out their bus and gotten stuck, in the rain no less. After watching them try for almost an hour to get it loose, they must have called a tow service. An hour later, the huge industrial sized tow truck shows up and after another hour, they are finally loose. It made some funny entertainment watching. We did feel bad for all the folks driving up the hill that were completely blocked by the bus and couldn't go up to their cabin.

Tonight's dinner was tacos cooked in. All in all a good day, capped by the fun thunderstorm with a front row seat!