Thursday July 23

We arrived in Gatlinburg and checked into our hotel around 6:00 pm local time and after quickly unloading the van, we set out to take a stroll on the main drag. Before arriving in downtown Gatlinburg, we stopped by Tony Gore's restaurant to sample his Smoky Mountain BBQ and we were amazed! He has put together a great menu of items and developed his own BBQ sauce that is to die for. On occasion he has some of his Southern Gospel friends to sing there at the restaurant which is a real treat. His restaurant is located right between Sevierville and Pigeon Forge on Hwy 66.

Back to Gatlinburg. There were a few stores that had been torn down and excavated and a few that were either being remodeled or still under construction. Other than that, everything still looked the same. We noticed one thing though. Although the body snatchers were still in force, they were fewer in number and not as agressive as they once were. This time we didn't even look at them.

We encountered a few bluegrass bands that were quite good, and one dancing bear!