Day 17: Gabrielle and the Chocolate Croissant

The major attraction of the day was the Biltmore Estate, which belongs to the Vanderbilt family and is located in NC. In tribute to the castle like structure, I will use it’s name to highlight the events of day 17.

Bis for the Bravery that Katie showed while driving through the pouring rain as trucks zoomed by.

I is for the Ice cream in the peach shake that I told Randi to stop drinking.

L is for the amazing red Lightening and sheet lightening we saw as we drove through Virginia.

T is for Two trips to McDonalds for drinks and Mc Flurries

M is for the Mountains which were breathtaking.

O is for the Ocho hours we spent on the road yesterday.

R is for Randi’s excitement over the multitude of gift shops she could peruse at the Biltmore

E is for the 30 minute Excursion we took to find a Chick Fil A that was no where near the highway exit.

In addition, we created a band that would be called the title of this post, we drove through Tennessee yet again, we all exhaled a simultaneous sigh of relief when the deer didn’t jump out into the road, and Randi shed skin like a snake.
Tomorrow we head back to NYC! Thanks for reading!
❤ Casually kissing cowboys

Day 16: Mecca

In THE culminating experience of our trip Randi Bivona a.k.a. The Suavest of the Seas made her Hajj to… DOLLYWOOD (insert 2001: A Space Odyssey theme song here.)

We arrived in a fit of glee, singing Jolene and jumping up and down like the line of 6 year olds waiting to see BubbleMan. After scouring the parking lot for license plates we determined that while people from Vermont are not Dolly Parton fans, people from Montana most certainly are!! 3 minutes later we pulled up to the entrance to the greatest place on earth:

We immediately ran to the roller coasters where we found ourselves behind a group of boys enthusiastically chanting in call and response form “whats my name?” “Big Daddy!” and singing My Girl. We estimate they ran out of steam about 45 minutes later.

Unfortunately the clouds rolled in, the thunder bellowed, and they closed the rides. This allowed us some time to learn a few valuable lessons in Dollywood:

1. We are VERY bad teachers who apparently break a lot of rules.

2. Dolly has a cousin name Heidi Lou who puts on a nice show but who isn’t quite as awesome as Dolly.

3. Dolly is Miley Cyrus’ godmother.

4. Dolly grew up in a one bedroom cabin with her parents and 11 siblings!!

5. No one can do Dolly better than Dolly.

Being the magical place that it is, we found many references to other points of our trip which only confirmed our suspicions that Dollywood is the happiest place on earth. See here the second gulch of the trip:

And the THIRD rainbow (and also the theme of our roadtrip):

Apparently it’s Dolly’s theme too and was the name of her museum in which we spent a significant amount of time gawking at Dolly’s costumes (and their measurements!)

Finally the clouds broke and the rides reopened. Randi practiced her Lamaze breathing on the Tennessee Tornado while I gave myself stomach cramps laughing at her. Also amused was the guy watching the video of us at the end of the ride pointing and asking “is that y’all?”

Famished from roller coasting and our physical expression of love for Dolly we decided it was time to feed ourselves, and the ducks.

Sadly, it was time to call it a day and head onto Asheville. After settling in Katie, Randi and I hit the town to find some Appalachian influenced tunes. I felt right at home walking past the hippie troubadours with their howling dogs and all the eateries boasting vegetarian and vegan options. One such establishment was also featuring a live performance by The Willows, a folksy band that played some originals and many covers of Randi’s favorite Gillian Welch songs. After an exciting day and a relaxing evening we turned in to our scratchy sheets- a stark contrast to what we were about to see at the Biltmore. But that’s another tale for another day.

Until then,
-the Gringo Gaucho