It has been a long day but Dolly didn’t disappoint! We spent 10 hours riding almost every ride (except the “baby ones” and one that was closed because a boy fainted during the ride 😳), seeing great shows and LOVING the Dolly Museum and tour bus! The park is similar to Carowinds with a sprinkling of rhinestones and a whole lotta Dolly!

We started off a little behind – we didn’t get there until 10:15 (sorry Daddy). Our first interaction was with parking… first, Sheriline the parking attendant (seriously that was her name) wanted to chit-chat with every car that came in…

And then when I showed her the barcode for my pre-paid parking pass, you would have thought I started speaking Russian. Finally, I just showed her the email that said “parking pass barcode” – apparently you don’t need the barcode itself just the word barcode is enough. 😂🤣

So we’re in the park, and we hop on the tram to head to the entrance. There’s a different crowd at Dollywood… remember that line in Steel Magnolias when Truvy (Dolly) says “Louie brought his new girlfriend home and the nicest thing I can say about her is all her tattoos are spelled correctly.” Well, yea… At least I didn’t see any tattoos misspelled 🤣

We did see a whole lotta hover-rounds, which just made Mike’s day 🤣🤣🤣

We rode and rode and rode some more…

We even found a few zombies 🧟‍♂️ and our own hillbilly band🥁

We stopped to eat (and let my equilibrium try to settle) and found the biggest corn dogs we’d ever seen!

Apparently they were delicious 😋

And then… it was time for the Dolly Parton Museum, Chasing Rainbows 🦋♥️. I don’t think the boys really knew any Dolly music until today. However, they both ended up getting Jolene stuck in their head so they sang and hummed it the rest of the day 🎶🎶🎶. (you’re singing it now, aren’t you? You’re welcome!)

The museum was awesome! It showed her small cabin growing up, and her Coat of Many Colors

It was filled with Dolly’s signature style and all her awards. Leo was the best when he said “look how little her waist is, and how big her, well… you know.” 😊

Even if you don’t like amusement parks, if you’re a Dolly fan, the museum is worth coming to Dollywood 🦋

Bellies full and heads & heart full of Dolly-culture, Mike went to check out the Southern Gospel Museum and we were back to the rides…

We met back at the Showstreet Palace Theater and spent about an hour with a drum group from South Africa – think BlueMan Group where the audience is given drums and plays along as part of performance – it was so fun! Our hands were sore afterwards!

Then we needed ice cream to power through the last few rides, including 2 with water where I rocked my orange poncho and stayed completely dry 😁 Michael and Leo… not so much 🤪

I did not do a good job accounting for dinner at such a late hour and rather than get a pizza delivered at 10pm, how about crackers, chips and salsa by the pool? Michael said this was the most Redneck dinner he’d ever had 🤣😂🤣

It’s definitely not Disney, but because of negative reasons. It’s just a much slower pace but just as friendly. We thoroughly enjoyed our day with Dolly!

Tomorrow we head to Chattanooga to celebrate somebody’s 10th (2-whole hands) birthday by doing a little cave exploring. Oh my! Only for my boys 🤪🤦🏻‍♀️

Meanwhile, back in NC, Sampson is thoroughly enjoying his vacation as well 🤣