Day Two...or "I ate the whole bird!"

I'm just letting you all know that putting pictures into the body of the text turned out harder than expected, so please forgive any errors. Also know that this time, I will probably only put a few pictures in with the text, and then do a separate entry with pictures from this day.

Tuesday morning we all got up bright and early for our performance. We were fortunate to have been invited to perform for the Golden Agers club at First Baptist Church of Maryville. Maryville is a suburb of Knoxville and is about 1 hour from Gatlinburg. We drove to the church, had a short rehearsal on the stage, had another music rehearsal and then did a 30 minute performance. We then were invited to stay for lunch with the club. Overall, we met some great people and had a wonderful time. I don't have as many pictures from the performance, but I'll post more when I get some from others. I'll also try to add a video when I figure out how :).

After lunch, all the kids changed clothes and we went back to Pigeon Forge to go to WonderWorks. WonderWorks is kind of like a glorified McWane Center; however, it was perfect for this group because it leans more toward "imagination" instead of "science" like McWane.

We all just went on our own. We experienced a simulated earthquake and hurricane, climbed a rock wall, played with huge bubbles, measured brainwaves, stuck our hands in water as cold as the Titanic water and lots of other things!

We finished with WonderWorks around 4:00, and we needed to be at the Dixie Stampede at 5:15. This groups never ceases to amaze me at how well they can entertain themselves. We played in the arcade for a little while, but then we just sat on the sidewalk until it was time to go to the Dixie Stampede. Carole told stories about buying a yak harness in Tibet, Glenn & Julia played with an imaginary frisbee (and then bought a real one from the gift shop), and we all played a couple of rounds of "I'm Going on a Picnic" (the Rising Star National Game).

Finally, it was time to go to the Dixie Stampede. We all started by visiting the stables to see the stars of the show. We then entered the Carriage Room for the preshow. Some of us thought is was amazing. It was a trio of bluegrass extremely talented musicians with pretty impressive resumes (Dolly Parton's personal fiddle player, 3 time world champion banjo player, etc.). Dave, Kelly, Anthony and I embarrassed most everyone around us by singing along with everything.

The show was absolutely amazing! I think everyone was more impressed than they thought they would be. If you go to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, this is the show to see! We all stuffed ourselves with dinner, which consisted of a whole rotisserie chicken, corn on the cob, creamy vegetable soup, pork loin, bread and an apple fritter. After dinner, as we waddled out to the parking lot, Carole voiced what we were all thinking..."I ate the whole bird!". David and Reid also met their new girlfriend, Misty, who is one of the trick riders in the show. She stands on the back of two horses (one foot on each) and go over a lit torch. She also does this while wearing a tight orange velour unitard. That probably helped how impressed they were with her.

After the show, we all went back to the cabin. Some of the kids watched movies, some adults watched movies, and some adults played cards for a while. Eventually, we all played cards for a while, and then everyone went their separate ways. More air hockey happened, and finally everyone went to sleep. Overall, this was a great day!