Tennessee Times

We're on vacation this week (if that means anything, when you have the summer "off" or are retired...) with most of Bibb's family, in Sevierville, TN. It's in the Gatlinburg/Dollywood/Pigeon Forge mega-area, and quite possibly includes the tackiest square mileage known to mankind.

Yes, Las Vegas is so garish that it feels like another planet. I don't like Los Angeles either. But this is beyond beyond. A not-to-scale replica of the Titanic sits next to an upside-down house, the setting for a country-music dinner show. In the next block is the Jurassic Park waterslide. The NASCAR go-kart track. Five pancake houses. It's like Branson writ somewhat larger, and so little of it focuses on the truly gorgeous surrounding mountains or the geologic or human history of the area.

*sigh* Good thing we have each other, which means you can basically have a good vacation anywhere.

And, as Bibb keeps reminding me, without all this development (even if it could have been SO much better done), the people who live here would be cut off and dirt poor.

I'm just sayin'.