Thursday, Quebec City to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Travelling all day, planes very late; sat on the tarmac in Quebec for 50 mins in the plane, after we'd moved out already an hour late. We had to go through customs again, re-entering the US: it took forever! Newark plane also left very late. Two more states to add to our list: New Jersey and Tennessee.
We arrived at Knoxville, Tennessee after 10.00pm and it was about 11.30 by the time we got to Gatlinburg by taxi. The town before this one, Pigeon Forge, is now the country's wedding headquarters. Wedding chapels are everywhere and even a drive-through chapel! It's glitzy and gaudy, a cross between Vegas and a huge fun park; after driving through the quiet Smokey Mountains, with little mountain dwellings here and there, it was a total shock to the senses. Dolly Parton and Elvis are the big names here. Dolly has set up a Disney World called Dollywood; she's done a lot of good for local young people who want to go through college and can't afford it. In December there's a Christmas section of Pigeon Forge which apparently becomes a whole world of lights; even without the lights, it's very pretty.
Gatlinburg is in a little valley, quite a big town and it again has wedding chapels and amusement shops all over the place. This happens to be a holiday weekend in the States, so there are people all over the place, although it's not noisy or too crowded. We've walked up and down main street, found the Convention Centre and went in and suddenly we were in Gaither territory – they were setting up sales booths, there are familiar faces on pictures everywhere and we're getting excited about the first concert tonight at 7.00pm. We peeked into the empty auditorium and have seen roughly where our seats are – perhaps 30 feet from the stage! Can't wait for tonight!
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