mickeystoontown
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
- Messages
- 29,327
We walked back downstairs to the museum/distillery. They had a large room that was full of moonshine equipment:
This guy was working the distillery and told John that he had been moonshining since he was 13 years old. He also said that he had buried his moonshining equipment when he went off to war in Vietnam and that when he got back, he dug it up and he was still using it today. How cool is that?
In the courtyard of the complex a band was playing and they were very good. This picture turned out blurry but I'll still post it to give you an idea of how the place was set up:
Lacey and Hunter went off to look at some of the other things in the complex while John and I went to the moonshine sampling bar. I wasn't going to try it but John said that he wanted to. He had to show his I.D. even though it was obvious he was well over 21 but they said that had to check everybody's I.D. They had several different flavors of moonshine to sample. We got tickled because they were serving the samples in the same little cups that we take communion in at church.
John tried the straight moonshine, the peach flavor and the apple flavor. He said the straight moonshine burned from the minute he put it in his mouth. That's saying a lot for John because he never ever says anything is hot or burns. He dips tobacco and I think it's messed up his tastebuds. Once the sampling was done, we found the kids and then looked around in the store a bit. John bought a moonshine t-shirt and we went on down the strip to the other stores.
Hunter wanted to go in each and every store that had swords or knives. Lacey and I would duck into other places while John and Hunter looked at swords. I ended up getting a Gatlingburg zip hoodie for just $12.00 and Hunter got one as well. I don't remember what the rest of the bunch bought but it wasn't much. By the time we were done, it was dark and Jesse had called and said that he was on his way to Pigeon Forge. John attempted to take pictures of the beautiful Christmas lights but they didn't turn out very well:
We dropped Hunter and John off at the hotel and Lacey and I went to the Christmas store. I wanted to look around and I knew that it held no appeal at all to John and Hunter. While in the store, Jesse called and said he was in town so he stopped in the Christmas store as well and I let them pick out a couple of ornaments as a gift from me.
Since we were all pooped, we decided to just stop and get something to eat and take it back to the hotel. Five Guys looked good so we all got burgers, fries and drinks. John is still paranoid about having our new car smell like food so we had Jesse take the food in his vehicle and Lacey and I took the drinks. No need to upset the hubby after having such a great trip so far.
We got back to the hotel and had a mini picnic while watching Elf. We all ate, laughed and just generally had a good time together. It warms my heart that Lacey married such a wonderful Christian man. He fits right in with our family and there's no hesitation whatsoever when any of us say "we love you" because we all really mean it. I love that and thank God that he sent Jesse to join our family.
It wasn't hard to fall sound asleep that night. We were tired from our hike to Clingman's Dome and Jesse was tired from work. As part of our hotel package, we got vouchers that were good for several different dishes at the pancake house nearby.
When we checked in, the lady asked how many people would be in our party and she gave us those and extras. Since we didn't have to show any I.D. or proof of our reservation, I gave the extras to Lacey & Jesse and told them to use them when they came back to Pigeon Forge.
Anyway, we had a nice breakfast with us all, again, making jokes and enjoying our time together. It was pretty bittersweet because we all knew that this was our last hour or so together. At that time, we didn't know if they would be joining us in Louisiana for Christmas.
It was soon time to check-out of the hotel and give our final hugs to Lacey and Jesse. Before the eyes got all teary, we took a family picture:
***Shoot, photobucket has stalled. Be right back.
I had to laugh at the not wanting the smell of food to mix with the new car smell. I picked up my new car tonight and Ron said he wouldn't let his daughter eat in the car for at least 3 years. Then when we went to pick up some fast food to bring home, he insisted he bring it in the old car so as not to make my new car smell of french fries. 
:
We were suppose to leave Christmas Eve to go to GA for a few days and Friday was going to be our "Christmas Eve" because I have a strict Santa comes to MY house rule 
(Plus, we don't have enough room to pack up our presents PLUS all the presents from family in our car! We'd have to rent a uhaul!). But I have been fairly sick (I have a staph infection 
), and the doctor doesn't want me to be too far from home. 
MEN!
