Day 10 of the Southeast Rhombus Rally Caravan with Friends – The Trolleys of Pigeon Forge

We have a rally in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the end of the month, but we came a few days early to do some exploring on our own. We are staying in Eagles Nest Campground. Our sites are across from each other and are great for the Passport America rate we paid of $17 per day! 

Today, we decided to explore the trolley system of Pigeon Forge. 

First we had to get ready, looks like Charlie had to help Pattye a little bit with that!

The Fun Time Trolley Service started in 1986 as a means to provide safe, affordable and convenient transportation to hundreds of thousands of people that visit the area each year. Today, they have a fleet of over 30 trolleys. There are over 100 stops throughout the city of Pigeon Forge. Just wait at a trolley sign or a trolley shelter and the trolley will come by and pick you up. We have a trolley stop at our campground. Our campground is on the Wears Valley line. It has its own loop from the depot, out past our park and back to the depot. This loop takes 45 – 60 minutes. 

We got on the trolley about 9:30 am and finished the loop into the depot. The depot is located at Patriot Park, next to the Old Mill. On our way, we saw an establishment that always makes us think of one special friend, Jack! When we go out to dinner as a group, we never let Jack pick the restaurant, if we did ... we would always end up here!

We waited at the depot for another trolley to ride. While we were there, we were verbally accosted by a friendly local girl. We named her “Chatty Cathy.” The North trolley arrived and we got onto it, to see how far north this trolley travels.

Well, lucky us … “Chatty Cathy” got on the same trolley. We tried to watch the unique fall decorations that are everywhere, but she could not be silenced! We quickly learned that is was her day off, there is a concert tonight at The Island, she was going to get a good seat for the show at 8 pm tonight, she wanted boots for her birthday in November, just boots form this particular store, she is a UT fan and trash talked the Florida Gators. I could go on, and on, and on …. Just like “Chatty Cathy.” It is amazing how quite the trolley was after she got off! We always seem to attract the unique individuals on our adventures!

The North trolley took us north on the parkway to Governor’s Crossing and Walmart. It goes into the Tangier Outlets, passes many hotels, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. Country Tonight is accessible from this trolley, so is the Incredible Christmas Shop and Inn. At the Welcome Center we were greeted by this friendly guy and wondered if anyone would notice, if we brought him home to Karen! We learned that this trolley line no longer goes to our next campground. We will have to get all of our trolley riding done while we are at Eagles Nest.

We got off and on the trolley several times, while we stopped at the welcome center and enjoyed the shops at The Old Mill. We enjoyed our lunch at the Potters House Café. It is in the Old Mill area and features some lighter fare of foods, served on homemade pottery. Bully & Charlie had soup, Chicken Tortilla, and ½ a pimento cheese sandwich. I never knew Charlie liked pimento cheese. Pattye & I had soup, Loaded Baked Potato, and salad. 

We ate a light lunch, because right next to this restaurant is The Creamery. By the sound of the name, you know what you can find there … yup, Ice Cream! Of course, we had to have some. It is all homemade! Charlie & Pattye got Butter Pecan, I selected Peanut Butter, each of us had one scoop.

Bully could not decide between the Butter Pecan and Peanut Butter … I really think it was Pattye, but she blamed Bully! So, he got 2 scoops … which looked more like 3 or 4 scoops! Naturally, Pattye did help Bully eat his ice cream too!

Everywhere is decorated for autumn. There are corn stalks, hay bales, scarecrows and mums. It is very festive and beautiful!

We headed back to the campground, to relax and maybe catch a nap. We are going to head out later to listen to the music and watch the action at The Island.

We caught the trolley at the campground and rode it into The Island’s parking lot. There is a tram that picks you up in the parking lot and transports you to The Island, but we were in a walking mood and walked to The Island. 

Charlie had a great idea to bring our bagged fold up chairs. That was a home run idea! We found an area along the fountain water feature, that gave us a good view of the water, the ferris wheel and Ole’ Smokey Moonshine where the concert will be. This is the music we learned about from the “chatty Cathy” on the trolley earlier today.

We got to The Island early enough to enjoy the view with the sun setting in the background. The lights were visible once we first got there, but they came alive more with each moment as it got darker and darker! 

We did see a motor powered para-glider steak across the sky. If you look between the water spouts, you can see him!

I don’t think words describe how pretty it all is, the pictures do a much better job!

Charlie & Bully really enjoy people watching, so this is the perfect place for that! Pattye and I went to get coffee at Margaritaville. While we were there, we found boxes of Cinnabons … Charlie has been talking about Cinnamon buns for days … so we had to buy him a box! They even had jugs of milk for him!

We listened to the music and enjoyed the water fountain lights for several hours. When it was time to go, we figured it would be easy to grab the North Trolley at the island, ride around quick, get back to the depot and take the Wears Valley Trolley back to the campground. Now, the fun began! The North Trolley was very late, he was the slooooooooooooowest driver we have had. He had to stop at every stop, pull into every store and check the stops (even though the strip mall had been closed for hours and you could see no one at the stop waiting.) We finally made it to Patriot Park, the Trolley Depot, at 10:45. We got on the North Trolley at 9:45 pm. The last Trolley out to Wears Valley is 11 pm … so, I guess, he was fast enough to get us there before that!

While we waited for the Wear Valley Trolley, we got to talk to a sleazy Timeshare Salesman. He claimed not to work for Wyndam. He said people are begging him to buy into his timeshare. He was unshaven, loud, rude and very unprofessional, if in fact he was a professional at all! He hounded us about how great he was for the entire 15 or 20 minutes we waited. Finally, the Wears Valley Trolley arrived and we got on, thank God that he did not get on! God must have been with us ... because you can see Pattye's angelic glow! We rode home is peace and made it safely by 11:35 pm … that is pretty late for Miss Pattye!

Check back for more mis-adventures in Pigeon Forge!