Dollywood Part I

I have wanted to go to Dollywood ever since I heard about it. I seem to remember Dolly on the tonight show with Johnny Carson and the way she described it just stuck with me all these years. I wanted to go for the roller coasters. It sounded like they had some awesome ones there. Now that I have been there, I can validate that , yes, this is indeed true.
A few years ago I broached the subject with my best friend for us to celebrate a milestone birthday in grand fashion. Before I could finish the complete sentence she said "Yes ! How can we not go there ?!". Her sister was all in, too. We had started to make plans when I realized I couldn't go anywhere because Mum was sick and there was no one to take of her while I was gone. Mum passed in August, so, we started picking dates for this spring. Due to scheduling conflicts , my friend's sister couldn't go . It was just us, we travel well together, so the game was on !
She did all the arrangements. We got Airfare, car rental, Dollywood Tickets and Dixieland Stampede tickets -including the Dixieland Stampede boot mug for about $500 each. The way the particular packaging worked out we had to fly into Atlanta and drive to Tennessee, which took about 4 hours. In the future , I think we will both lobby for Knoxville airport because it's only about a half hour away. Though I enjoyed the ride, I was damn near hyper -ventilating to get to Dollywood. My only fear was that I would die of excitement before I got to set foot on the hallowed ground known as Dollywood.