Reviews

Sorry about no post yesterday. After work, we went straight to Dixie Stampede so I didn't really have a chance to get on here. 

We really wanted to see Dixie Stampede because we heard they had changed the show up this year. The beginning has a new set up and a few new songs. I really liked the new stuff. As always, the meal started off with a biscuit and soup. I was pleasantly surprised. The last time I had been the soup was runny and the biscuit was rather small. This time, I dipped the good-sized biscuit in the soup and it was wonderfully creamy, not runny at all. The rest of the meal was equally great. I ate more of the chicken than I usually do. The potato they served was also bigger than I remember. The dessert was the usual apple turnover. I could never complain about that. It's always been scrumptious. The competition between the North and the South got underway. We were on the South of course. Their new bit in the competition is the "Rumble In The Treetops." It consists of a relay between loggers. The first guys climb a trunk and when they come back to the bottom a runner tags two men at the other end of the arena who start working to saw through a log. As soon as the piece falls the first guy starts a "standing chop." It's literally what it sounds like. The man stands on a piece of wood and begins chopping away. It was really interesting to see. They no longer have their racing ostriches. I can't remember if they had already dropped that part of the show or not last year. They may have. They do have racing pigs and racing mini-horses though. They are too freaking cute. The patriotic finale was wonderful. It starts with a message from Dolly Parton up on a large screen and then she starts singing "Red, White, and Blue." All in all, I have to say it is still, by far, the most fun place to eat in the Smokies. 

Tonight we wanted to play mini-golf. We have been to Ripley's Old MacDonald's Farm Mini-Golf course a few times so we decided to try somewhere else. We stopped at one place on the Parkway, but it looked rather busy and as we pulled up a family of six and a family of eight were walking into the place. We decided to try somewhere else. The next place we came to was Fantasy Golf. They give a good local rate with ID so we paid, picked our club and ball, and headed to the course. We were very disappointed. There was no atmosphere and each hole was boring. There was no skill to any of the holes. Just hit it either up or down a hill and then spend three or more strokes trying to get it into the hole. The rims around the cups were all warped so it was near impossible to get the balls in. I took to just tossing my ball in the general direction of the hole and then using my club after that. As I told Alex, if you have to hit the ball that hard to get to the hole, you're no longer playing mini-golf, you're playing golf. So it was not worth the time we took to go there. 

Tomorrow is our trip to Spa Visage in Knoxville. I look forward to giving you a positive review on that. Good night!