What’s new at theme parks around the country – Yahoo! News

NEW YORK – It’s a big year for fans of theme parks and roller coasters all over North America.

The long list of new attractions includes the rock ‘n’ roll-themed Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, S.C.; the Nickelodeon-themed park at Minnesota’s Mall of America; Toy Story Mania! at Disney; The Simpsons at Universal; and enough new thrill rides to literally make your head spin.

The coasters include Behemoth, Canada’ s longest, fastest and tallest coaster, opening at Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto; Fahrenheit at Hersheypark in Pennsylvania, and The Dark Knight Coaster at Six Flags in New Jersey and near Chicago, based on the upcoming Batman movie “The Dark Knight.” There are also new Tony Hawk-themed rides opening at several Six Flags, a water ride at Dollywood where you shoot giant soakers at other riders and interactive targets, and new children’s areas at SeaWorld San Diego, Cedar Point and other parks.

“There are new thrills and exciting family adventures from coast to coast at America’s theme parks this summer,” said David Mandt, spokesman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. “Everything from thrilling roller coasters to action-packed dark rides to whimsical children’s areas and a number of new water park attractions. There’s something for everyone.”

Mandt said that most Americans are within a “one-tank drive to a local theme park,” making the parks a good family destination even in a slow economy. And while theme-park admission can be pricey for a family of four, Mandt mentioned a couple of ways to save. Tickets bought online are often cheaper than at the gate; parks sometimes offer deals or discount coupons on soda cans, milk cartons or other items; and some employers offer theme-park discounts as a benefit. Also, if you’re likely to go a couple of times, “a season pass will typically pay for itself in less than three visits,” Mandt said.

Here are some of the new parks and attractions in the U.S. and Canada. A few opened earlier this spring; most but not all will open by Memorial Day. Check with parks for specific opening dates.

–In California and Florida:

THE SIMPSONS RIDE, Universal Orlando, Orlando, Fla., http://www.universalorlando.com and at Universal Studios Hollywood, Los Angeles, http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com. The Simpsons Ride, a simulator ride that’s part thrills, part TV show, replaces Back to the Future at Universal in Hollywood and Orlando.

TOY STORY MANIA!, Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, Fla., http://www.disneyland.com and Disneyland, Anaheim, Calif., http://www.disneyland.com. Interactive ride where you shoot at virtual targets, inspired by the “Toy Story” movies. Opens at Disney World in Florida May 31 and at Disney’s California Adventure June 17. Mandt said the ride is a good example of the interactive trend hitting theme parks: “Your first ride and second ride are different, and you actually have a role to play in the outcome.” Also new at Disneyland in Anaheim, Innoventions Dream Home in Tomorrowland, a 21st century redesign of the classic House of the Future, and Pixar Play Parade at California Adventure with characters from movies like “Toy Story,” “Monsters, Inc.” and “Cars” on giant floats.

JUNGALA, Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay, Fla., http://www.jungala.com. Interactive animal park, where you can watch white-cheeked gibbons up close, observe an orangutan paint, and experience tug of war with a Bengal tiger. Geared to families with children ages 6-14.

AQUATICA, SeaWorld, Orlando, Fla., http://www.aquaticabyseaworld.com. Water park adjacent to SeaWorld, with waterfalls, racing slides, a raft ride, wave pools, rivers, lagoons, a beach and 36 slides. The park is also home to dolphins, birds and fish.

SESAME STREET BAY OF PLAY, SeaWorld, San Diego, Calif., http://www.seaworld.com/sandiego. Themed kiddie park with Sesame Street characters, three rides and live show.

PACIFIC WHEEL, Santa Monica Pier, Calif., http://www.pacpark.com. This new, $1.5-million Ferris wheel with 15,000 lights replaces the old Ferris wheel, which recently sold on eBay to a buyer from Oklahoma.

LAND OF ADVENTURE, Legoland, Carlsbad, Calif., http://www.legoland.com/California.htm. A new area of the park with attractions that include a dark ride, Lost Kingdom Adventure, and Pharaoh’s Revenge, where you shoot foam balls. New Sea Life Aquarium expected to open in July.

FIREFALL, California’s Great America, Santa Clara, Calif. http://www.cagreatamerica.com/. Thrill ride that flips and turns riders through fire and water effects.

PONY EXPRESS, Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, Calif. http://www.knotts.com. A launched coaster that travels through 60-degree turns and maneuvers.

–In Canada, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic:

BEHEMOTH, Canada’s Wonderland, Vaughan, Ontario (near Toronto), http://www.canadaswonderland.com. Canada’s tallest, fastest roller coaster, with a 230-foot first drop followed by seven more out-of-your seat drops.

NIAGARA’S FURY, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, http://www.niagarasfury.com/. High-tech attraction telling the story of the creation of the famous falls. Centerpiece of renovated Table Rock observation site.

MOTOCOASTER: Darien Lake, Darien Center, N.Y., http://www.godarienlake.com. New ride design intended to simulate a motorcycle, with 12 motorcycles on a figure-eight layout, 44 feet tall, at speeds up to 40 mph.

FAHRENHEIT, Hersheypark, Hershey, Pa., http://www.hersheypark.com. Vertical lift inverted loop coaster, up to 58 mph, 2,700 feet of steel track. Also new at Hershey, the Howler ride, with sphere-shaped cars that rotate at a 20-degree angle, creating a “tornado-like” experience.

VOODOO, Dorney Park, Allentown, Pa., http://www.dorneypark.com/. Inverted steel coaster that ascends 185 feet up, launches forward and backward, twists 360 degrees and rockets riders up to 70 mph.

DOMINATOR, Kings Dominion, Doswell, Va., http://www.kingsdominion.com. Floorless roller coaster with five inversions, said to have the world’s largest vertical loop. The coaster comes to Virginia from Geauga Lake in Aurora, Ohio, which is now a water park, Geauga Lake’s Wildwater Kingdom, http://www.wildwaterfun.com/.

–At Six Flags parks:

DARK KNIGHT, Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J., and Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Ill., near Chicago, http://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/ and http://www.sixflags.com/greatAmerica/. Indoor roller coaster with hairpin turns, drops into darkness and video from the upcoming Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”

TONY HAWK’S HALFPIPE, Six Flags America, Bowie/Mitchellville, Md., http://www.sixflags.com/America/. Water slide designed to evoke skating a halfpipe.

TONY HAWK’S BIG SPIN: Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington, Texas, http://www.sixflags.com/overTexas and at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo, Calif., http://www.sixflags.com/discoveryKingdom/. Built to resemble a skate park, with cars that twist, turn and spin.

GOLIATH, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio, Texas, http://www.sixflags.com/fiestaTexas. Inverted coaster that suspends riders from an overhead track and goes 50 mph.

X2 COASTER, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, Calif., http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/. This is a redesign on an existing coaster, with new visual, auditory and sensory effects.

EVEL KNIEVEL, Six Flags St. Louis, Eureka, Mo., http://www.sixflags.com/stLouis. Wooden coaster with a 2,700-foot track, 80-foot drop, and double 55-foot drops. Expected opening late June.

THOMAS TOWN, Six Flags Over Georgia, Austell, Ga., near Atlanta, http://www.sixflags.com/overGeorgia/. Play area for younger children themed on Thomas the Tank Engine.

–In the South:

HARD ROCK PARK, Myrtle Beach, S.C., http://www.hardrockpark.com. New rock ‘n’ roll-themed park, with coasters named for Led Zeppelin and the Eagles, plus a groovy dark ride based on the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin.”

RIVER BATTLE, Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tenn., http://www.dollywood.com. Water adventure ride with nine rafts. Each raft holds eight people armed with soaker guns taking aim at each other and more than 100 interactive targets, including splashing beavers, skunks, otters, and bears.

–In the Midwest and West:

PLANET SNOOPY, Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio, http://www.cedarpoint.com. New children’s play area with seven rides, plus a new Snoopy-themed restaurant and ice show.

SKYSCRAPER, Challenge Park (at Cedar Point), Sandusky, Ohio, http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/park/challenge_park/. A thrill ride that spins like a propeller with open cars 16 stories off the ground. Expected opening June.

THUNDERHAWK, Michigan’s Adventure, Muskegon, Mich., http://www.miadventure.com/. The 105-foot tall inverted roller coaster flips riders upside down five times. Relocated from Geauga Lake in Aurora, Ohio, which is now a water park.

KEYLIME COVE, Gurnee, Ill., http://www.keylimecove.com. New water park with wave pool, body slides, lazy river, activity pool for water sports.

KIMA BAY: Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, Ind., http://www.holidayworld.com. New monkey-themed water park attraction at Splashin’ Safari.

NICKELODEON UNIVERSE, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minn., http://www.nickelodeonuniverse.com. Nickelodeon, the children’s cable network, has had Nick-branded zones in theme parks before, but this park, which opened in March, is the company’s first standalone theme park. Rides include SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge roller coaster.

ODYSEA, Lagoon Park, Farmington, Utah, http://www.lagoonpark.com/. Interactive family water ride with flying fish-shaped gondolas that can be navigated to avoid getting sprayed by water from other cars.

AFTERSHOCK, Silverwood Theme Park, Athol, Idaho, http://www.silverwoodthemepark.com. New 191-foot boomerang-like inverted steel roller coaster, with two towers, 90-degree inclines and a 177-foot drop. Expected opening July.

We are looking to honeymoon around Gatlinberg and Pigeon Forge Tennessee. What are some things that we could do there?

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Top Five Haunted Houses In Pigeon Forge,TN and maggie valley,NC and Gatlinburg?

All on google…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Dolly Parton seems to live her life by the motto “Go big or go home.” With her signature theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., she did both.

Parton opened Dollywood in 1986 on the site of what had been the Silver Dollar City theme park. The first year, 1.3 million visitors came. Now at the start of its 25th anniversary season, Dollywood has more than doubled in size to 150 acres, and over 40 million people have passed through its gates, with 2.5 million guests in a typical season.

“I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area,” said Parton, 64, in a recent interview. “Sure enough, I was lucky, and God was good to me and things happened good. We started the park and 25 years later, we’re still at it.”

Parton expanded her brand locally to include the Dixie Stampede dinner theater in 1988 and Dollywood’s Splash Country waterpark in 2001. All three together employ 3,000 people.

When asked why she thinks Dollywood has been so successful, Parton didn’t hesitate.

“Location, location, location. It’s a great place to be going right into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park,” she said. “We’ve got plenty of stuff to be entertaining for anybody that wants to come to this area, and all the beautiful things that are not mine, that are in this whole area. This is a wonderful place to visit, whether you get over to my businesses or not.”

Dollywood is Tennessee’s No. 1 ticketed tourist attraction and has been for over a decade.

“They’ve created a lot of economic benefit for that entire region, which then sends an enormous amount of state and local tax to pay for education and keep other expenses to the community down,” said Susan Whitaker, Tennessee’s tourism development commissioner.

Whitaker says over 88 percent of tourists drive instead of fly to attractions in Tennessee, particularly to Dollywood, and that leaves ripples throughout the state as visitors arrive.

“People come in and they may spend one day or two days there, but they’re in the area and they’re going to spend money all over the place,” she said.

Matthew Lambert from Knoxville, Tenn., has been a season passholder to Dollywood since 1995. There are many reasons he keeps coming back.

“I love the atmosphere,” he said. “Everytime you come here it’s like coming home. You see people that you know that are working there. Everybody’s friendly. The shows are amazing. The food is wonderful. The rides are great. It’s the whole experience. It’s the way a park should be, not a giant mega-conglomerate, corporate run park.”

That, and “They still have my favorite wooden coaster in the whole wide world, The Thunderhead,” he added. “I’ve ridden it over 1,900 times.”

Theme parks, with their relatively high per-person admission, do not always fare well in recessions. Six Flags is struggling to emerge from bankruptcy; Cedar Fair saw a 7 percent drop in attendance last year; and even Disney has offered incentives in the last two years like free admission on your birthday and free tickets for volunteers.

Dollywood saw a 6 percent drop in attendance last year, but spokesman Pete Owens says the park attributes the decrease more to bad weather than the recession. Online ticket prices for one-day admission this year are $56 for adults, $45 for kids.

New this season at the park is the Adventure Mountain challenge course, which cost $6 million to build.

“We definitely want to expand with new things every year, eventually with a resort,” said Parton. “We may eventually have Dollywoods in other parts of the country, where we can kind of be true to whatever’s going on in that part of the world.”

No matter what, Parton’s pride for Dollywood will always exceed its size.

“I would honestly say that with all the awards and all the other things that I’ve done in my life, Dollywood is one of the greatest dreams that I’ve ever had come true. I am so proud of that I can’t even begin to tell you,” she said. “Dollywood is real special to me.”

___

On the Net:

http://www.dollywood.com

We have a 5 year old and 8 year old and are planning on going to pigeon forge TN. Where should we stay. We want to make sure that they have an indoor pool just incase it rains for the kids. We have been to pigeon forge many times and have always stayed in a cabin. We want to stay in Pigeon Forge/ Sevierville or Gatlinburg we really don't care which one. Thank you!

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Winter destinations near tennessee && west virginia?

well, i always go on a new years trip with my parents,sisters,cousins, && grandparents. and they always put me in charge of finding somewhere to go:) So i need somewhere close to BOTH tennessee && West Virginia. And i want somewhere where there will definiatly be snow, because i want to learn how to ski:) && please dont say Gatlinburg, we went there 2 years ago && the only thing i liked about it was that they had SOME good stores. We dont want to go to the West side of the country, ony the east side:) && also please dont say NYC, i go there in the summer:) Thanks a million:^D
Toodles<3

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has unveiled an interactive Web site giving viewers a virtual tour of activities planned to celebrate the park’s 75th anniversary.

The site at http://www.greatsmokies75th.org invites visitors to share photos and stories of their experiences in the country’s most-visited national park.

The site also provides a history lesson on the creation of the park, which straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee line, and efforts to protect it. The park was founded June 15, 1934.

Several events are planned for next year’s anniversary. A governor’s proclamation ceremony in April will focus on the regional role that was vital to the park’s creation. A rededication ceremony will take place Sept. 2, 2009, at Newfound Gap.

hi there, “YES” to your question…

Amenities include:

DSTV – satellite television
Wi-fi coverage in every room
Hot/cold air-conditioning
Underfloor heating
Ceiling fan
Television
Direct dialling telephone
Electronic safe
Hair dryer
European adaptors
Turn down service
Laundry facilities
Abundant cupboard space with wooden hangers

Separate bath and showers

Secure parking
Swimming pool
Private patio
Airport transfer to and from
Car hire
Mini bar, tea & coffee making facilities

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=willow+…

regards pops..

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Have you ever been to Pigeon Forge, TN?

What did you think and what is there to do? Thanks!

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I'm trying to find a cabin for May in the pigeon forge/gatlinburg tennesse area that would allow me to book for only one night and i can't find one for some reason! Everywhere i check online has a minimum stay of 2 nights. I just want to have an awesome bridal shower/bachlorette party for my friend and i can't find anything! ugh! please, help!

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Dolly Parton celebrates as Dollywood turns 25 – Yahoo! News

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Dolly Parton seems to live her life by the motto “Go big or go home.” With her signature theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, she did both.

Parton opened Dollywood in 1986 on the site of what had been the Silver Dollar City theme park. The first year, 1.3 million visitors came. Now at the start of its 25th anniversary season, Dollywood has more than doubled in size to 150 acres, and over 40 million people have passed through its gates, with 2.5 million guests in a typical season.

“I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area,” said Parton, 64, in a recent interview. “Sure enough, I was lucky, and God was good to me and things happened good. We started the park, and 25 years later, we’re still at it.”

Parton expanded her brand locally to include the Dixie Stampede dinner theater in 1988 and Dollywood’s Splash Country waterpark in 2001. All three together employ 3,000 people.

When asked why she thinks Dollywood has been so successful, Parton did not hesitate.

“Location, location, location. It’s a great place to be going right into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park,” she said. “We’ve got plenty of stuff to be entertaining for anybody that wants to come to this area, and all the beautiful things that are not mine, that are in this whole area. This is a wonderful place to visit, whether you get over to my businesses or not.”

Dollywood is Tennessee’s No. 1 ticketed tourist attraction and has been for over a decade.

“They’ve created a lot of economic benefit for that entire region, which then sends an enormous amount of state and local tax to pay for education and keep other expenses to the community down,” said Susan Whitaker, Tennessee’s tourism development commissioner.

Whitaker says over 88 percent of tourists drive instead of fly to attractions in Tennessee, particularly to Dollywood, and that leaves ripples throughout the state as visitors arrive.

“People come in, and they may spend one day or two days there, but they’re in the area and they’re going to spend money all over the place,” she said.

Matthew Lambert from Knoxville, Tennessee, has been a season passholder to Dollywood since 1995. There are many reasons he keeps coming back.

“I love the atmosphere,” he said. “Every time you come here it’s like coming home. You see people that you know that are working there. Everybody’s friendly. The shows are amazing. The food is wonderful. The rides are great. It’s the whole experience. It’s the way a park should be, not a giant mega-conglomerate, corporate run park.”

That, and “They still have my favorite wooden coaster in the whole wide world, The Thunderhead,” he added. “I’ve ridden it over 1,900 times.”

Theme parks, with their relatively high per-person admission, do not always fare well in recessions. Six Flags is struggling to emerge from bankruptcy; Cedar Fair saw a 7 percent drop in attendance last year; and even Disney has offered incentives in the last two years like free admission on your birthday and free tickets for volunteers.

Dollywood saw a 6 percent drop in attendance last year, but spokesman Pete Owens says the park attributes the decrease more to bad weather than the recession. Online ticket prices for one-day admission this year are $56 for adults, $45 for children.

New this season at the park is the Adventure Mountain challenge course, which cost $6 million to build.

“We definitely want to expand with new things every year, eventually with a resort,” said Parton. “We may eventually have Dollywoods in other parts of the country, where we can kind of be true to whatever’s going on in that part of the world.”

No matter what, Parton’s pride for Dollywood will always exceed its size.

“I would honestly say that with all the awards and all the other things that I’ve done in my life, Dollywood is one of the greatest dreams that I’ve ever had come true. I am so proud of that I can’t even begin to tell you,” she said. “Dollywood is real special to me.”

___

On the Net:

http://www.dollywood.com

im looking for a great hotel in the pigeon forge gatlinburg Tennessee area that has a suite with a king size bed, in room 2 person jacuzzi with good service and i need free wifi not just hsia i need the wifi yes i know mcdonalds has free wifi but i sorta need it at the hotel. please help me find this.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Dolly Parton seems to live her life by the motto “Go big or go home.” With her signature theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, she did both.

Parton opened Dollywood in 1986 on the site of what had been the Silver Dollar City theme park. The first year, 1.3 million visitors came. Now at the start of its 25th anniversary season, Dollywood has more than doubled in size to 150 acres, and over 40 million people have passed through its gates, with 2.5 million guests in a typical season.

“I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area,” said Parton, 64, in a recent interview. “Sure enough, I was lucky, and God was good to me and things happened good. We started the park, and 25 years later, we’re still at it.”

Parton expanded her brand locally to include the Dixie Stampede dinner theater in 1988 and Dollywood’s Splash Country waterpark in 2001. All three together employ 3,000 people.

When asked why she thinks Dollywood has been so successful, Parton did not hesitate.

“Location, location, location. It’s a great place to be going right into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park,” she said. “We’ve got plenty of stuff to be entertaining for anybody that wants to come to this area, and all the beautiful things that are not mine, that are in this whole area. This is a wonderful place to visit, whether you get over to my businesses or not.”

Dollywood is Tennessee’s No. 1 ticketed tourist attraction and has been for over a decade.

“They’ve created a lot of economic benefit for that entire region, which then sends an enormous amount of state and local tax to pay for education and keep other expenses to the community down,” said Susan Whitaker, Tennessee’s tourism development commissioner.

Whitaker says over 88 percent of tourists drive instead of fly to attractions in Tennessee, particularly to Dollywood, and that leaves ripples throughout the state as visitors arrive.

“People come in, and they may spend one day or two days there, but they’re in the area and they’re going to spend money all over the place,” she said.

Matthew Lambert from Knoxville, Tennessee, has been a season passholder to Dollywood since 1995. There are many reasons he keeps coming back.

“I love the atmosphere,” he said. “Every time you come here it’s like coming home. You see people that you know that are working there. Everybody’s friendly. The shows are amazing. The food is wonderful. The rides are great. It’s the whole experience. It’s the way a park should be, not a giant mega-conglomerate, corporate run park.”

That, and “They still have my favorite wooden coaster in the whole wide world, The Thunderhead,” he added. “I’ve ridden it over 1,900 times.”

Theme parks, with their relatively high per-person admission, do not always fare well in recessions. Six Flags is struggling to emerge from bankruptcy; Cedar Fair saw a 7 percent drop in attendance last year; and even Disney has offered incentives in the last two years like free admission on your birthday and free tickets for volunteers.

Dollywood saw a 6 percent drop in attendance last year, but spokesman Pete Owens says the park attributes the decrease more to bad weather than the recession. Online ticket prices for one-day admission this year are $56 for adults, $45 for children.

New this season at the park is the Adventure Mountain challenge course, which cost $6 million to build.

“We definitely want to expand with new things every year, eventually with a resort,” said Parton. “We may eventually have Dollywoods in other parts of the country, where we can kind of be true to whatever’s going on in that part of the world.”

No matter what, Parton’s pride for Dollywood will always exceed its size.

“I would honestly say that with all the awards and all the other things that I’ve done in my life, Dollywood is one of the greatest dreams that I’ve ever had come true. I am so proud of that I can’t even begin to tell you,” she said. “Dollywood is real special to me.”

___

On the Net:

http://www.dollywood.com

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Tennessee tourism attractions cope with snow and bone-chilling cold weather – Yahoo! News

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The wife and I are visiting for our 6th wedding anniversary, and I'm wondering if anybody has any suggestions.

UPPER DARBY, Pa. – A pizzeria owner with mice problems he blamed on competitors tried to sabotage two rival shops by dumping mice in them Monday, authorities in suburban Philadelphia said.

Upper Darby police said a man walked into Verona Pizza on Monday afternoon and asked to use the bathroom. After he left, the owner said he found footprints on the toilet and noticed that the drop ceiling had been disturbed, and he found a bag tucked up above.

The owner turned the bag over to two police officers who happened to be eating lunch there, and they found three white mice inside, police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.

Police say the man then walked across the street to Uncle Nick’s Pizza and dumped another bag into a trash can inside the establishment, and police found five live mice and one dead one inside.

“We have never had anything like this where mice have been used as an instrument of crime,” Chitwood said.

“This is food terrorism by mice.”

Nikolas Galiatsatos, 47, owner of Nina’s Bella Pizzeria a few blocks away, faces charges of disorderly conduct, harassment and animal cruelty, police said.

Chitwood told reporters that investigators believe Galiatsatos was having mice problems himself that he blamed on his competitors.

“We believe that he’s trying to put the competitive pizza places out of business,” Chitwood said. He said the mice, apparently purchased that day at a nearby pet store, have been turned over to animal control officers.

Galiatsatos remained in custody and it was unclear whether he had an attorney. A call to his shop was referred to a man who said he was Galiatsatos’ father but declined to give his name and declined to comment.

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What nudist resort is nearest Pigeon Forge, TN?

Check with AANR they have a good club locator for finding family nudist parks in the USA. I assume since you are asking this you are new to nudism so congrats on trying it out. Just make sure to call or email before you drive there to make sure they can accommodate you. According to google maps Cherokee Lodge is the closest to you but Rock Haven looks nicer if you don't mind driving longer to get there.

Florida Eagle Egg Hatches In Tennessee – The non-profit American Eagle Foundation (www.eagles.org) puppet-feeds a bald eaglet hatchling to avoid human-imprinting and prepare it for the wild. The egg was rescued from a nest atop a ballpark lighting tower in Sarasota in December, and recently hatched in an incubator at the Foundation’s Dollywood headquarters in Pigeon Forge. The symbolic bird is scheduled to be released into the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in March.… Read more »

When it comes to restaurants, Pigeon Forge has many obvious choices in the form of national chains. For those who aren't interested in fast food or dinner theater every night — the latter can get quite expensive for a family of four — there are some options. Because of the nature of the destination, there are not many upscale eateries but instead, plenty of Southern fare, steakhouses, pancake joints, and family-style restaurants. And Pigeon Forge is somewhat dry — you can buy beer in the grocery store; there are liquor stores in Gatlinburg. However, a recent victory for tourism now allows restaurants to serve wine and beer by the glass.

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How much should I take to pigeon forge tn?

I will be going to Pigeon forge tn in july. I am going to dollywood, skydiving, race track and a lot of other things. How much should I take for a week stay? Plus the cabin I will be staying in I will be staying for free, and food will all be paid for, so minus all that how much should I take?

This undated photo provided by Dollywood, shows the Mystery Mine ride at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.… Read more »

would anyone happen to know what bands are going to be at star 102.1's 2009 starjam in pigeon forge, tn?????

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GATLINBURG, Tenn. – The ancient blue-green mountains with breathtaking vistas and distinctive mists are home to salamanders and black bears, 19th century log cabins, rippling streams, waterfalls and more than 800 miles of trails, including a large section of the Georgia-to-Maine Appalachian Trail.

It’s little wonder the Great Smoky Mountains attracts more than 9 million visitors a year, twice as many as any other national park in the United States.

“No matter what your interest is, everybody that visits here can make a personal connection in one way or another,” said Ann Froschauer, who works with key park support groups, the Friends of the Smokies and the Great Smoky Mountain Association.

“That’s why we have folks who come back year after year. They bring their kids and their grandkids. Because something here touched them.”

The 520,000-acre preserve straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina border, named by the Cherokee Indians as “The Land of Blue Smoke” for its signature natural mist, marks its 75th birthday on June 15.

Featured events on the anniversary weekend include a Knoxville Symphony concert with U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander playing piano among the old cabins and barns in pastoral Cades Cove near Townsend. There also will be a groundbreaking for a $2.5 million Oconaluftee visitor center in Cherokee, N.C., that will highlight Cherokee Indian and Appalachian culture.

A Sept. 2 ceremony at Newfound Gap will mark President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s original dedication of the park “to the free people of America” in 1940. President Barack Obama has been invited.

Dozens of related activities are occurring throughout the year in surrounding communities — museum exhibitions, parades, family reunions and a Dolly Parton-penned musical about the Smokies at her Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, with CD profits benefiting the park.

“Our anniversary has been a reason for so many people to pause and think back,” Smokies Superintendent Dale Ditmanson said. “It has been a time of reflection (and) a jumping off point.”

___

Don Shoulders of Goodlettsville, Tenn., remembers the first time he saw the Smokies in 1936.

The Depression-era farmboy was barely 17 when he signed up with hundreds of other young men in FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps. As many as 4,000 at a time would work in the Smokies, laying the foundation for the park by erecting stone bridges and buildings, cutting trails and planting trees.

“It is the first time I heard of the Smokies,” the 90-year-old Shoulders said. CCC examiners in Nashville warned him about ridge-running in the mountains. “They said one leg would be that much shorter than the other when you come out,” he laughed.

After a long trip by train and truck, Shoulders and his comrades arrived at the former logging camp of Tremont in the middle of the night.

“We had some boys that were just so homesick they was a-crying. I felt like I had done the wrong thing … until I woke up the next morning, and I said, ‘I am in a new world!’”

Shoulders would spend three years in Tremont, earning $30 a month — $25 of which was sent home. He dug trails and performed other necessary work, including as latrine orderly. He ate well, gained weight — 127 pounds when he arrived, 150 pounds when he left — and developed an enduring fondness for the Smokies.

When he finally returned 27 years later, he said the park had been transformed, the forest restored. “It was a different place. It really changed.” He’s been back with his family every year since.

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In his 1940 dedication, Roosevelt said Americans had “used up or destroyed much of our natural heritage just because that heritage was so bountiful.”

In the Smokies, he said, “are trees … that stood before our forefathers ever came to this continent; there are brooks that still run as clear as on the day the first pioneer cupped his hand and drank from them.

“In this park, we shall conserve these trees, … the trout and the thrush for the happiness of the American people.”

In fact, the Smokies had been heavily logged by timber companies, muddying the streams and leaving only about a quarter of the old-growth forest intact. Boar from nearby game preserves moved in, nonnative rainbow trout were stocked in streams and a blight soon killed off the massive American Chestnut trees that once covered 40 percent of the forest.

Park managers continue to battle these issues, while new pests threaten hemlocks and dogwoods and decimate the firs in the park’s Nova Scotia-like higher elevations.

Still, Supervisory Ranger Kent Cave said, “It is a testament to the regenerative powers of Mother Nature that the forest has regrown. It looks, I am sure, similar to the way it did when Native Americans used the land or the first European settlers came.”

The park is designated an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site with one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet, supporting fireflies that blink in unison, 2-foot-long salamanders, 300-pound black bears, a small herd of reintroduced elk and growing numbers of native brook trout.

A continuing inventory by scientists and volunteers of the park’s 100,000 estimated species of plants and animals has discovered thousands previously unseen in the park and hundreds unknown to science. The project has become a model for parks around the country.

___

Twenty national parks were created before the Smokies, mostly in Western states beginning with Yellowstone in 1872.

The Smokies was the first in the southern Appalachians and the first to require purchasing land from individual owners. Congress authorized the park in 1926, but it would take eight years to raise the money to buy some 6,000 tracts.

The states of North Carolina and Tennessee contributed $2 million each, the John D. Rockefeller family gave $5 million, the federal government gave $3 million and a public “Pennies for the Park” campaign raised $1 million from schoolchildren and civic groups around the country.

With that background, the park’s charter stipulates that no entrance fee will ever be charged.

___

Glenn Cardwell, who traces his family’s roots in the Smokies to the early 1800s, was born in the park in the Greenbrier community in 1930. It was the year his father sold the family farm to the government, though they continued to live in the park as renters until 1948.

“I grew up watching people move,” he said. “They would stop and say goodbye to us. There was a lot of sadness associated with it. But I was so young I didn’t pay much attention to it.”

Thousands of mountain families once lived in the park — 1,200 people lived in Cataloochee and 700 in Cades Cove, the largest communities.

Hundreds of homes were sold off, torn down or burned in the early years before the Park Service decided to save the cultural history of the park. More than 80 old buildings remain today.

Many who once lived in the Smokies — the last original resident died in 1999 — moved far away. But family reunions in the park are common, typically held on Sundays from May though October.

For Caldwell, now mayor of tiny Pittman Center just outside the park and a retired park ranger, the result was worth the pain.

“I took my father back to Greenbrier Cove, where he grew up and had lived, on his 85th birthday,” he said. “I said, ‘Aren’t you glad, Papa, you lived long enough to see the land restored to nature?’

“He said, ‘Yeah, I was bitter at the park movement when they came, but I am glad the government did take it over because it is now available anytime I want it, and it will help others to get a look into the past.’”

___

At the park’s Little Greenbrier School and primitive Baptist church, you will find Robin Goddard, 64, a retired school teacher who portrays a teacher of an earlier vintage every Tuesday for 500 to 700 visitors. Think, “Little House on the Prairie.”

She grew up outside the park but knew every one of the 17 students who last attended the school in 1935.

A park volunteer since 1969, Goddard is one of nearly 2,800 people who donate their services to the Smokies annually, the largest volunteer contingent of any park in the country.

“The park is a natural treasure that has priceless gifts in it,” she said. “It is like a sanctuary where you can go and be at peace from a busy world.

“I want to take care of it for future generations,” she said. “I give back to it what it gives to me. It gives me a purpose in my life. I love the park. I tell everybody.”

___

If You Go…

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK: Headquartered in Gatlinburg, Tenn.; http://www.nps.gov/grsm/. Events related to park’s 75th anniversary: http://greatsmokies75th.org.

From Pigeon Forge, TN to Ervin Branch, TN is 384.43 miles which will take you 6 hrs. & 22 min.

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GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Hoping to break a legal logjam that has stymied logging as well as ecosystem restoration, the U.S. Forest Service said Thursday it was revising its planning rules to find common ground between industry and conservation groups to avoid lawsuits that stall projects.

The old rules sought to mitigate environmental damage after it was caused by logging, grazing, mining and other natural resource development.

But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said from Washington, D.C., that it’s in everyone’s best interest to have forests that stay healthy amid climate change and economic demands.

“Rather than responding to the political pressure of the time, it would be much better to say to the scientists, ‘What is the best way to make this forest the most resilient it can be,’” Vilsack told The Associated Press.

He said the agency is interested in maintaining as much old growth in forests as possible.

“When we talk about resilience, when we talk about water conservation and preservation, we are really talking about old growth maintained more effectively,” Vilsack said during a teleconference.

The 155 national forests and grasslands managed by the agency cover 193 million acres in 42 states and Puerto Rico. Balance between industry and conservation in those areas has been tough to find since the existing rules went into effect in 1982.

One revision of the rules by the Clinton administration and two by the Bush administration were thrown out by federal courts.

Lawsuits to protect habitat for threatened and endangered species have cut national forest logging levels to a quarter of their peak. Meanwhile, the timber industry continues to clamor for more logs, and conservation groups keep challenging timber sales, drilling and mining projects.

The new rules being developed may seem “wonky” but are important because the national forests provide drinking water for 124 million people in more than 900 cities nationwide and habitat for more rare species than national parks, said Jane Danowitz, public lands director for the Pew Environment Group.

The proposed rules give more authority to local supervisors working with the public to determine the best use of an individual forest, whether it’s for mining, hunting and fishing, or preservation of a diverse mix of species, Vilsack said.

“We have to get away from focusing on our own narrow niche of what we want the world to be and recognize that we have to share the world with other folks who have interests that need to be recognized.” Vilsack said.

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said the proposed rules would eliminate the old system of using indicator species, such as the northern spotted owl, to determine the health of an individual ecosystem, and instead carefully track a broad range of species.

Conservation groups said the rules were a good start, but a lot of work remained to ensure the changes promised are delivered.

Andy Stahl of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics said getting rid of the indicator species system would make it harder to sue the Forest Service to protect species struggling to survive, because the new rules shift the burden of proof about whether a species is thriving or in trouble from the Forest Service to the public.

“Where you place the burden of proof is really what determines public policy,” he said.

Kristen Boyles, an attorney for Earthjustice, said the watershed protections rated only a C grade. While the changes showed the Forest Service grasped the need to protect trees and brush along streams — a frequent issue in lawsuits over logging and grazing — the revisions did not include specific standards, Boyles said.

Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance said the industry is always working to reduce environmental impacts but is skeptical that anything can be done to reduce litigation by environmentalists over drilling and mining in national forests

The proposed rules incorporate public comments from more than 40 roundtables drawing more than 3,000 participants, and an Internet blog.

After a 90-day public comment period, the rules could become final by the end of the year.

___

Online:

Forest Rule website: http://bit.ly/hkcLly

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