Visiting the Biltmore Estate has been on my travel list for about a year.  My Foster Daughters and I decided to make some stops along the way to make the most of our drive through The Great Smoky Mountains.

Our first stop was in Pigeon Forge, TN.  Food was first on the agenda.  I normally eat at Paula Deen’s, but I wanted to try another top ranked restaurant called The Old Mill.  The Old Mill was good, but the food at Paula Deen’s is more of a flavorful, down-home type of cooking.

What I liked about The Old Mill is getting a full course meal included in the menu prices.  We needed to-go boxes for the left overs that went to waste in the hotel’s refrigerator.  This is something to think about when people complain about Paula Deen’s family style dining that does not allow take outs.

After dinner, we walked down the Pigeon Forge Parkway and enjoyed the change of scenery.

From Pigeon Forge, we made our way to Asheville, NC for a day at the Biltmore Estate.  I will follow-up with those photos in my next post.

We stayed overnight in Asheville by the outlet mall, if you want to call it that.  It was the smallest outlet I have ever been too.  The Nike store was weak!  The girls were happy with Forever 21.

The next morning, we drove to the Asheville Visitor Center to catch the Gray Line Hop-On/Hop-Off Trolley.  It felt good to let someone else do the driving.  We enjoyed learning about the history of Asheville.

The tour started with the painful history of the Native Americans in the area and how they were moved West.  The guide mentioned there being a Cherokee Museum in Cherokee, NC.  I decided that we would stop there on our way back to Kentucky.  The Cherokee Museum is only an hour drive from Asheville.

After a beautiful drive along Highway 441, we bypassed Gatlinburg and stopped in Knoxville, TN for dinner.  Sweet P’s BBQ is one of the top ranked in the area according to Trip Advisor.  The food was great, the servers were friendly, and we left full for our final stretch to Louisville.

Kelsie Lou