Townsend KOA December 2021
- Kristy Bettinger
- Mar 28, 2022
- 14 min read
The Mountains are Calling!! Christmas gifts were yelling camping trip! It’s time for a winter camping adventure in the mountains!!
It is the end of December, New Years is this weekend! Our last adventure was in October….racing is done until February, we remodeled our master bathroom in November, we’ve celebrated with family on Thanksgiving and Christmas! …David is going to be tearing down Hayden‘s race bike to get it ready for 2022. So if we want to squeeze in a trip to the mountains we better get on the road!!
No better way to end our 2021 adventures and start our 2022 adventures than in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee! ❤️
It is Monday December 27, we’ve been looking for a place to stay from Dec 30 - Jan 2.. crazy prices over the holidays!! Prices have been higher and higher but wow! We really want to stay in a small cabin more so than a hotel. $500+ a night for cabin rentals .. INSANE, even hotels that have beds and a small fridge are well over $250+ for a night, and we aren’t doing it! Our camper is in storage for the winter.. not an option..🧐 There’s got to be a way! 🤔
YES! lets look up cabins/tiny homes in the campgrounds!! There‘s Pigeon Forge KOA, and several campgrounds around that offer cabin rentals.. they are ALL booked! Mom here that wants a peaceful Mountain trip after our nonstop August vacation says “Let’s look at campgrounds in Townsend and Cosby area!“ They are ALL booked! 😳 So we call the KOAs to see if we can get on a cancellation list.. Nope they don’t do that, you keep refreshing the website and if someone cancels it’ll show up.. OK thank you!
I’m not sure how long but at least 3 hours of David and I both searching.. he pulls the Townsend KOA up again. We all love the thought of staying in Townsend for the weekend, and the KOA looks really nice!
and BAM there it is a cabin like we wanted!!
is it real did we really get it booked or was there a glitch in the system?! David calls the Townsend KOA:
“yes, your booking is good to go for the weekend, you’re really fortunate to catch that at the right time! We’ll see you soon!!”
Yay!! Only 2 more days and we’ll be on our way!! So excited to top of Christmas with some Winterfest 🎄❄️
Wednesday, we are getting our new Blackstone grill seasoned and ready to go! Hayden is getting his new fishing pole ready and organizing his new bait in his tackle backpack. David is packing Luke‘s new scooter, muck boots and all the things needed for the outdoors. It is looking like an awesome unusually warm weekend!
Luke.. he‘s helping, but he has a lot to get done on his “farm” before we leave for the weekend! You know, mowing the grass, cleaning out the barn, feeding the animals.. the list goes on! 😂 ❤️ imagination.. he’s got it!
I’m getting clothes together and most of the food that doesn’t need to be kept cold. I have a tote packed full of salt, pepper, seasonings, oils, smore‘s goodies, cereal, paper plates, plastic utensils, dish towels, and an Aldi bag of travel snacks. The cabin is stocked with towels, dishes, silverware, pots, skillets, everything you need, but I don‘t want to do dishes all weekend!
A fresh cinnamon bread to have at the cabin is rising while I am working on all of the above!
We are planning to leave at 6:00am tomorrow! House cleaned.. everything is packed and ready to go tonight!! Try to go to bed early to be rested but that just doesn’t happen the night before a trip!
THURSDAY
6:00am and we ARE on the road!! We are on the road again.. 🎵 A nice quiet ride!! I would say smooth but we are riding in a 3/4 ton truck.. nothing real SMOOTH about that ride, we be bouncin‘ rather than rollin’ ! Normally we have the camper behind it .. without it makes it a lil bouncier!
Anyway it was smooth enough that for the first time ever we drove clear through NO stopping!
12:00pm First stop for fuel, on Winfield Dunn Parkway!
We are all starving ready for lunch! One of our favorite places for lunch in Pigeon Forge!?
A yummy lunch, and we are off down Wears Valley road towards Townsend! I’d like some coffee..We’ll be on the lookout for something different!
They are outside carving out bears and trees from wood beside the GSM Outifitters and Coffee cafe! There‘s fun for David, Hayden and Luke .. Lynlee and I are going shopping and ordering coffee. Yum.. it smells good!
Here come the boys already… they are done carving live, they looked around at the different pieces they had carved. We really like the trees!
LUKE IS READY.. ”Let’s go MOM! I’m ready to be at the campground!” We are going once I get my coffee.. she’s making it..besides it’s only 2:00pm, we can‘t check in until 3:00pm anyway.
OK got my coffee.. LET’S GET TO TOWNSEND!!
A quick and easy check-in.. drive around the loop and there’s our cabin!
❤️😍The sound of the river flowing by... so relaxing! This is perfect for our weekend!! AND it’s going go be unusually warm in high 60s low 70s during the day!! ☀️
We unloaded the truck, set up the blackstone. (note: the cabin came with a gas grill on the porch, but we wanted to try ours out). The cabin was furnished with linens, dishes, pans utensils everything that we needed!
I’d like to sit on the top deck and take a nap.. but the top deck isn’t the place for Lynlee 😳
The view from the porch of the river 😍
The boys want to go fishing in the river, Hayden can’t wait to try out his new fishing pole!
I need to drive over to IGA to get a few groceries for the weekend. I had most dry foods packed, but we need eggs, meat, milk, yogurt.. my kids won’t survive without milk and yogurt! and whatever else I stroll by that sounds good .. I may or may not share with the rest 🤷🏼♀️..Lynlee‘s going with me and the boys are off to fish. It is only 1.6 miles to IGA … and the Artistic Bean that I mentioned in my previous Tennessee Blog! I’ll be hitting it up in the morning since I already had my coffee today.
Sometimes I feel like I live at the grocery store..standing in the aisles trying to put meals together in my head.. and I know I’ll get back and forget one of the main items I need. It’s like on repeat in my life. Thankfully It only took me 20 minutes to get to the store and be on my way back.. not too bad! Getting better at this! We got brats/Kraut for New Years day!
Walking out of the grocery store you got amazing mountain views.. Everywhere you look around Townsend. I just love it! We head back and unload the groceries.. good to go for the weekend! I snuck a container of ice cream into the freezer🤫
Luke wants to check out the playground and Hayden wants David to play basketball. We head up to the playground/basketball area. It is all at the main entrance.
Luke is all excited about getting to the top of the rock wall climb! It is pretty high for him..He gets up on the deck area.. umm… he didn‘t look around to the other side.. the only way down is fireman‘s pole! MOM, I can’t get down.. Come on over to the pole and slide down.. NO 😰 I can’t.. we call dad back over because it is high enough that I can not reach him. Dad saves him.. no more wall climbing for Luke!
About 30 minutes at the playground was good enough.. Luke was ready for a fire!! Mom was over the playground in 5 minutes.. the mulch.. the blackness.. Lynlee had her white and light gray tennis shoes on 😒 That’s my only negative about this campground! My kids play in dirt and mud nothing new.. but this was like pure black.. like doesn‘t look like it scrubs out! Anyway..
It‘s a perfect night for a fire! Not too cold.. not hot.. sitting listening to the river flow over rocks 🥱! The campground is very quiet and peaceful.. I’m sure our kids are disrupting the quietness for others..
I cooked steaks with peppers and onions on our blackstone for dinner with the thought of baking a pizza crust then topping it with the steak mixture.. well… the blackstone cooks a LOT HOTTER than my Webster did.. that crust is black .. black as that mulch out at the playground. Oh well we didn‘t need them carbs anyway.. so steak with onions/peppers and cheese on a plate it is! 😋
The boys were all about cooking their hot dogs on the fire.. they were tired of them by the end of camping season in the fall, but now we are over all the heavy holiday foods and a plain old hot dog sounds pretty good!!
Alright .. The day has seemed long! We are all ready to go in for the night.. rest up for New Years Eve tomorrow!!
GOODNIGHT! 💤
FRIDAY
Good Morning!! It is so pretty outside this morning!! Cooking breakfast on the blackstone.. the food sizzling and the river flowing….
It’s unseasonably warm today .. we are loving it! ☀️
We all took a walk alongside the river.. Hayden and Luke have their fishing poles out ready to catch a mountain monster fish 😂..
On the other side of the river is The Little Arrow Campground 😍 So I’m letting out a little secret early.. this is an AMAZING campground that we have booked a stay in 2022 with MoJo !! 🤭 We walked over to check it out.. So should I share some pictures or keep you wondering…
OK... I’ll share a few pics of this beautiful well maintained resort campground! Don’t have a camper!? There are super sweet tiny homes to rent! and air stream camper available to rent! and the pool area .. rocks, water, landscaping, all the mountain vibes!
I am overdue for my morning Artistic Bean Coffee.. It is 11:00AM!
David, Hayden, and Luke want me to take them up the road and drop them off. They want to walk the river back to the campground. We drove a mile up the road to a motel lot where I dropped them off, and they were off to fish/hike back.
Lynlee and I are on our way to get coffee! Yum..I’ll try an Iced Mountain Momma today! Thank You!
Back to the campground hoping Lynlee is ready for a little lunch and nap time!
There’s squirrels hanging out outside by our fire pit area.. climbing the trees.. they must smell food!
I put Lynlee in the stroller and took off for a walk.. It is warm enough for T-shirts and leggings! We took a stroll around the KOA campground as we hadn’t seen most of it yet. I love the camper lots here to! Many have shrubs and landscaping around them making them really private and mountain feeling. However, I wouldn’t want to bring one of the big rigs in here with all the trees!
We walked up to check out the construction process of the new check-in building.
The Dogwood Mall is within walking distance!! It is a place to find local original art! It sounds like a place I would like to check out. We’ll stroll on over and check it out!
We barely made it out of the entrance heading towards the mall and there comes David, Hayden, and Luke.….
David says Hayden had them hiking on a cliff! 😂 On their way back they came upon a fence, had to turn around and walk back up a steep cliff and across a mountain.. then back down through another campground.. and back the paved walking path! That was more than David thought he was getting into for the afternoon 😂.. well did you catch a monster fish during all that!? or did you get to fish during all then hiking!? … nope..
Well, they are ready to get showered and head into Pigeon Forge for New Years Eve! Looks like I’m skipping out on the Dogwood Mall.. maybe later this weekend I’ll get a chance to stop in..
Back to the cabin to shower and get ready to meet up with our friends the Shafer‘s for the evening! They brought their camper down to Margaritaville Campground in Pigeon Forge for the weekend!
4:00PM we are all ready to go!! Pretty drive back across Wears Valley and down Little Cove road, Mill Creek road, and Conner Heights road to the parkway of Pigeon Forge! Curvy.. a little .. not many straight roads have a great view!
Hi friends!! We are headed to the island to get on a waitlist for dinner! Paula Deen’s.. 3 hour wait.. Margaritaville Restaurant.. 2 hours.. we are on both list we’ll see which one opens up first!
In the meantime we watched the light show playing Christmas music.. Luke’s favorite…
..went browsing through shops.. got coffee that was NOT good from the coffee shop in the Margaritaville hotel... Too much sweetness and cream not enough coffee for me!
AND then finally our table is READY at Margaritaville! Right inside the entrance.. oh well we are starving!! Heidi and I can’t decide what we want.. we’ll order different things and split it! Awesome! Fish tacos and a Cuban please!
The Cuban.. not so much.. $$ with NO meat.. ok there was a sliver .. fish tacos were yum!! Next time just going for the tacos!
It is getting pretty crowded .. not sure how good we will be able to see the fireworks. We all decide to head over to the Mountain Mile hoping to avoid the traffic back up afterwards!
There’s nothing opened here… the toy store!? Really it’s New Years Eve.. 10:00PM! … Well there’s a green here with corn hole boards.. we’ll just hang out. There is rain coming in over night .. fingers crossed it waits until after midnight!
11:50PM .. There is the RAIN.. we all run to our vehicles!!..
Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes and it stopped in time for the New Year fireworks!!
Aside from the lights in the parking lot we could see pretty good!
Fireworks last a few minutes .. I tried to video a little for ya’ll, it’s just a bright light in front of the fireworks 🤷🏼♀️.
I think by 12:15am we were on our way out of the parking lot.. A few minutes of waiting in traffic to get on the main road and then we drove back down Wears Valley with no hold ups.
We still have 1 more full day in the mountains before heading back home!
GOODNIGHT! 💤
SATURDAY
Good Morning!! It is still warm and sunny this morning BUT the rain will be moving in this afternoon!
I cooked another breakfast on the grill this morning for David and I.. we took our time getting ready.. it’s been much needed slower pace days!
Now what should we do for the afternoon!? David and I really want to walk Gatlinburg with no plans except candy store for them boys .. that is the only way they agreed to leave the campground today! Bribery 🤷🏼♀️
It is New Years day and Saturday so we might regret that decision but here we are willing to take the chance!
The drive from Townsend to Gatlinburg ❤️
This way brings you into Gatlinburg on the side with the Ober Tram. Avoiding all the traffic coming in from Pigeon Forge! We park down behind Ober for an easy in and out to avoid the traffic.
It is perfect weather to walk around town and enjoy it! T-shirts, pants.. not freezing or sweating. ☀️
Hayden wanted to try out the ropes coarse, but Luke wanted no part of it. Normally David & Hayden would go ahead and do the ropes coarse and I can take Luke and Lynlee to something that interest Luke. Today we want to all stay together so we decided on Gatlin’s mini golf.
It is neat and different being built on the mountainside!
There’s many other choices at the Gatlin’s fun center to check out too! We decided on the Old Mountain Trail Coarse. It was fun reading the history of Gatlinburg on the plaques at each hole.
Hayden was helping Lynlee learn to golf to.. she was loving it.. although all she really wanted was the ball to throw!
Then we are off to see which candy store the boys want to shop at today.
Sweet wins today!
Hayden’s face.. yes, that is because I said NO candy that isn’t wrapped!!
“But that’s what I wanted!!”
Sorry, that is not an option on my list.. I just can’t do it! Seen too many kids sticking their hands in there and there’s plenty other choices!
They each get a piece or 2 of what they got but the rest is after supper!
”Then why did we even buy it?”
It is almost 5:00pm.. Where are we going for dinner!? It hasn’t been too busy, surprisingly! .. We really want to go to Smoky Mountain Brewery, but we just ate here in August so we decide to try the Park Grill. We’ve eaten here once before a few years ago. It was really good but it is $$ because it is a FULL meal.
The real wood burning fire place inside and it being winter (although it is warm today) wins our vote tonight. We'll just take the brats/saurkraut that I bought to make today home with us!
Well luckily there was no wait yet for dinner so we were in and out faster than expected! That was a huge plus for the kids! Now David and I want dessert.. we weren’t settling for any candy.
We’ve seen and heard of these Crazy Mason Jar Milkshakes but haven’t tried them. The line is out the door; it seems to be moving decent.. David takes the boys to look around while I wait.… only 10 minutes and I had ordered! Yay, that moved quickly.. 20 minutes later there’s our treats! David and the kids standing outside the door looking in asking what is taking so long!?
David gets the little one like he’s not on vacation or something 🙄.. there I am with the beast .. cheesecake and all! .. Don’t worry I didn’t get the entire thing.. Cheesecake is on Hayden’s favorite list..
”I want to taste it!” - says everyone that had their own choice on their treat for the day!
There’s no way I could eat the entire thing anyway.. It was so good I ate as much as I could.. Didn’t think I was going to make it back to the truck! SUGAR rush 🥴
Well it’s been a great day and it’s only 7:45pm BUT it looks like a LOT of rain is moving in this evening. AND storms with high winds. SO we are going to call it a night and head back to our cabin in Townsend.
8:30PM and we are back in our cabin nice and dry as the rain moves in for the night.. One unhappy camper with no fire tonigh… Luke
GOODNIGHT!! 💤
SUNDAY
GOOD MORNING from the mountains! The rain is done but the clouds are still hanging around .. little gloomy out this morning.. still warm enough for sweat shirts and pants! The river is really rushing this morning after all the rain!! We don’t mind listening.. ❤️
Today we have to head home.. we’d like to stay another day but the kids go back to school Tuesday and their is snow coming here and at home tonight.. so probably best we play it safe and avoid snowy roads tomorrow. 😔
BUT there is bo school tomorrow and it’s only 6 hours home.. We can squeeze in just a little bit more!
We head down to Apple Valley Mountain Village in Townsend for breakfast and there is another coffee shop I want to try of coarse!
The Apple Valley Cafe.. 10:55AM.. Just switched the breakfast menu‘s to lunch.. sorry, can’t order breakfast. 😔 That’s ok I’m sure there‘s excellent choices for lunch to! Yes, it was GOOD FOOD! Next time I am making sure I get there in time to get their breakfast which looked amazing!
Over to the General Store beside the cafe to look around.. A lot of really neat items to check out. Mom here is doing awesome this trip.. and the kids are still getting to have fun! They didn’t mind looking around for a few minutes when they knew they were getting to try an apple fry pie and fudge for dessert. Once they ate their goodies…
“MOM, we seen the store can we go now.. “
Yes, I’m coming but the next stop across the parking lot is the Dancing Bean!! David takes the kids to the vehicle and I get to go in by myself!
YUM! Another good coffee shop in Townsend! I do love the cabin it is in as we are in the mountains!
OK, time to head back down Wears Valley. The boys are trying to steal back the day.. “Can we do 1 more thing!?” … The Goats on the Roof Mountain Coaster.. advertising $10 per ride!
We have rode this mountain coaster a few times! It is one of our favorites. And I’m good with it because I love meandering around their store of home decor.. shirts .. a little bit of everything!
I didn’t get any pics of them coming down the coaster today.. Lynlee and I were shopping! and I bought nothing.. that’s what I do .. look, look, like it, pick it up.. oh I don’t really want to spend money on this so I put it back. 🤷🏼♀
Hayden and Luke are trying doing the usual.. riding the bike to pull the goat feed to the goats on the roof.. with no feed in it.. not surprising out of them.
Well it is now a little after 1:00pm, we better get on the road to home before the snow moves in.
We are on the road again.. on our way home to get busy preparing for the 2022 race season and our 2022 adventures!! We’ll be back soon! Only 6 short weeks and we will be back to GNCC Racing!!
Thanks for Reading!!❤️
Disclaimer: My full throttle blogs no are for entertainment purposes only. These are my families stories to share for fun, and our opinions only. I am not giving professional advise or recommendations. Thank you for reading!
Comments