Monday, May 1, 2017

Some rest and relaxation in Tennessee

For the last couple of years, I’ve been hearing about the Anchor Down Resort in Dandridge, TN, in the Smokey Mountains.  I’ve always wanted to stay there, but it never seems to be a good stopping point for us.

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At 360 miles from Charleston, it still wasn’t an ideal stopping point, but we were getting up early to say good-bye to Nicolas, so we could get on the road early and it was all freeway, so we decided to go for it.  There were plenty of sites available, so we opted not to make reservations . . . just in case we had some unforeseen delay.

Sites overlooking the lake

It was a beautiful travel day, and other than a small delay around Asheville, we made really good time, arriving at Anchor Down by 1:30 pm.  We selected a site in the main campground that would give us a view of the lake out our windshield.

Main campground

Site 117

If the campground were full our view would have been obstructed by other RVs, but since the park was half empty, we had a great view of the lake and mountains!

All the sites are good-sized concrete pads with full hook-ups, including cable.  Our standard site was plain concrete with a brick firepit, but the higher level sites were stamped concrete and many of them had large outdoor fireplaces, in addition to great views.

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The resort was impeccably clean, with all new bath houses and laundry room, and a clubhouse under construction.  The main area of the resort was on the road level, where we were, and there was another group of site uphill from the main area,

Upper tier of sites

and another area of sites down at the lake level by the pool and marina.

Pool and small marina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were 4 host sites . . . and they had great sites!

Really nice host sites!

This has got to be the most beautiful RV Resort we’ve been to – not only were the facilities top-notch, but the setting was amazing with the lake and the mountains!

Dog walker

We spent our time relaxing, walking, and visiting with other RVers . . . it was a great couple of days!

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They even had a dog park for Casey . . . she had fun running around, chasing a ball, and jumping over obstacles.

Playing in the dog park

Enjoying a campfire with new friends

Our new friends, Jim and Erin, had a fireplace at their site and we were able to enjoy a fire with them one evening . . . Casey decided that Jim was her new best friend – we couldn’t even walk by their site without stopping to see Jim!

We woke up to thunderstorms on Thursday, and found Casey sleeping in the corner next to our bed . . . she needs to feel protected during a storm!  Silly doggy!

Hiding from the storms

We’ve been to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg enough that we didn’t feel the need to go there at all, but we did check out the little town of Dandridge one afternoon.  It’s a very historic town – named for Martha Dandridge – otherwise known as Martha Washington.  There are lots of historic buildings still standing, and I would have loved to walk around and take pictures of many of them, but it was pouring rain while we were there, so we just enjoyed the town from the Jeep.

Crossing Douglas Lake

 

Crossing over the lake from Dandridge, we drove several miles to the Bush’s Baked Beans Visitor Center and Museum.

Baked Beans

They were nearly closed when we arrived, and we missed the last showing of the video tour of the canning plant, but we did walk through the museum exhibits,

Viewing the baked bean assembly line

and learned about the history of the Bush family and the little canning company that grew into a household name in baked beans.

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The Bush family started out canning vegetables and fruits

Tom weighing himself in beans

 

We couldn’t get near the secret family recipe, but Tom did find out his weight in beans,

The secret family recipe

and we got our picture taken with Duke! Smile

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It was a great 3 days in Tennessee, and well worth the long travel day!

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Sunset after the rain

3 comments:

  1. Wow, what a beautiful rv park, the host site was amazing! Heading up north this weekend to open the trailer for the season, it just won't be the same without you guys!😢

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  2. Wow that is a neat park and close to us also -- another fact i did not know Martha Washington's maiden name was Dandrige-- we will be there later this week and will stop there thanks for info---Enjoy your travels --- Hugs to Nicholas and Bryce when you see them

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  3. Thanks for the history lesson and we'll have to mark that on our list of places to go someday.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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