The Wandering Disciple

The comfortable living room of a villa at the Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort provides a home away from home for our family's vacation to the Smokies. With a living room, dining room, kitchen, multiple bedrooms and a porch overlooking the woods, it provides a great way for a family to getaway into the mountains with the comforts of home. A hybrid between a hotel room and a cabin, it is a great option if you want the feel of a resort with the comforts of home. (Photo: June 7, 2016)

Today's Photo of the Day pays tribute to the Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort in Gatlinburg which was heavily damaged during the recent wildlife in Gatlinburg. The resort in which we spent a majority of our summer road trip suffered extensive damage during the blaze with reports of over 60 of the building destroyed in a matter of minutes in the fast moving fire. Our thoughts and prayers are with those effected by this disaster. (Photo: June 7, 2016)

Gatlinburg, Tennessee: Our summer road trip is in the home stretch as we woke up for our final full day in Tennessee. Today’s itinerary takes us to nearby Hartford for a white water rafting adventure and later to the aquarium. But first we have to tackle our obligatory resort preview at the Westgate. But before our appointment at the resort, we headed downtown for breakfast at Crockett’s Breakfast Camp. The restaurant was made to look like a rustic breakfast camp in the wilderness. The food was really good and the portions were huge! After breakfast, we drove around Gatlinburg a little before I dropped my mom back off at the room and we headed to the resort preview. Because we booked this room at such a drastic discount through BookVIP, we had to sit through a 90-minute resort preview. While I was open minded and would consider purchasing if it was affordable, I also know my budget and the likelihood was slim to none.  The resort preview was by far the most frustrat...

Gatlinburg, Tennessee: Despite being on vacation, we continued to live by the alarm clock as we were up bright and early to embark on another great day of exploring the east Tennessee mountain side. Today’s adventures takes us into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Wow, despite having a really nice looking room and a very comfortable bed, nobody got much sleep thanks the lack of insulation and soundproofing from the adjoining rooms. The neighbors were so loud and the sound was not muffled at all. At one point during the night, I woke up thinking my wife was snoring loudly. Sad thing is that it wasn’t her, or my son, or my mom and nephew in the next room. It was the neighbor in the next unit. We headed into town for breakfast at the Pancake Pantry. The Pancake Pantry was recommended to us by Mary Phillips from Ripley’s. While planning this trip, I had asked a few of the local media reps what are good dining choices and she recommended the Pancake Pantry. It was a gre...

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee:  Rise and shine from the land of the never-ending sun, or at least it seemed.   I don't know if it was the elevation or the fact that we were farther west then our home in Florida, but it seemed to stay daylight forever.  But nonetheless, the combination of a busy day yesterday and extremely comfortable accommodations at the DreamMore Resort resulted in an amazing nights sleep. This was our final day at Dollywood, so we packed up the room before going for breakfast and heading to the park.  After the car was packed, we headed downstairs to the Song & Hearth restaurant in the hotel.  I figured it would be easier to eat at the hotel than head into town.  What a great decision, the breakfast buffet was delicious and very reasonable in price for a resort. After breakfast, we boarded the trolley and headed to the park.  Having the trolley has been a great benefit at staying at the hotel.  Not having to mess with the...