A Perfect Dolly Weekend

I love Dolly Parton. Before I picked up her book, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, I knew absolutely nothing about her, and as I turned the pages of this book I fell in love! And the more I learn about her, the more I listen to her songs, the more the love grows and grows. She has a goodness about her that I find warm and refreshing. Her pure outlook on life sparkles and shines through everything she does. I also think she is hysterical.

My cousin, Tyler, and his wife, Ashley, moved out to Knoxville a few years ago for Tyler's doctorate program, and I was SO excited that they could visit Dollywood for me and tell me all about it. Well, this past December when they were in town and at the family Christmas party, I asked if they had made it over to Dollywood yet, and Ashley said that they were waiting to go with a real Dolly fan, and told me I should come out and visit!

So I looked up when Dolly would be making an appearance at the park and booked my plane tickets!

The trip was this past weekend, and it was a riot. McKay decided that she should come too, and it just worked out that my other cousin, with his family, ended up visiting the same weekend and coming with us to the park.

Dollywood is located where Dolly was born and raised, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee... and the town was packed and buzzing for the 30th Anniversary of the Dolly Homecoming Parade. Pigeon Forge is the weirdest place... imagine a town run by redneck hill billies who all want to make money off of the tourists who come to town for Dollywood. The entire main street has the weirdest attractions... t-shirt world, souvenir world, mini-golf courses (there's at least ten of these), go-cart tracks (a ton of these as well), and weird places to go see shows that look like casinos.

Very odd.

When the parade started I was soooo excited! And so happy! I couldn't wait to see that Dolly Parton! And luckily we didn't have to wait long... since she was the grand marshal in the parade, she was the first float that went by... proceeded by a high school marching band.

 This is when we could finally see the parade coming!

 Here's the selfie I took at the beginning of the parade.

Yeah, I got the memo along with most of the people of Pigeon Forge to wear camo.

I wanna party with these ladies.

 AND HERE SHE IS!

COMING OUT OF A CAKE, OF COURSE!

It was so exhilarating to finally see her in real life. McKay's emotions over came her and she cried a little bit... and that just made me laugh even more! The moment was so intense I couldn't stop laughing!

It was so exciting... and when she went by I started running along side the parade so I could keep taking her picture... McKay was also taking pictures of me, looking insane as I was running and freaking out:

 (McKay and I)

After Dolly left, the rest of the parade was just long and uneventful. And strangely quiet... nobody was clapping, whistling, or whooping around... so we tried our best to whoop it up. Weirdest parade ever... just people advertising their redneck hill billy shops and tourist attractions:

The following day we all went to Dollywood, which apparently is the busiest day of the year to go... but it was still awesome. The Wild Eagle roller coaster was so rad we waited to ride it twice. But what made it perfect was when we heard there would be ANOTHER parade with Dolly!!!

This parade was way smaller... just the high school band that Dolly used to play drums for then Dolly again, this time being driven in this awesome old car:

These next pictures are my favorite - my cousin's wife, Christina, took them for me... and it captures how great my hair was looking, and Dolly LOCKING EYES WITH ME!

It gave me the chills!!!!!

I still can't believe how lucky it was.

Oh, I just admire this crazy lady so much, she has become exactly who she wanted to be. A tacky glamorous redneck country star! She worked hard and stayed true to herself. I absolutely love that about her. I wish more famous people were like her.

Did you know that every child in Tennessee gets books from her in the mail once a month? It's true, from the day they are born till they start school. My cousins kids have a whole drawer full of books from Dolly, and while we were visiting another one came in the mail. I think it's so sweet and smart.

At Dollywood we got to see the house she grew up in, her old tour bus, and then a museum full of her dresses, shoes, and records... I took it all in.

 Here's the cabin, those ladies on the porch with us didn't realize we were trying to get a picture... but I love that they are in there with us:

(click here to see an old picture of the cabin) 

I took a picture of this at the Dolly museum, I thought it was pretty cool:

Some of the MANY dresses on display:

They told us that they left the tour bus exactly how Dolly had it while on tour... and this was hanging on one of the walls... for some reason it cracks me up, she's only worth 500 million dollars, but chooses to surround herself with stuff like this:

Since going this past weekend I have been listening to Dolly while at work, and this is my new favorite song of hers, Just The Way I Am, it's perfect for this woman who doesn't care what others say or think about her. Which is why she's one of my favorite proper mountain women.

PS. ten facts you may not know about Dolly and one of my favorite excerpts from her book