Bacation!

We dropped the kids at mom and dad's Sunday and busted out on the road. Stopped for shopping at the outlet mall, and snuck bites of chocolate (don't tell Dr. Atkins) on the way. I had found a hotel near Nashville that, for some reason, was listed for only 7500 Hilton Honors points (normal is 25,000). It was a short drive from the interstate, so I figured that was the reason.

Now, I usually do not do the planning for vacation, plus we'd been to Gatlinburg many times before, so I kinda forgot the directions to the hotel. I knew it was Springfield TN, how hard could it be? Well, I called the Hilton Honors line and transferred myself to Hampton Inns. They told me to take exit 37 to Springfield and then hwy 43-1N (WTB?). At exit 24, we saw the sign for Springfield. hmmmmm. At mile 35 there was an exit to Joelton, but not Springfield. At mile 37 there was no exit at all. We turned around at mile 41 or so, and coming from the other direction, exit 35 said Joelton & Springfield, hwy 431 North. taaa daaaaaah
Apparently, Springfield is not due east from either exit, so coming from the North (actually 24 East), exit 24 is correct. From the South (Nashville, 24 West), exit 35 is correct. There is no exit 37.

On the upside, the people along hwy 431 really know how to decorate for Christmas. :) We did see when we returned to I24 in the morning that taking exit 35 from the way we were coming did not allow us to turn toward Springfield. We'd have really been lost if we had gone there.

The hotel itself was nice, and it had a very nice free breakfast, but geez!
And, with our later start, we hit some big traffic volumes in Nashville, and MAJOR construction in Knoxville. Apparently an overpass started to crumble, so they shut down all but one lane on I40 during rush hour. Pleasant.

Well, we hit the shopping big time in Pigeon Forge and finally made it to Gatlinburg. While our room was nice, and had a view of the river, the only internet access was in the hotel lobby. This required a walk outside, carrying your laptop in the rain. The lobby was nice though, and there was a beautiful manger scene at the playground.
Note to self: requesting a river view in the winter is a waste. Its not like I can brave the cold on the balcony. Should have gotten a fireplace instead.

I did try to do some work, but was told to go away and enjoy vacation, so I did. My Blackberry couldn't get service in Gatlinburg, so I didn't have much choice. I did do a day's worth of work on Monday, though, so I only used 4 vacation days. Nice :)

We spent a TON of money on gifts. Usually our budget is spent on food. We may have gone a little overboard this time :)

I was ready to leave, and happy to see the kids and doggies again. We exchanged Christmas gifts with the family and played Trivial Pursuit till we were ready to shove those little pieces of pie into one anothers' orafices.
Happy Christmas #1