10.07.16 Bush’s Beans, Pigeon Forge and the Apple Barn

Friday, October 7, 2016 – We left Dandridge, Tennessee this morning and are traveling across the state to Hornsby, TN which is about 75 miles east of Memphis.  It is a full days drive. Roy will see his knee surgeon for a follow up while we are there.

On Tuesday we went to see several things in and around Pigeon Forge.  We’ve stayed in Pigeon Forge before and saw a lot the first time. This visit, other than Dollywood, included a few special stops. Most of these photos are clickable to enlarge.

First stop today was at the Bush’s Beans visitors center located at 3901 US 411 in Dandridge, TN.  You probably know that the spokesperson Jay has a trusty dog, Duke, who always wants to give away the Bush Family’s Secret Recipe. 

We started off by touring the museum and having our photo taken with Duke.  The photo is in the upper left at the beginning of this post.

I was sweating it out while waiting for my weight to show up (in public) but much to my delight it showed how many beans I weigh.  Roy did his also.  He’s full of more beans than I am!

A repblica of Duke’s dog house  

We then watched a 20 minute video about the family with some really funny spots about Duke.  The video also included a peek inside the workings of the Bush Bean factory–from fields to our shelves in the grocery store. It really gave us a great appreciation for this company. It was interesting to learn that they use water from mountain streams to make their beans & the water eventually gets returned to their fields through an irrigation system. Really interesting video!

At one end of the complex is the Bush Family Cafe.  We did not eat there but have heard it’s a great place to stop.  It was full with people waiting outside when we left.  Guess that means its popular at least!After the video we did some shopping in the store.  We found several Bush’s products we’ve never tried before so we bought those and other goodies before leaving there.

It was a great experience and I highly recommend visiting it if you’re in this area.  From start to finish, it was a great FREE tour.

From there we went into Pigeon Forge which is an amazing town with lots of attractions at every turn.  We came upon a Crafts Fair under a huge red and white striped tent in Patriot Park.  We (strike that we and insert I) enjoyed walking through and seeing all the uniquely Tennessee items for sale.  Found a few I had to buy for others and we were back on our way.

The first photo below is of Wonderworks.  We visited there our first time in Pigeon Forge.  It’s a wonderfully fun place for children and even adults.  We didn’t go back this time so we could check out more things.

The beautiful Smoky Mountains. We ate at the Apple Barn Restaurant, Cider Mill and Store about 5 years ago.  Remembering it well we went back again today to wrap up this outing in Pigeon Forge.  The meal started off with delicious apple fritters and their homemade apple butter.  Roy got his favorite liver and onions.  I got a four veggie platter with dumplins, sweet potatoes, amazing broccoli casserole and fried okra.  A Southern comfort meal for sure!

I came away from there with fresh baked apple bread, apple butter, apple spiced tea bags, a bag of dried apples and a bag of apple crisp mix.  All things apple are great in my book!

Well, we’ve seen a lot and had a lot of fun while in this part of Tennessee.  Wednesday and Thursday were spent resting and working!  On to our next stop in our travels! The tree leaves are starting to change a lot here and I am looking forward to seeing a lot of that in the next two weeks!

Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!