Gatlinburg Midnight Parade

A few highlights from the midnight parade. Gatlinburg has their parade at 12:01am on the 4th. People place chairs up and down the street on the morning of the 3rd to reserve their place upfront on the sidewalk. We're still amazed after all these years that no ones steals the chairs! By 10pm you had better be staked out waiting on the parade or you're not going to be near the front of the street to see anything. Around 11:45 pm, the main street is closed and everyone is lined up, usually about 4 rows deep of people, waiting on the parade. Usually they say there's about 100,000 visitors for the parade. Pretty impressive for a small town! It generally lasts until atleast 1:30am.

Sweet Frog is new in the Smokies!

Cirque de chine

It's Tennesee! You have to have atleast one Dolly impersonater! ;)

Now that's a whole new meaning to "drinking and driving"

 Grand marshals for the parade included members of the Tuskegee Airman Association from Atlanta, Ga. and from Louisville, Ky.

Got to start the parade with the fire trucks

Ripley's Aquarium

The Comedy Barn, Pigeon Forge

and Sheri's favorite....men in kilts ;)

Gatlinburg celebrates the 4th

Front of Ripley's Aquarium

Front sidewalk of Ripley's

All the chairs lined up waiting on the parade tonight

Trolley

Gatlinburg here we come!

We arrived in Gatlinburg to sweltering hot weather of 105 degrees! Somehow I thought this would be a nice vacation break. It sounds like it would be cooler in the mountains, right? Gatlinburg, like the rest of the US, has been having record breaking high temperatures for the last two weeks.

After checking into our motel, and cranking the AC on HIGH, we decided to scooter around a bit and see what's changed since the last time we were in town. Naturally with the economy we've had the past few years, a few places have closed--it's always interesting to see what new places have taken their place. Every year I ask the same question: How many t-shirt places does one tourist town need? Apparently there's always room for one more. I saw this one in a Tennesee Jerky store and after my "ewwww, that's just wrong!" I had to snap a picture. Jerky stores are big in Gatlinburg and they sell your usual beef and turkey plus elk, trout, salmon, alligator, and other "wild" meats.

Gatlinburg TN: 4th of July parade

It's the 3rd of July and it feels like July!! And we have staked out our places on the sidewalk around 11pm. Of course, we were late by everyone else's timetable...yep, they line up around 6pm to get a good seat up and down the main street of Gatlinburg. We decided we'd rather take a nap since we knew we'd be up until 2am. :) As you can see in the first picture, Jeff is ready and waiting for the parade & I'm right next to him (that's my basket on the left).

I'm not sure how the tradition started, but about 10 minutes before the parade begins at midnight, people start throwing their loose change into the streets and all the kids run out the grab what they can. Bet it's the only time the kids would dive for change and not dollar bills. ;)

I'm not really sure what this is, but the parade hasn't officially started and here's this Puppetone Rockers rolling down the street!

And let's not forget there's always these hawkers selling those sparkly lights and stuff for the kiddies.

The parade always starts with the local fire departments. Yes, that's a big dog character in the bucket up front.

Just in case you forgot what you were waiting for...after all, most of these folks have been here since 6pm.

The first in line, the military branches proudly at the beginning of the parade.

I don't remember seeing one of these type of floats last year. We were at a traffic light, so it was fun to watch them coordinate and get the floats under the lights.

Toys for Tots Float:

More Military:

Gatlinburg Inn float:

And of course, Cooters:

Gotta show the police car:

And "Boss Hogg" waving to the crowds:

OH, this one is our favorite. The economy has been bad,you know:

One of the "General Lee's" in the parade:

Every parade has to have a grand marshall & this year it's miss Daisy Duke:

Wow, she looks good for her age!

Ripley's Aquarium:

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians with Miss Cherokee:

Lots of antique cars all decked out for the 4th of July:

Local radio station:

A local chapter of the Red Hat Society ladies:

Ober Gatlinburg:

Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre:

Food City float....awesome gigantic grocery cart!!

Haunted Mansion:

Ghostwalks through Gatlinburg:

Dolly Partons' Dixie Stampede:

Tennesee State Bank....yeah, we'd like to have that for a camper, stuffed full of money:

Christian float:

Lots of antique cars through out the parade:

Ole Smokey Tennessee Moonshine (Tennesee's first legal moonshine...you can get free samples in there stores OR buy some to take home):

Really, it's in Tennesee, didn't you expect to see some tractors?

White Water Rafting:

Knoxville zoo:

Soul of Shaolin Theatre:

Cool tiger float!

Frightworks:

Tennesee River Old Iron:

Antique tractors AND a few John Deere:

LumberJack Feud (Pigeon Forge's newest dinner theatre):

Hatfields & McCoys dinner theatre in Pigeon Forge (where Black Bear jamboree used to be next to the Titantic):

Yes, you can buy your own fairytale carriage:

Grand Majestic Theatre:

Majestic Magic:

Majestic Soul of Motown:

Chocolate Monkey:

He's patriotic (woof, woof):

Another float that almost didn't make it under the traffic lights:

Santa store:

Well, we thought the parade seemed alot shorter than last year. We talked to a few others and they agreed. It was still good though and we got back to our motel by 1:15am...we just had to scooter up the street!