The billboard we saw today with a bear pictured bidding visitors to “come back” to Gatlinburg actually looked more like the bear wanted us to keep going  …. out of there.

It was their place first, you know.

I love shopping and eating as much as the next person, but how much can you really do in a day? (we take daycations instead of vacations) Do we need all those shopping malls and theme parks? Notice I didn’t say anything about the restaurants.

A day is plenty for me when it comes to sharing the air with hundreds of people coughing on, hacking on and and bumping into me in the roller coaster line. Side note: I really like the wild eagle ride at Dollywood that goes way up in the air and then drops you like a hot potato plunging toward the ground. It’s fun!

I know tourism is a good way for people to make a living, but it seems like that could be accomplished and leave the bears and all their friends happy too. Enough with all the concrete! Maybe I should organize a “no more concrete” protest. Knowing me, though, right in the middle of it I would need to get something to eat at a place with concrete parking lots and floors, and it would be a non-protest at that point.

Oh well, forget all the protesting.  I just want to see the parks stay pretty. You know — preserve the trees, rivers, streams and things like that. It’s good to get out where you can breathe and not have to stand in line to get a glimpse of nature at its finest. Now about the wild eagle roller coaster…  I wonder if the bears would like it.