Dolly Loved Adventure

I was a huge Dolly Parton fan long before her passing, and she is Briana's favorite artist of all time. But watching the reaction to her death made something clear that I think we all felt without quite saying it. There aren't many celebrities who can transcend generations, politics, geography and musical taste. Dolly did. She was funny, gracious and positive. Completely comfortable being herself. She seemed to genuinely enjoy life, and that quality always resonated with me. So perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that one of the things she left behind is an entire world built around having fun.

I'm talking about Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I have a simple description for people who have never been there. Pigeon Forge is my Las Vegas. I'm not much of a gambler. I don't enjoy paying $18 for a bottle of water or feeling like every square foot of a city has been engineered to separate me from my money.

Vegas has casinos. Pigeon Forge has go-karts. It has mountain coasters, zip lines, off road adventures, water parks, dinner shows, axe throwing, whitewater rafting, massive mini golf, a lumberjack show, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and an Outdoor Gravity Park, where you climb inside a giant inflatable ball and roll down a hill. There is even an indoor snow park where you can go snow tubing year round.

It's just like the Las Vegas Strip if the entire economic engine were built around convincing families to do something fun together. And I absolutely love it.

Pigeon Forge is a little mountain town in East Tennessee with only around 6,000 permanent residents, yet more than 10 million people visit each year. The town grew around the Little Pigeon River, an iron forge built in 1817, and the Old Mill, built in 1830 and still operating today.

Then came Dolly. In 1986, she partnered with the Herschend family and put her name, personality and love of the Smoky Mountains behind what became Dollywood. She could have attached herself to something in Los Angeles, Nashville or Orlando. She chose home. And Dollywood feels like it.

There are serious roller coasters and major attractions, but also craftsmen, music, Southern food, family and the mountains. It feels less like someone dropped an amusement park into Tennessee and more like Tennessee decided to build an amusement park.

But Dollywood is really just the center of the target. Drive through Pigeon Forge and there's another ridiculous thing to do every few hundred feet.

Keep going into Gatlinburg and suddenly you're at the doorstep of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One day you're riding roller coasters and racing go-karts. The next you're rafting a river or hiking through one of the most beautiful natural environments in America. There are giant mountain cabins built for entire families and reunions, hotels lining the Parkway, restaurants everywhere and an endless collection of operators trying to convince you to do something fun.

That's what makes Pigeon Forge so different. It's incredibly accessible. You don't have to be an athlete, an adventurer or an experienced traveler. You don't need specialized equipment or some elaborate plan. You can show up with your kids, your parents, your friends or three generations of your family and simply start doing things together. The whole ecosystem is built around one question: What are we going to do today? That is probably why my family responded to it so strongly.

During our six month RV trip through all 48 contiguous states, we went everywhere. National parks, big cities, small towns, famous attractions, weird roadside stops. We did more than 100 different activities.

The following spring break, I asked the kids a simple question. You've now been all over America. Where do you want to go back? Pigeon Forge. Unanimous. Of the entire country, that was the first place they wanted to return to.

I think that says something. Pigeon Forge doesn't ask you to admire it. It asks you to participate. Ride something. Climb something. Race something. Get wet. Go into the mountains. Watch a show. Eat something ridiculous. Get inside a giant inflatable ball and roll down a hill because apparently that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do here. There is very little pretension involved. It's accessible, unapologetically American and almost entirely devoted to getting people together and giving them something fun to do.

And at the heart of it is Dolly. A woman who became one of the biggest stars in the world and chose to build something extraordinary in the mountains where she grew up. Something based around music, family, hospitality, laughter and fun. That feels like a pretty fitting legacy.

Be like Dolly. Go have some fun.