Category Archives: Travel

May 23 2025
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Photography, Pop Culture, Television, Travel

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! May 23 – May 29

Pee-Wee tells all, Kevin Costner cowboys up & a Bob Dylan musical

FRIDAY, May 23
Pee-Wee as Himself
Comedian Pee-Wee Herman narrates this doc (above) about his life, career and the creation of his iconic pop-culture alter ago (Max).

Girl From the North Country
A community in Duluth, Minn., comes together in the Great Depression—to the tune of a lot of Bob Dylan songs—in this filmed Great Performance of the Broadway musical (8 p.m., PBS).  

Fountain of Youth
John Krasinski and Natalie Portman star as estranged siblings who reunite to search for the mythological stream on an epic adventure that they’re hoping will lead to immortality (Apple TV+). 

SATURDAY, May 24
Liberian Movie Marathon
Watch three of the fantasy-adventure made-for-TV movies starring Noah Wylie as the “Librarian” who protects a secret collection of rare artifacts, in today’s back-to back running of Quest for the Spear, Return to King Soloman’s Mines and Curse of the Judas Chalice (starts 1 p.m., TNT).

SUNDAY, May 25
Thunderbirds
For the first time ever, cameras take you inside the cockpit with the U.S. Air Force’s legendary flight squadron to witness the training, danger and sacrifice it takes to be part of one of America’s most revered aerial demonstration teams (Netflix).

MONDAY, May 26
The American Music Awards
Superstar Jennifer Hudson hosts the fan-voted awards show live from Las Vegas celebrating a cross-genre span of hits and artists, with Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Shaboozey leading the nominations (CBS).

Sheri Papini: Caught in the Lie
Docuseries about the woman who mysteriously “returned” after her 2016 alleged abduction sparked a media firestorm and a federal investigation—and the questions that still swirl around the incident nearly a decade later (9 p.m., ID).

TUESDAY, May 27
America’s Got Talent
The megahit TV talent competition kicks off its milestone 20th season tonight, hosted by Terry Crews with former Spice Girl Mel B returning to the judges’ table alongside Simon Cowell, Howie Mandell and Sofia Vergara (8 p.m., NBC). 

Kevin Costner’s The West
The Yellowstone star cowboys up to host this look (above) at the sweeping and sometimes complicated history of the American West (8 p.m., History).

Destination X
Jeffrey Dean Morgan hosts this new game show as contestants embark on the road trip of a lifetime on a blacked-out bus, not knowing where they’re going, turning Europe into an enormous “game board” (NBC).

WEDNESDAY, May 28
The Grocery List Show
Host Emily Strong, a former Top Chef contender, visits international grocery stores across America to show how cuisine can forge cultural connections (PBS).

Adults
New comedy series about a group of 20-somethings in New York, where they find out nothing about the “grown-up” world they’ve entered is simple. Starring Malik Elassal, Lucy Freyer and Jack Innaren (Hulu).

THURSDAY, May 29
The Better Sister
Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks and Corey Stoll star in this eight-episode series (above) about a murder—and some terrible things that drive sisters apart and ultimately bring them back together (Prime Video).

And Just Like That…
Season three continues the post-Sex and the City relationship and adventures of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Seema, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis and Sarita Choudhury (9 p.m., Max)

NOW HEAR  THIS

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Don Henley’s Inside Job (Rhino.com), the fourth solo album by the former Eagle, now newly remastered and available in double-LP, CD and digital versions. Originally released in 2000, it followed Henley’s 1984’s blockbuster Building the Perfect Beast with his return to the musical spotlight after an 11-year absence. Tracks include “Everything is Different Now,” “For My Wedding,” “Goodbye to a River” and “The Genie.”  

READ ALL ABOUT IT

How do you “sell” the outdoors?  The Outdoor Archive (Thames & Hudson) is a handsome hard-bound collection spanning a century of ad and catalogue graphics and photography, all intended to make going outside appealing to consumers. Design experts offer insights, like what makes those tent ads so inviting? What photo effects represent action? What colors suggest adventure? And you’ll dig the reproductions of pages from retro catalogues, like a 1927 L.L Bean.

BRING IT HOME

Robert De Niro stars—in two roles!—in The Alto Knights, a biographical drama now on DVD and Blu-ray, about two organized crime bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, vying for control of New York. Once the best of friends, they’re now on a collision course that will reshape the Mafia, and America, forever (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment).

What’s so scary about a woman in the yard? Watch The Woman in the Yard (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), the bone-chilling new horror flick from Blumhouse (The Black Phone, M3Gan, The Invisible Man) and you’ll find out—as a veiled in black, otherworldly woman suddenly appears outside a farmhouse, sending a grieving mother and her childing into a real-life nightmare. Starring Danielle Deadwyler and Okwui Okpokwasili.

Al Pacino is a blind retired military colonel. Chris O’Connell is the prep-school student who takes a part-time job as his companion and assistant. And they’re both in Scent of a Woman (Shout! Factory), a new 4K disc of the 1992 drama—about their wild weekend—that won three Golden Globes. With new bonus features, including an interview with director Martin Brest.

Jun 22 2024
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Pop Culture, Travel

Spooky in the Smokies!

Gatlinburg’s Mysterious Mansion reigns as the area’s top haunted house…and it might really be haunted!

If you love getting down with some nitty-gritty haunted-house heebie-jeebies, there’s only one place you need to go in the tourist mecca of Gatlinburg, Tenn.

The Mysterious Mansion is not only the scariest place in town, it’s also one of the oldest, most established attractions in the area. It’s a family-owned business that opened back in 1980, and it continues today as a classic “old-fashioned walk-through haunt,” according to general manager Kenneth Counahan. “We have a dedicated staff that absolutely loves what they do.”

By “staff,” he’s talking about all the Mansion’s employees, but particularly the “characters,” who dress like something out of your horror-movie nightmares and lurk throughout the three-story structure, built and detailed to resemble a decrepit and intensely forbidding Victorian manor. They appear and disappear from the maze-like halls and pitch-black passageways, creep up quietly behind you or suddenly confront you around dark corners. When I went through recently, there was a hyperkinetic young woman who looked like she popped out of The Ring, a tattooed and dreadlocked slaughterhouse butcher wearing a mask resembling human flesh, and a hulking “executioner” who might have been taking a smoke break from working the guillotine. It’s like friends of Jason from Friday the 13th, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Freddy Krueger moved in together—and made plans to scare the bejeesus out of anyone nervy enough to crash their party. “They’re always present, whether you see them or not,” says Counahan. “My guys are ‘on’ you from the moment you step into the house until the moment you leave, ready to give you that excitement you came looking for.”

There’s plenty of gory disturbia, like a blood-spattered bathroom and a double sink filled with very realistic severed body-part props and viscera. There are spooky stairwells and a fog-filled space where you can’t see where your next step is taking you. You make your way blindly through a closet packed with old clothes and other places where your eyes really aren’t much use. The scare factor is considerably heightened by not knowing what, or who, might be beside you, behind you, or just inches away from your face. There are flashing lights, strange noises, voices, and a lot of jolty gotchas.

“It’s not just walking through and looking at stuff,” Counahan says. “You’re totally immersed in the environment to the point you might question if you’re gonna make it out OK.” And if you get completely freaked in the middle of your “visit,” there are a couple of “emergency exit” doors that will end your tour pronto.

The Mansion is designed as an actual house, a multi-level, many-roomed manor from a long-ago time—and perhaps still inhabited by the spirits of its former owners. Maybe there’s also some honest-to-gosh ghosts, hints Counahan, who points out the house’s location beside a seven-story hotel, where many years ago a young woman fell from one of the balconies to her death. Sometimes, he says, “people tell us they’ve seen a little girl running around the house, laughing and giggling.” Hmmmm… Then there’s the story (perhaps also true) that the Mansion’s current owner, when she was a little girl, remembers a medium coming to the house to “open a portal between this realm and the next, to invite spirits to come and pass freely inside,” and never closed the door.

Most of the staff have experienced things even they can’t explain—footsteps, voices, laughter, shadows darker than the darkness, and a strange “energy” they feel when walking inside. So, the Mansion not only depicts a haunted house, it might really be a haunted house.

“There’s always that question of the paranormal, what happens after we leave our bodies here and what happens to us after our time here is done,” Counahan says. “It’s that unknown, and the excitement of wanting to know, that keeps bringing people back.”

It all adds up to a supremely scarifying experience, unlike anything you’ll encounter elsewhere in the area…and one that keeps visitors to the Smoky Mountains returning for hefty new haunted-house doses of thrills, chills and good ol’ fright-night fun. It’s open year-round, and the staff continually updates the scares and surprises. But be warned: It’s probably too intense for younger kids, even though none of the characters can touch or make any physical contact with guests.  And if you’re mobility challenged, all the stairs and narrow passageways aren’t for you.

The Mansion is a particularly busy during October, when people flock to the Smokies to see the fall colors—and get in the trick-or-treat spirit. During the week of Halloween, the Mysterious Mansion may see upward of 800 visitors a day. But any time is a great time to be spooked at Gatlinburg’s original spookhouse, where the hauntings might be real, the ghouls are always lurking, and the staff really enjoys their work…scaring you.
“For us,” says Counahan with a grin, “every day is Halloween.”

—Neil Pond

Oct 11 2023
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Travel

Smoky Mountain High

Taking in the awesome sights atop Ober Mountain

I got high in Gatlinburg.

Really, really high—on the longest, steepest, highest-altitude chairlift in Tennessee.

There are other ways to get elevated in Gatlinburg, the bustling tourist hotspot at the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But this ride is the OG. The appropriately named Scenic Chairlift was installed in the early 1960s for winter access to high-up ski slopes, then repurposed later for anyone to enjoy the spectacular view of the Smokies from the tippy-top of Mount Harrison, 3,455 feet above sea level. Up there, the air is thinner, the temps are cooler, and the majestic peaks of the surrounding mountains tower like silent sentinels as far as the eye can see. You can hear the crickets chirping, but little else.

Today, the Scenic Lift is part of the sprawling, ever-expanding amusement park and recreation complex at Ober Mountain, itself one of Gatlinburg’s oldest tourist attractions. What eventually became Ober was originally built as a private ski club in 1962, and members had to access the lift first by driving their own vehicles to the mountaintop “lodge.” Later, the cable-car gondolas of Ober’s Aerial Tramway, which became the attraction’s “signature” ride after opening to the public in 1973, were launched as an alternative, weather-proof way for snow enthusiasts to get to the slopes when higher-altitude winter driving was inadvisable.

When the Aerial Tramway opened, it was the largest in the world, with enclosed aerial lifts that could each hold up 120 passengers at a time. Initially called Ober Gatlinburg (which simply means “Over Gatlinburg”), the tramway and all its associated attractions were recently rebranded under progress-minded new management as Ober Mountain. But it’s always been one of the best, and most unique ways, to take in the sights going up, coming down and all around. In August, the Ober Tramway marked its 50th anniversary. And for decades, it’s been so much more the “ski lift” club that started it all.

If you’ve been to Gatlinburg anytime since the 1970s, you’re probably familiar with Ober, operating from its “base” on the southwest end of the downtown Gatlinburg main-drag parkway just a few hundred yards from the Tennessee-side driving entrance into the park via U.S. highway 441. Built on the site of a former motel, Ober’s street-level, lodge-like Tramway Mall houses the massive mechanics—the giant bullwheel and oversized spools of thick, Swiss-made steel cable—that pull along the twin gondolas. You can view the innards of the truly impressive operation through windows on the lower level. Inside the main Tramway, look up to the second interior walk-around level and you’ll see the building’s history along one side, where Ober offices were built into exterior rooms of the old Hemlock motel.

In the Tramway, you can stroll around and watch the suspended gondolas moving smoothly overhead, gliding along between huge steel towers. You can nibble on tasty treats at the Chocolate Monkey, buy souvenirs and coffee drinks, or get a relaxing aqua massage before you board a cable car for the trip across the treetops to Ober Mountain (elevation 2,687 feet).

There’ll you’ll find a mountainside hub of activities featuring a mall with an ice-skating rink, retail shops and snack bars with fudge (yes, more fudge!), ice cream, sandwiches and hot dogs. There are even lockers to stash your “stuff” while you do other things, inside or outside at the adjacent Adventure Park, like the tree-topping Tennessee Flyer mountain coaster, a kids’ play zone, an alpine slide, more food options and live entertainment. There are additional seasonal activities, like summer water tubing, snow skiing and snow tubing in the winter, and Friday-night movies on a huge, high-tech outdoor screen Friday nights through October.

There’s also mountain biking (all downhill, accessible on a chairlift specially fitted with bike racks), and the Scenic Lift, the cable-chair ride up the steep side of Mount Harrison, where you’ll rise almost 800 additional feet above and beyond the Adventure Park to a cleared-out plateau with restrooms, a viewing area, more snacks, and live bluegrass music on Gatlinburg’s highest stage May through November.

Ober’s Wildlife Habitat, also atop Ober Mountain, features black bears, river otters, bobcats, and raccoons, plus flying squirrels, turtles, birds of prey and snakes. It’s the best way you can visit Gatlinburg and be guaranteed to get up close and personal with a spectrum of indigenous Tennessee creatures. All the animals there have been “rescued” and relocated from zoos, or from rehab facilities that took them in after injury or abandonment.  One of everyone’s favorite critters is a little albino racoon named Casper, whose lack of natural-camouflage coloration made him a target for predators, especially after his little paw was seriously injuring by a dog. Casper is so popular, says Amy Warner, Ober’s vice president of sales and marketing, that Ober gift shops will soon be offering “Casper” souvenirs and plush toys.

And everything (except snacks, retail purchases and souvenirs, and equipment rental for skis and mountain biking) is included in the $49 wristband you can buy down on the Parkway level, in the Tramway. It’s a terrific deal for the array of activities for all ages, year-round, plus some of the most awesome, unparalleled views in all of Gatlinburg, especially in the fall.

Warner also shared with me the plans for even more additions and renovations at Ober, including a mountaintop event space and a zipline from mountaintop to mountaintop. She envisions mountaintop wedding ceremonies after which the bride, groom and entire wedding party can cap off the event by strapping in and zipping down. It’s all part of Ober’s plans to “modernize” this iconic fixture of Gatlinburg, she says, while continuing to cultivate the unique nostalgia of its 50-year heritage of skiing, sightseeing and mountain tourism.  

And, of course, all while offering one of the best (natural) highs in all of Tennessee.

Photos except Aerial Tram courtesy Ober Mountain

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Jun 06 2023
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History, Pop Culture, Travel

The Top 5 Eat-ertainment Experiences in Gatlinburg

Come for the mountains, stay for the munchies, the music…and the mermaids! (And respect the bears!)

Blake Shelton performs at Ole Red Gatlinburg.

Some 14 million visitors trek each year to the Great Smoky Mountains—and most of them funnel through Gatlinburg, the bustling tourism hamlet in Tennessee’s southeast corner that’s become the primary gateway to the most-visited national park in America.

And many of those visitors spend time or even drop anchor in Gatlinburg, surrounded on three sides by the natural wonders of the park and filled to the brim with things to see, hear, do…and eat.

Some people just enjoy the scenery—or the distilleries offering moonshine tastings. Others shop for souvenirs and memorabilia, play minigolf, hike, bike or camp, or drive into the Smokies. But everybody eats something, sometime—or a lot of times, which is most of the time in Gatlinburg. In a place with so much to do and see, wouldn’t it be perfect to do and see and eat all in one place? Here are the top “eat-ertainment” experiences you should have on your to-do menu if you’re headed to this unique resort town just under 10 miles away from where superstar Dolly Parton was born and raised.  

Ole Red

As country fans know, this restaurant and live-music venue is themed around the song “Ol’ Red,” the 2001 hit for Blake Shelton. Owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, it’s part of a growing Ole Red venture branded with Shelton, with other locations in Nashville, Orlando and Tishomingo, Okla., near the entertainer’s home. Gatlinburg’s Ole Red, a double-tiered honky-tonk, offers a “taste” of its superstar namesake with nearly continuous live entertainment, signature drinks, and a full menu of hearty (though perhaps not quite heart-healthy!) appetizers and main courses for lunch or dinner.

There’s a gift shop with all sorts of Blake Shelton merch and other Gatlinburg swag.

And Ole Red is the only place in town with an upside-down tractor hanging from the ceiling. What color? Red, of course.

It’s the top choice in Gatlinburg for hearing live music day or night on a full-scale stage tricked out with a truckload of high-tech AV, while diving into barnyard-sized food and hydrating with Mason Jars full of creative beverages, and perhaps even doing a little boot scootin’ on the dance floor. Sometimes Shelton himself even drops by or calls in to Facetime on the giant screen above the stage, much to the delight everyone who just happen to be there.

On my most recent visit, I noshed on Redneck Nachos (tortilla chips, taco meat, red onions, jalapenos and avocado cream) and a massive platter of Junk Yard Fries (garnished with onion straws, fried jalapenos, pulled pork and garlic parmesan topping), and washed it all down with a Hillbilly Breeze (coconut rum, orange liqueur, tequila and orange juice). There was no room after that for any of the signature main course items, like the Hell Right Burger (with a beef patty, a hot dog and an egg), the Grilled Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf or the Kiss My Grilled Chicken Sammich (with peach jam and barbecue sauce on a potato bun).

I’m a sucker for fruity desserts, so I was sorely tempted by—but resisted—the Mountain Berry Crisp, which incorporates strawberries, blueberries and blackberries into a honey cornbread crumble, topped with ice cream. But that would have hit the bullseye in my sweet spot.

On stage, Louisiana-born singer-songwriter Sara Collins sat with her guitar and performed a sweet selection of ‘70s mellow rock and country-classic covers, interwoven with originals from her new album Roots (to be released June 30). A regular at Ole Red’s, she’s a former contestant on The Voice (season 18) who relocated with her family to the Gatlinburg area four years ago, when she was still in high school. After her midday set, she told me she loves playing Ole Red, but it takes a bit of stage-banter recalibration from all the local gigs at bars and festivals she played back home in Baton Rouge.

“You never know where people are from,” she says, referencing how Gatlinburg draws visitors from across America, and even internationally. “You can’t make jokes about the ‘local’ sports teams.” (Earlier in the day, I’d met a family from Israel, saw a group of women wearing burkas crossing a busy street and shared some morning doughnuts with a vlogger, Sean Hussey, who relocated to Gatlinburg from Rhode Island more than a decade ago and now makes videos as “The Gatlinburg Hussey.”) At Ole Red, Collins avoided sports chitchat but instead cautioned diners to keep their vehicles locked during their visit, because bears that wander into town—with some frequency—have learned how to open unlocked car doors in search of food.

When it launched its Gatlinburg location in 2019, Ole Red was in a league of its own as the only entertainment spot in town with a bona fide superstar connection; the hitmaking, 10-million-selling Shelton was a double-digit CMA Awards winner, and he’d been a coach on TV’s The Voice since the show launched in 2011. (He recently announced he’ll be leaving after 23 seasons to spend more time with Stefani, whom he married in 2021, and her three young sons.)

But now there’s another country-star venue on the Gatlinburg horizon. Jason Aldean—also a country hitmaker, and also Shelton’s good buddy—is readying a new venue that will bear his name just up the street. With six bars on two levels, it will be the second in his expanding entertainment franchise, after the original operation in downtown Nashville. But Ole Red’s Chrisy Lambert, the food and hospitality manager, isn’t fazed by the competition. “It’s going to be a totally different kind of place, with a rooftop bar,” instead of a single larger enclosed showroom like Ole Red, where the music and the munching can go on year-round, rain or shine.

With a red tractor overhead.

Ripley’s Aquarium

It’s already a world-class aqua experience, with sea critters of every shape and size, a glass-bottom boat ride and the world’s longest underwater viewing tunnel. And Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies is the only place in Gatlinburg where you can get something to eat…and then consume it just feet (or even inches!) away from creatures that would probably love to sink their teeth into whatever you’re chewing. You can watch sharks and stingrays swim overhead after you pick up your items from the Feeding Frenzy snack and concession area, with a refreshingly diverse menu that includes burgers (including a veggie option), hotdogs, grilled cheese, chicken fingers, a hummus snack cup, veggie sticks and salad, and more. And it’s the only place in Gatlinburg where—if you get there early enough in the day—you can have breakfast with a mermaid!

Anakeesta

One of Gatlinburg’s newest attractions, this sprawling mountaintop theme park (which opened in 2017) takes its name from a Cherokee Indian word meaning “high ground,” which is also the term given to a geological layer of rock that permeates the Smoky Mountains. It offers activities for all ages, including a zipline, mountain coaster, a catwalk through the hillside canopy of trees, an elaborate play area for kids (or grownups), a 60-foot-tall viewing tower, and a dazzling nighttime display called Astra Lumina. While you’re gaping at the breathtaking eagle’s-eye views of the surrounding scenery, you can snack on ice cream, pies, brownies and other treats, shop for souvenirs or sit down at the Cliff Top restaurant for a full-course meal of barbecue, catfish or burgers. And watch out for bears—they like visiting Anakeesta, too, especially overnight when the area is otherwise closed. (It was, after all, built into what was formerly their exclusive habitat.) When I was there, the Astra Lumina experience was temporarily inoperable; a mama bear and her cubs were blocking one of the walking paths, and park workers were respectfully giving them the right of way. On another visit, the chairlift (which transports visitors up and down the mountain) and the mountain coaster were paused because a black bear was spotted foraging in the area. It’s no surprise one of the areas of Anakeesta is called Black Bear Village.

Fannie Farkle’s

One of Gatlinburg’s oldest attractions on its main-drag “parkway” has been around for more than 40 years. It’s a bustling little amusement center, with loads of arcade games and a small-town “carnival” theme. But its main event is always what’s cookin’ through the front windows as you stroll past. It’s the home of the famous Ogle Dog (named for one of Gatlinburg’s first settler families), foot-long cornmeal weenie feasts that are cooked up street-level, right in front of your eyes. And it’s not an official walk through Gatlinburg unless you’re in range to smell the storefront grill sizzling with onions and peppers, the aromatic garnish for the cheesesteaks and sausage subs. Named for its founder, a former burlesque dancer, Fannie Farkle’s even has small mini-tables lining its outside wall, for standing and snacking on some of the town’s most distinctive dishes.

Ober Mountain

Until just recently, this longstanding alpine hub of activities (it opened in 1972, as transport up to winter skiing) was called Ober Gatlinburg. It’s been renamed in a wave of recent updates, but it’s still the only “tram ride” in town, lifting up to 120 passengers at a time high onto Mount Harrison, where there’s a mountain coaster, an alpine slide, downhill mountain biking, water tubing and snow tubing (in season), a year-round ice-skating rink, souvenir mall and a wildlife-habitat encounter offering up-close visits with bears, otters, foxes, falcons, wildcats and other rescued mountain critters. Then you can take a chairlift even further up the mountain, where the views are spectacular, the air is clean and crystal-clear, and the sounds of a live bluegrass band set the scene May through November. Ober’s restaurant and lounge were closed for renovation when I was there, but snacks elsewhere were plentiful—sandwiches from the Sidewalk Café (overlooking the ice-skating rink), sweets at the Fudge Shop and a selection of coffee and other beverages brewing at the Ski Mountain Grind House. And it’s the only place in town where you can eat, then watch North American river otters gulp down buckets of cut-up fish parts…otherwise unavailable at Ober, um, unless you’re an otter.