Happily Flexible

What you may be expecting is a post about yoga. What you are getting is a post about Tennessee.

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A couple of weeks ago Sally and I spent a few days in the Volunteer State, Tennessee. The original purpose was to attend Dan Miller’s Coaching with Excellence event. (Side note, Dan is the author of 48 Days to the Work You Love an several other books and resources. To get more details on Dan’s great content or live events check out my affiliate link.) It worked out that we would be in Tennessee over our anniversary so we decided to stay an extra couple of days to celebrate!

What We Planned

After the coaching event in Franklin, TN (which we attended in order to learn more about launching our marriage coaching practice…details coming soon) we drove 3 hours to Pigeon Forge, TN. Pigeon Forge is located near the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and is also home to Dollywood, a Dolly Parton owned amusement park with a Smokey Mountains theme. All of our married life Sally has been telling me about Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and how she had loved visiting them as a child. She talked about going to Dollywood which her family had not done, but she wanted to check it out. So our plan was go to Dollywood and then possibly to Gatlinburg the next day.

The Warning

The morning of our first full day in Pigeon Forge we woke up, went for a bit of a run and then visited the trolley office to buy wristbands so we could have unlimited rides on the Pigeon Forge trolley system all day. It would save us a lot of frustration in traffic and at least $10 to park at Dollywood. We chatted with the wonderfully sweet southern woman at the office for quite some time. She let us know that we could expect VERY long lines at Dollywood (it was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend) and would likely be disappointed due to not riding many rides.

What We Did

In our hotel and the trolley office they had many brochures for local attractions. One of them was a place called Ober Gatlinburg, a ski area and amusement park above Gatlinburg, TN. On the wise advice of the local woman Sally decided... Click To Tweet On the wise advice of the local woman Sally decided to skip Dollywood and the long lines and opt to check out Gatlinburg and Ober Gatlinburg. Note that she had been talking about Dollywood for TWO DECADES! But she determined (and I readily agreed) that we didn’t want to spend our anniversary standing in long lines all day. She was completely flexible and happy about it.

The Result

We spent a few hours enjoying downtown Gatlinburg (we got to see a celebrity, Rick Hurst who played Cletus on the Dukes of Hazzard TV show). We enjoyed a VERY tasty lunch at No Way Jose’s, checked out some great local shopping (I purchased flavorful Mountain Q Chipotle Barbeque Sauce at Pepper Palace) and just had fun checking out the area. Then we went to the Ober Gatlinburg tram and rode it several miles up the mountain (not our video :-)). Once at the Ober Gatlinburg park we rode the Ski Mountain Coaster, took the ski lift all the way to the top of Mt. Harrison and had a FANTASTIC time! We stayed up until well after sunset and rode the tram back down in the dark. So beautiful! Overall changing our plans from Dollywood to Gatlinburg and Ober Gatlinburg worked out very well!

mountains

What’s the Point?

Although I wrote a fair amount about a portion of our trip, that’s not really the point of this post. The point is that Sally was happy to be flexible and change plans on the fly. She looked at the options and made a change without any problem. I asked more than once if she would rather go to Dollywood…but she was all in for Gatlinburg instead.

The Questions

I’ll finish this up with a couple of questions for you my friends. When circumstances change around you what is your response? When circumstances change around you what is your response? Click To Tweet Are you rigid and demand that everything still go with your original plan, even though it may no longer be practical? Or perhaps are you ok with changing when necessary? Not begrudgingly, but with happiness! I don’t mean compromising principles, but just in everyday life how do you respond to change. Change is inevitable and those who accept it with joy and anticipation will have a much happier marriage than those who don’t.

Love you all!

-Troy