Pigeon Forge, Tennessee's crime rate is less than 1%

On our way to Asheville, NC we randomly decided to make a stop in Pigeon Forge, TN. There was a nice-looking rv park there and more importantly, it's home to Dollywood. Driving down the main drag of Pigeon Forge is like being on "country acid." Everything is big and themed. There's also a shit ton of dinner shows. Apparently people really enjoy being "entertained" by very poor impersonators while chowing down on delicious whole chickens smothered in country gravy. I mean, honestly that's my shit right there. Throw me a few performers made up like clowns and a 10 course country dinner, complete with unlimited sweet tea refills, and I can die a happy woman.
 The park we stayed at was pretty nice. It had a pool we never went in, and the ducks really liked our spot.
 Pigeon Forge and the surrounding towns have a trolley system called "Fun Time Trolley." It picked us up at the park and dropped us off at another stop which was in front of this place.We think it's like lazer tag but with magic wands. So when the next trolley picked us up it was already loaded with tourists. One guy kept telling the driver he wanted to go to the "Tan-jeer" outlets, obviously that was the highlight of the day for me. We ended up at the "Tan-jeer" outlets in the pouring rain. We should've went to the Christmas Place, whatever that is. On the trolley back the driver decided to tell us why living in Pigeon Forge is amazing. 1. It's in a dry county. 2. The crime rate is less than 1%. 3. It's always packed with tourists. I think it's pretty safe to say that we found our new home. Oh, and we never made it to Dollywood :)

Nashville

Another heat wave...awesome. We parked on a broken cement slab across from a halfway house. We only stayed for a few days and didn't get to see much, due to lack of transportation and intense heat. Jeff did a tattoo on nice guy/tattooer Steve Martin. He works at a really nice shop called Black 13 Tattoo in Nashville, along with Josh Woods, Ian White and Marty McEwen.The shop is in this awesome historic building called Cummins Station.One of the shop owners, Doy was super nice and let us park at his house for a day. We wanted to explore and not worry about leaving the dogs on the slab. The exploring was very short lived and we returned to the slab and the stares of the halfway house residents. One of them actually yelled at me when I was walking the dogs. I'm pretty sure they said "YEAH! pick up that poop girl!" That was the highlight for me, along with the hot pink stretch limo we saw. I'd definitely like to go back sometime and see the city. Seems like a cool place.

Alabama

Our next stop was Mobile/Fairhope Alabama. We went to visit a very awesome person named Sean Herman. He tattoos at Royal Street in Daphne. Amazing tattooer and very hospitable host. We were welcomed by some delicious vegan cookies, his girlfriend, Grace made for us and sent off with some home grown veggies. They also let us park on their lawn and Sean let us use his car, pretty rad. We had a blast hanging out but it was still way too hot for us. From there we went straight to the closest rv park to empty and fill and do some laundry.
 We stayed less than a day and began our journey to Nashville. We got about half way and stayed at another rv park. This place had trees and a lake, so we were pretty pumped.
 Our satellite couldn't find a signal the whole time we were there, so we watched some movies. Still extremely hot. Walked the dogs around the lake a few times, got to use our grill.

Next stop Nashville.

New Orleans tattoo pics and The Rose book

For anyone who doesn't already know, Jeff's got a new book out. It's called 'The Rose' and it's pretty rad. The books are a limited edition of 100, signed and numbered. Jeff had the covers hand silk-screened by Don Rock before we left Austin. Pretty cool process to watch.For more info on the book go to JeffEnsminger.com

I finally got the tattoo pics from Eyecandy in New Orleans:

Rancor Jeff did on rad tattooer/Star Wars fanatic Michael Cangelosi.

Decaying hawk skull on a falconer from New Orleans. This dude was awesome, he knew we didn't have a car and brought us a whole bag of groceries from Whole Foods!

And lastly..this is the tattoo Jeff did on Randy Muller. He's really into skating pools. They actually traded tattoos and he did our motor home coming out of the yellow rose of Texas on Jeff's leg. Looks awesome.

1st Stop- New Orleans

So..first stop..New Orleans. Neither of us had ever been there and we were pretty pumped. Jeff did a guest spot at Randy Muller's shop, Eyecandy on Magazine St.  Really cool shop and super nice guys. Jeff did a tattoo on a guy named Michael who works there and also traded one with Randy. I'll be posting those tattoo pics whenever I get them from Jeff. We weren't sure we were even going to be able to stay for very long due to the extreme heat. We'd never taken the rv on a trip through the south in August. It was rough at first, but once we were parked (on a sidewalk across from the shop) it was totally fine. We ventured down to the French Quarter and Bourbon St. on our last day there. We walked around for about 30 mins and produced approximately 75 gallons of sweat a piece. Here's a few pics-

We checked out a few "voodoo" and "black magic" places while we were there, but they were pretty generic and touristy. Still fun though...We both really liked New Orleans and will definitely be back when the temperature drops. 

Introduction

There she is, the woman of our dreams. This is the first time I've ever blogged and it's very weird. My boyfriend (Jeff) and I (Lex) are traveling around the U.S. in our motor home. We were living in Austin, TX, but it just got too hot and too crowded with "the Austin elite." We're looking for a new home and a place to open a tattoo shop. We brought our two dogs along to help us, Marcel and French Toast. Jeff's doing a few guest spots at some shops along the way and we'll also be visiting friends and family. I'll be posting photos and writing about things we've seen or done. I'll also be documenting how often Jeff has to pump the sewage. ;)