Written By: 4/C William Shanahan

Today we went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This morning, the Rates were very kind and made us eggs and bacon for breakfast. This was a nice change of pace because we have only been having a quick breakfast every day. Dr. Cheek warned us to watch out of the window to see the damage of Hurricane Helene on Interstate 40. The ride was roughly 2 hours, and when we started getting into Tennessee, I started to realize the effect and strength of the water. River banks were spread out wide, and there were so many trees that had fallen. As we got closer to Gatlinburg on the backroads, the houses around there either looked new and renovated or like they had been through a lot of trouble. I had heard how there were major wildfires in Gatlinburg or nearby in the past. From what I have learned this week from the Asheville Fire Department, the fallen trees increased the chances for a wildfire and how fast it would be able to spread. In Gatlinburg, I went shopping, through Ripley’s haunted house, and the Aquarium. First, some shipmates and I went to the haunted house. It was not that scary, but a younger kid was clinging to  Mr. Rose because he was so scared. After we went through the haunted house, Mr. Harding, Mr. Heine, Mr. McShane, Mr. Rose, and I went to Jason Aldean’s restaurant. The food was very good, and the service was amazing. Then we shopped through almost all the stores they had there. We decided to play the Ripley’s Neon Ninja game; the goal of the game was to protect ourselves from the enemies displayed in front of us. As the day was coming to an end we decided to wrap up at the aquarium.

This aquarium was so much bigger and better than the one in Boston. There were many different species and so many sharks. They had a walk-through tunnel to look up at all the sharks, and there were so many different types, and it was very cool to see. For dinner, we stopped at Buc-ees, and this is not your average gas station. There were 128 gas pumps out front, and the actual ‘gas station’ was about the size of a Stop and Shop back home. Tomorrow, I am looking forward to getting back to volunteering and helping the community.