F6 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022
keep the gates shuttered because
of severe winter weather. At
DreamMore, the staff scrambled
to distract the adults with no
backup plans and the fidgety
children whose parents had
packed swim trunks but not
snowsuits. Employees served us
doughnuts and hot chocolate and
scheduled shows by a young fe-
male guitarist who sweetly sang
“Jolene” in this Temple of Dolly
and a keyboardist whose voice
soared to the highest reaches of
the atrium.
I took advantage of the unex-
pected downtime to explore the
resort, setting off on a scavenger
hunt of Dolly treasures. Opposite
the Song & Hearth restaurant
(found the stone soup!) and along
the wall of album covers, I locat-
ed her first record, “Hello, I’m
Dolly,” which was released in- I also unearthed her last —
and possibly postmortem — song,
which is sealed inside a time
capsule called the Dream Box.
Her instructions forbid any ears
to hear “My Place in History”
until her 100th birthday, on Jan.
19, 2046.
Wondering whether Dolly was
also stranded in the snow, I
decided to swing by the Dolly
Parton Suite, where she has been
staying since her tour bus was
decommissioned. I asked a
housekeeper for the floor num-
ber. She cut my quest short,
informing me that Dolly had
departed the premises.
“In this weather? In those
heels?” I asked incredulously.
“She has people who help her
walk,” the housekeeper assured
me.
During my wanderings, I ran
into a few familiar faces, such as
Dolly’s stylist and a three-genera-
tion family who had driven nine
hours from Mississippi. I had
originally met the grandmother,
mother and 9-year-old daughter,
Rylee Kate, at the resort’s Bed-
time Stories. The public readings,
which typically attract an audi-
ence of pajama-clad kids, feature
titles from Dolly’s Imagination
Library, the nonprofit program
that sends children free monthly
books until they turn 5. When I
bumped into Rylee Kate on our
snow day, she was empty-handed,
which had not been the case the
day before.
“She carried her guitar around
all day, hoping Dolly would sign
it,” said Jessica Strebeck, her
mother. “I was a desperate mama
trying to get my girl’s dream to
come true.”
And come true it did. Jessica
had noticed a member of Dolly’s
security team outside the tour
bus and asked whether he could
pass along the guitar to Dolly.
Later, the family heard a knock
on their hotel room door. An
employee delivered Rylee Kate’s
instrument with the looping in-
scription: “To Rylee. Love you,
Dolly Parton.”
One dream accomplished, and
the season had only just begun.
full sparkling splendor.
“Woo-hoo!” screamed the fans.
“Woo-hoo!” replied Dolly, raising
her bangled arms up high as if
she were careening down a roller
coaster.
The processional starring the
“dreamer in chief” in her DeWitt
convertible signaled the reopen-
ing of Dollywood, a highly antici-
pated event in eastern Tennessee
and the wider theme park uni-
verse. “We’ve been coming here
for 20 years, since our daughter
was 2,” said Darryl Collins, a
season-pass holder from McMin-
nville, Tenn., who was indulging
in a post-pageant loaf of cinna-
mon bread with his wife, Regina.
“We’ve watched the performers
grow up.”
The park is closed for several
weeks between New Year’s Day
and early March; however, it has
been much longer since Dolly last
appeared at her namesake attrac-
tion. The co-owner of one of
Tennessee’s top destinations, who
often clears her calendar for
opening weekend, missed two
years because of the coronavirus
pandemic. This season, not even
the threat of getting stuck in a
snowstorm in rhinestone heels
could keep her away from the
ceremonies.
“We’re just getting out of covid
and feeling like we’re free again,”
Dolly said in her tour bus, which
was parked outside her Dream-
More Resort and Spa in Pigeon
Forge, Tenn. “This is like the
season of deliverance, in a way.
It’s like life is going to start anew
again.”
In addition to the parade, a
long-running tradition, Dolly
kicked off the 37th season with a
surprise performance of her lat-
est single, “Big Dreams and Fad-
ed Jeans,” for season-pass hold-
ers. (The song inspired by her
collaboration with novelist
James Patterson on a thriller was
added to the playlist piped into
the park, so regular ticket holders
shouldn’t feel too left out.) She
also dropped a few reveals.
“You can stay in Suite 1986,”
she excitedly announced, refer-
ring to the motor home she has
used since about 2010 to cruise
around the country. “The bus
ain’t that old.”
For its second career as a
slumber-party site, the Gypsy
Wagon will permanently reside at
DreamMore. Though rates and
dates have not yet been released,
it’s safe to assume that you can’t
take your bedroom out for a spin
around Pigeon Forge. Dolly also
shared details about the Heart-
Song Lodge & Resort, a compan-
ion property to DreamMore that
is scheduled to debut in fall 2023.
The difference between the
neighbors: DreamMore is a love
ballad to Dolly, whereas Heart-
Song is a serenade to the Smoky
Mountains.
“This is one of the most beauti-
ful places in the whole wide
world,” Dolly said across the bus’s
dinette table. “I was born and
raised right here. I grew up with
my family not very far from the
[national] park. The people are
great, the water’s good, the air’s
so clean.”
Because of Dolly’s deep con-
nection to Tennessee mountain
culture, Dollywood feels person-
al, even biographical, a claim that
most theme parks can’t make.
(Sorry, kiddos, but Mickey is not a
real mouse who grew up in
Florida.) “We have a little theme,
like something that has to do
with my childhood, something
that has to do with my life,” she
said. “We try to keep it as down
home as we can, but you have to
have roller coasters. We do name
them appropriately, though, like
Wild Eagle. The names kind of
relate to something in my child-
hood.”
On the park map, a white
butterfly symbol designates the
“Dolly Attractions.” Outside Hick-
ory House BBQ, I approached an
employee with a salt-and-pepper
goatee, languid Southern accent
and name tag that read “Bruce
Celino.” I asked Bruce for the
most direct route to Dolly’s Ten-
nessee Mountain Home, a repro-
duction of her childhood cabin
that her brother Bobby built and
her mother, Avie Lee Owens,
decorated with a keen eye for
verisimilitude.
Instead of simply relaying the
directions, he escorted me to the
structure, through Craftsman’s
Valley to Rivertown Junction,
two of the park’s 11 themed
districts. Along the way, we
stopped by the railroad tracks to
inhale the scent of cinnamon
bread wafting from Grist Mill.
The aroma must have activated
his appetite, because, for the
remainder of the walk, he listed
all the foods I had to try: turkey
legs, chicken wings, barbecue
ribs, pork rinds, pulled pork and
the foot-long corn dogs and curly
fries at Dogs N Taters. “Mendy
hand-rolls the corn dogs,” he said,
clearly impressed with his col-
DOLLYWOOD FROM F1
league’s handiwork.
A butterfly also perches (at
least on paper) on Dolly’s Home
on Wheels, the tour bus that
preceded the one at DreamMore.
While I waited in line to board, a
benevolent Dolly grinned down
at me from the facade of the
DreamSong Theater, where the
previous headliner was a band
featuring two of her nieces, acousin and a family friend. Inside
the 45-foot-long motor home, I
had exactly five minutes to snoop
around. I peered into her bath-
room (monogrammed hand tow-
el, standard white toilet paper),
closet (fuzzy pink slippers, leop-
ard-print blouse) and bedroom
(Bible, framed family photos, gui-
tar strewn on the bed). The glove
box was not part of the tour, buteven if it had been, I would not
have found what I was looking
for. According to a sign out front,
none of her drivers ever received
a speeding ticket.
With the exception of opening
weekend and video or movie
shoots, Dolly rarely performs at
the park, because of her over-
stuffed schedule. However, every
day throughout the year, musi-cians of many persuasions —
country, bluegrass, Americana,
gospel — belt out tunes at indoor
and outdoor stages sprinkled
around the property. Over two
days, I caught enough snippets of
the Wild Roots Band, a trio at the
Showstreet Gazebo, to qualify as
a full-fledged concert. At the Back
Porch Theater, A Brighter Day’s
rendition of “This Little Light of
Mine” put a skip in the step of
laggard feet. The Tones, an a
cappella group that harmonizes
at the Village Depot Stage, caused
many passengers to nearly miss
their train.
“Dollywood is more than just
the rides,” said Linda Peek, head
usher at Showstreet Palace Thea-
ter, home of the Kingdom Heirs,
the house gospel quartet. “A lot of
our season-pass holders never go
on the rides. They come for the
shows. They come for the enter-
tainment.”
Between acts, the park is a
symphony of ambient music: the
toot-toot of the coal-fired steam
engine, the pitter-patter of drip-
ping wax at Old Flames Candles,
the rhythmic creak of swings, the
hammering percussion at Valley
Forge Blacksmith. Even the birds
of prey at Eagle Mountain Sanc-
tuary contribute to the sound-
track, the whoosh of their wings
redolent of woodwind instru-
ments.
“Everybody loves seeing Amer-
ica,” Carly Hamilton, a presenter
at the “Wings of America” show,
said of its biggest star, the 34-
year-old bald eagle. “The stage is
his comfort space, and Dolly-
wood is his home.”
Despite the steady babble, the
park was uncharacteristically si-
lent on March 12, the official
opening day. (The day before was
reserved for season-pass holders
and journalists.) For the first time
in its history, management had toParton’s Tennessee roots spring up throughout Dollywood
If You Go
WHERE TO STAY
DreamMore Resort and Spa
2525 DreamMore Way, Pigeon
Forge, Te nn.
800-365-5996
dollywood.com
DreamMore is a full-service resort
near the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. Amenities include
the Song & Hearth eatery
(breakfast and dinner buffet from
$18.95 and $32.95, respectively;
children 4 to 9 from $8.95 and
$13.95, respectively), spa and
fitness center, pool complex, Dolly-
themed shop and free activities,
including live music, a s’mores
campfire and bedtime reading with
books from her Imagination
Library. A free shuttle transports
guests to Dollywood and
Dollywood’s Splash Country, a
water park, which opens May 14.
Average rates from $169 a night;
two-night minimum on high-season
weekends.WHAT TO DO
Dollywood
2700 Dollywood Parks Blvd.,
Pigeon Forge
800-365-5996
dollywood.com
Dollywood has rides, live music,
craft demonstrations, plus special
festivals and celebrations. The
theme park usually opens at 10
a.m., but closing hours vary. The
Flower & Food Festival (about $35
tasting pass), which features floral
creations and Dollywood’s
Umbrella Sky, a “ceiling” of
umbrellas, runs April 22 through
June 5. Check the schedule for live
performances and “Heartsong, the
Movie” showtimes. One-day park
ticket costs $84 for ages 10 to 61,
and $74 for those 4 to 9 and
seniors 62 and up. General parking
$22.80.PHOTOS BY JACOB BIBA FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTCLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Visitors pose for photographs in front of a sign at Dollywood in Pigeon
Forge, Tenn., in late March; an owl is projected on-screen during the “Wings of America Birds of
Prey” show; an image of Dolly Parton is seen next to her album covers at the DreamMore
Resort and Spa; the park’s Daredevil Falls includes a 60-foot drop that reaches 50 mph. “We’re
just getting out of covid and feeling like we’re free again,” Parton said. “This is like the season
of deliverance, in a way. It’s like life is going to start anew again.”