Batteries? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Batteries!

The world works on electricity.  My cameras are no exception.

This morning, we cleaned up, and started planning our day, only to realize…. I left all the camera batteries at home!  Ugh!  🙁

While the cabin has a broadband connection, we had no laptop with us, so it was off to the cabin office to see if they knew anyplace where I could get a few batteries for the cameras.  We sat there for about thirty minutes, listening to the plight of two couples who had been robbed the night before in a different set of cabins.  They had walked in on the burglars, and were then “threatened at gunpoint” as the bad guys made their escape.  They lost everything in the cabins — clothes, computers, a bag of diapers — and were railing on the poor clerk behind the counter.  The cabin office is just a management company for the the privately held cabins, so the gal behind the desk was desparately trying to get in touch with either the cabin owner or her food chain.  Interesting to listen to.

So, once our turn came up, we started on the quest for batteries.  Believe it or not, there appear to be no camera stores in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge.  I think I know what business I’d like to open up there!  I know folks go there to shoot, so I have to think there would be some call for a decent camera store.

Anyway, we headed to Knoxville, and got the only battery Best Buy had and the last two that Circuit City had.  There were varying prices for each of the products, and a C-note later, I had three batteries for the cameras.  By the way, once these are united with the batteries at home, I will now have eleven batteries for the cameras!  Success is success, so we rewarded ourselves with Krystals for lunch.  Mmmmmm….. chili cheese pups……..  🙂

We decided to head to Gatlinburg to end our day, and wandered around the streets for a while.  The shame of Gatlinburg is that it is turning in to a Vegas-like atmosphere, with every third storefront offering show tickets and cash for your time to sit through a high pressure sales pitch for a timeshare.  In my mind, that’s a blight upon this beautiful neck of the woods.  However, the rest of the strip is fun, with small rubber-snake shops and plenty of things to do and see.