Back to Elkmont, Dulcimers and Ice Cream Entertainment

Harry and Sally wanted to stay at some of the other campgrounds in the park, so we decided to go back to Elkmont. Besides, we wanted to show them the Elkmont campground store ice cream machine.

First, it was back to Townsend though. We still wanted to stop at the Dulcimer shop. It was worth the detour. They had quite a collection of folk instruments, both mountain and hammered dulcimers as well as psaltries, autoharps, harps, banjos, guitars and even some steel drums—and some friendly folks. The emphasis, however, was on mountain dulcimers, as the owner was a dulcimer maker. Not only did they have the standard three and four string dulcimers, they also had some five string variants, some with banjo heads, a dobro dulcimer and a two-fretboard courting dulcimer (for two players) in their collection. Unfortunately, they were all a bit too pricy for me, so I settled for a tuner, a capo and an instruction book (with an intent to get mine off the shelf when we get home).
It was off to Elkmont. It was pretty full when we got there (a spring break week), but we were able to find a pair of sites quite close to where we had parked last week. After setting up, I got out the motorcycle and went over to the Sugarlands Visitor Center to try and get some Internet access and check mail and bills. Ellen hiked the Elkmont Nature trail with Sally.
After dinner, it was off to the ice cream vending machine. We've never seen anything like it. Unlike the normal vending machine where you put your money in and push a button and the item falls out the bottom, this one was a robot. It consisted of a modified chest freezer, a robot arm suspended over it and a vacuum motor on wire hanging from the arm.
You put your money in and make a selection. The freezer door opens, exposing bins containing the various ice cream items. The robot arm positions itself over your selection and lowers the vacuum head which sucks up an item. The vacuum is retracted and the arm moves over to the bin you can open and lowers the vacuum motor which turns off and drops your dessert into the bin. Everything is retracted and the freezer door closes. You take your ice cream.
Photos