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This past Saturday night we went with some friends to see Journey of the Wise at Blue Jack Ridge in Poplaville. Earlier in the fall I had a few people tell me about their corn maze and how their family had really enjoyed visiting. I like some traditions, but visiting the same place every year for Christmas gets a little boring to me. Last year we went to Landrum’s Country and for the past several years we have visited Lewis Lights. With that said I was ready to try something new this year.

We saw on their website where you could purchase tickets in advance. We thought since it was the weekend following Thanksgiving it would be busy, so to save time we purchased ours online. After stopping to eat, we turned off of HWY 11 and started looking for the “5 Million Lights”. We finally saw the entrance and were expecting a line of cars, but there was none. We pulled in and handed our receipt to the lady and drove along the entrance, which is several hundred yards long. As you drive along the road, you stop every so often and read signs with portions of the Christmas story. The stories are usually illustrated by lights outlining characters and events. (The are no painted wooden characters). The lit trees along the road and the story is nice, but when you spread millions of lights over a hundred acres, it does look as stunning. At the end of the “journey” you park at the downtown area that really is covered in lights (see photo). You can walk into the saloon and order hot chocolate and kettle corn. They had free brownies for the kids and that was nice touch. And at the end of the street there is a live nativity along with stalls of animals that you can pet. The live nativity is simply people playing the roles of Mary, Josephs, Angels, Shepherds, etc. They don’t talk; just kind of hang out and look at the baby (doll) Jesus.

My kids said they enjoyed our visit, though Lizzy admitted that Landrum’s country had a little more to offer. Though I never meet the owners; the people working were nice, and most of them were related to the owners. I couldn’t get over the small number of people attending the night we were there. In all there were maybe 25 people visiting during our hour a haf there. The cost associated with the trip could have contributed to the lower turn out. It’s $5 per person 3 and over. By the time we paid for gas (for 90 mile round trip to poplarvile), purchased tickets, and snacks we had about $50 in the trip. It was OK but adding horse and buggy rides or something more would create a bigger draw. I’ll give it a 6 out of 10 with the potential for it to be better next year. It’s a neat place and I think we will visit gain next year during the fall.