I thought about posting all sorts of pictures of all the things we bought today, but figured that I’d share this one with everyone instead. I didn’t buy it, because I’ve seen it before at a few of the bookstores closer to us at home, and plus they didn’t have the right size. Bummer.
This is a tough pill to swallow, and it stings even more to admit it out loud that this is the fallen world in which we live. Not to mention, this really is the answer to so many doubts about the future of human generations.
I thought about this a lot today. I hope there’s someone else out there thinking about it, too.
Oh, and we also did the Ripley’s haunted house [lame, sorry] and some more mini-golf to round out our card of Ripley’s attractions. We were determined to get our money’s worth of these things. Haha.
We also visited the NantahalaOutdoorCenter and picked up some cool things there. I’m proud of myself for not splurging on some Chaco’s, Vibram’s, or tent gear. I can wait… I can wait… I can wait….
Today was our last full day in the Smokies. We head back to Cincinnati tomorrow for the rest of the weekend and then it’s back to the dreamland….
Back in the day, back in the ‘Vern, when I was but a tot….
Okay, well that may be a slight exaggeration of the country bumpkin that I was growing up, but it’s still a fact that I spent a lot of time barefoot, and a lot of time on the Fowler farm with my buddy Lisa and their slew of farm creatures. Some of my best memories involve day-long horseback rides out onto the plains and pastures on the Fowler properties and finding all kinds of things to poke, prod, and explore. Thinking back, it’s a wonder we never got attacked by an angry animal or contracted some bacterial disease from jabbing around the inevitable find of some poor carcass.
Still, I didn’t realize at the time that I was learning to ride, to saddle, bit, shoe, and break a horse, day by day. I’ve loved horses since I was a kid, and so when we decided today to go trail riding, I was all for it.
Fact: Trail riding is pretty boring for someone who’s ever ridden a horse freely, for fun. Fact: Observing the behavior of people who’ve never stepped within 30 feet of a living horse, let alone sat on a moving one, is hilarious.
Fact: The stable hand at the dude ranch we visited today hails from central Kentucky, which is still considered our neck of the woods in relation to Cincinnati. Since this is his daily job, he had plenty of stories to share of the antics people can create just trying to ride a horse moving at 2mph down a straight line.
We had fun, no less. There was a couple that showed up with their 2-yr-old son, who sat nervously still between his daddy’s legs and the saddle horn of a gentle Appaloosa for the first ten minutes before he realized he was safe. By the end of the trip, he was waving at the other horses and telling his Mommy on the horse behind his that their horses were best friends. We are having the greatest time on this trip, but deep down we both can’t wait to share an experience like this with Sydni.
The rain came like the blink of an eye, right at the 5 minute mark after we had all finished the trail and returned to the stables. The raindrops were those meaty ones that almost sting when they hit because of their weight. We took the opportunity to head back to our cabin and relax with the storm serenading us. We made dinner in our kitchen, ate together at the table, and cozied up in PJ’s to take full advantage of doing absolutely nothing.
This is proving to be one of the greatest weeks, ever J
Tomorrow is souvenir day. I’ll have to suck it up and pay full MSRP on some stuff, I know.
It was just back in July when I trekked through the RockyMountain, Great Sand Dunes, and the Grand CanyonNational Parks with Kalyn and Sam en route to Arizona. It was the perfect road trip, embellished with National Geographic scenery and the ideal company.
It’s September now, and off we were this morning on our adventure deeper into the heart of the SmokyMountains. It took us a while to hunt down the national park sign, but since that’s a mandatory part of any NP visit, we finally managed to find it and continued on our way.
We saw three adult black bears, and a pair of cuddly looking cubs skittering across the roadway over the course of our winding tour through Cade’s Cove. It was vast, calm, and beautiful, and being there with my husband – just the two of us – was a breath of rejuvenation nearly as invigorating as mountain air.
With our souls re-fueled with the intricate fashions of God’s creative genius, we made our way back towards Pigeon Forge. With no agenda, we happened upon the Wonderworks upside-down mansion. It’s a true tourist attraction, but that didn’t stop us; we are after all, tourists this week. So yeah. This place proved to be another major supporter of military discounts; long story short, we paid less than half of one regular admission for both of us combined. I’m glad, too, because aside from the high ropes course, it kinda-sorta-really paled in comparison to places like Cosi.
Note: Don’t do the simulated roller-coaster thing more than once. We were nearly sick for the rest of the evening. Thankfully, there wasn’t a whole lot of evening left after we finished the entire place, so that was okay.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, and as of now, we are plan-less. We’ll let you know tomorrow how today goes J … Make sense?
Day one in the SMOKY MOUNTAINS. The scenery here is such a refreshing change from the flatlands of Illinois. I love mountains anywhere, but still each time I visit them, I realize how creative our Lord truly was when he molded them. We’ll go see the heart of the Smokies tomorrow; today was all about Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge.
We took our sweet time waking up today. The only thing about that is that when you’re on that first day, your body is still on its normal time. Couple that with the anticipation of getting out there to explore, and you find yourself out of bed before anyway. I figured if that was our biggest issue today, we were off on the right foot.
Not having a rigid agenda is what we’re all about on vacation. We took advantage of our tactic and took off driving towards Gatlinburg. We decided to check out the Ripley’s aquarium after hearing positive feedback from nearly everyone we surveyed. It turned out we were in for a much bigger surprise than we’d bargained.
Apparently, military discounts are nothing taken lightly anywhere in Gatlinburg. Ripley’s has a whole chain of attractions in the area, and to visit them all should have realistically cost us right around $90/each [ummm…]. We’ve learned that it never hurts to at least ask about military discounts, and in this case, its pay-off translated into us handing over $55 total, for both of us. You do the math there.
The aquarium had one of the best tunnel tanks I’ve seen. We spent the majority of our time standing under there watching sharks and rays swim over and beside us. I even shook the fin[?] of a giant sea turtle today. I’m such a tourist. We got our share of jellyfish to weird fish, sea horses to a giant octopus, stings and mantas to crabs and lobsters.
After the aquarium, we set off on foot a few blocks down to some other Ripley’s gigs. The mirror house, the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, and the Guiness Book of World Records museum were the next three attractions we hit along the main strip in Gatlinburg. Going on a Monday helped with minimal wait times, so we cycled through at a pretty good speed.
The clouds started forming overhead, and we noticed hints of rain, so, like the rational couple that we are, we hit one of the Ripley’s mini golf courses. Yes, this would’ve made more sense during sunny weather, but hey, we’re all about random.
Lastly, we made a run to Kroger [awesome] to do some grocery shopping for the week.
Now we’re here, enjoying the solitude of our little cabin and the re-introduction of cable t.v. into our evening. Ha.
Don’t ask me how it was that we mustered up the energy to be awake, showered, and downstairs for breakfast at the hotel by this morning. Hoooooly tired.
I was able to finally see Arley and the Clinedinst clan briefly in the hotel dining room during breakfast; the thing about weddings, if it’s your own, is that you don’t get nearly enough time to visit with guests as you wish you’d had. The good news is, sometimes they stay at the same hotel, and you get even better face time at breakfast J. [ta-daaaa!]
Once breakfast was wrapped up, we saw my out-of-town family off and loaded up our car. My parents and I stopped by Sandy’s for some parting words and to pack Sydni up in my parents’ car for her mini-vaca with Nana & Pappy.
It was honeymoon time! Oh, by the way, kudos to my husband, who rarely ever manages to keep even small surprises hidden for longer than a few days, yet planned an entire week’s vacation without so much as a hint to me. After just under 6 hours of driving, I found myself riding shotgun through the ever-beautiful SmokyMountains. Yes, yes, and yes please.
living room | pool room
guest bedroom | kitchen
hot tub | main bedroom
And forget hotels. Joe had reserved us this adorable 2-bedroom, 2 full bath cabin, complete with stocked kitchen, pool table, foosball table, and hot tub on a back porch overlooking a fire pit and a petite creek. This is better than any beach resort.
We dropped off our suitcases, changed, and found a Mexican restaurant along the main drag. We rounded out the night with a game of foosball and some reflection time in the still of mountain privacy on the back porch.
We also visited the 
