Vaca 2020 - Day ?? - Gatlinburg

Another Ripley's Believe It Or Not.  We did not entertain this one as we did in Orlando, but judging from the outside of the building, it was a bit tempting.  Only if we didn't have a fantastic cabin to get back too!

In line for the ski-lift'ish thingymabob...

Liftoff after WAY a too crowded cattle lead to get to the ride.  People on top of each other with about 60 percent in masks.  I'm not a huge fan of the mask wearing stuff, but if you're going jam people together into lines like this, something should likely be done...   Anyway, Robby and I are in the first swing, with Mom and Calebber behind us.

Speaking of mom and Calebber...

One of my fav parts of this ride is the part when it goes down as you cross the stream.  It's a beautiful view, if only for 30 seconds or so. At least you get to see it twice.

I love the mechanics of these types of things.

This was new since the last time my bride and I were up here!  This was pretty cool and provided many relaxing sounds as you lounge around looking at the peaks and valley's.

This suspension bridge was also new!  It's big'un!!!!  Robby and myself went about 1/4 of the way across it and betwixt its swinging and the people jammed on to it (can't really tell from the pic) I decided to turn around.  Robby followed.

A little better shot from the next level up showing both the length of this thing and the amount of peeps on it.

As we're on it.  I can't tell for sure if that Rob in front of Caleb or somebody else...  I think Rob and I are still involved at this point.  I think once we got closer to the middle where people congregate (you'll see why in the next pic), is where we turned around.

And in the middle is the see-thru floor!  I like the ones in China that appear to crack as you step on them!

So what did Rob and I do?  We went back and found some lovely lounging chairs overlooking what I love about this place!

Time to go down.  Still great views!

I've said it other times on this blog, there's 3 things that can make nature look better and here's one, the other's being Mama and Rob.  I tend to be a blemish...

Mama and Rob riding behind us.  Rob is giving us a thumbs down, of course...  what a horrible experience.

So we have driven past a beer store a few times now.  You can tell that sun is getting a bit lower in the sky and our goal was to be back to the cabin before sundown every night due to the treachorous roads.  However, tonight was the best night to hit up the Beer Wine & Liquor Super Store on our way back to the cabin.  Rob walked over to the Shell gas station for nature'ous reasons as he couldn't wait.  Caleb stayed in the van.  While we were making our way to the checkout, we hear the cashier say, "There's a f'ing bear at the back door!".  We checked out and left the parking lot.  The road to our cabin was just around the corner from the spirit's store and what did we find?  The bear who was just going about his bidness.

 

So pretty cool overall but a VERY big difference between the 2021 Gatlinburg experience and the bride and my first experience however many years ago when there were a lot less people and, accordingly, traffic.

2021 Indianola Track Meet

This is obviously during the warm-up period yet.  Caleb is the dude in about the dead center of the picture.  He appears to be leading his relay team to some undestined point.  Why do I say that? Because he has told me in no uncertain terms since then that he had NO IDEA what he was doing for a lot of the start of the meet.

That's Caleb on the footy-thingy-ma-bobber where you start your race.  Apparently, two of the more experienced teammates were helping him with his technique.

His 2nd hurdle of the evening.  Probably needs to get that front leg aimed straighter out to make this a long term thing, but he did pretty dang good for 7th grade and the first meet.

His 5th hurdle...

He absolutely loves this picture of his teams first relay.  I put a "tongue of fire" over Caleb while you can note that his next closest foe was right at the left-most upright of the football goal post.  Also note the flags at the top of both goal posts as the wind was ABSOLOOTLEY  STOOPID!!!  Some of the boys would "meet their match" about straight out in front of us due to the force of the wind, which was probably sustained at +30mph, and gusts up to 50+.

I like this picture because much like his football team in the Fall, Caleb wasn't jacking around on the sidelines.  He was very actively in support of his teammates.   That's him in the shadows running out to support a teammate who was in a hot competition.  This went on nearly all night.

 

Breaking In The New Track Shoes

The lad is doing track during his 7th grade year and as a result, he needed new track shoes.  Mom got him the shoes but she worked on the weekend when he wanted to go try them out.  So I took him up to track at his school so he could do a few laps and see how they felt.

These were taken about 10 days ago and he had his first track meet tonight (03/29/2021).  I'll post some pictures, and hopefully, videos as well.  His school did a fantastic job tonight!

 

Trying Out The New Furniture

 

A Throw-back to Extreme Cuteness!

I could have spent some time removing the glare, but I'm tired and honestly don't care all that much.  LOL!  I've seen all of these before!!

 

It's A 2021 Coup!

The hounds have staged a coup!!!  I got up to use the little boys room and take a break from work.  I come back to find my work space has been overtaken!

 

Rob's First Day as a Working Man!

He's wearing an old pair of my jeans since he didn't own any until he and I went shopping this morning.  These are too long and he's rolling up the bottoms.  Keep in mind that he should have been out the door about 10 minutes ago...

He's late, but by golly, he's got his coffee!

And off he goes in my truck as he'll be working until at least 9pm and has a headlight out on his car.

 

A Coupla' Young Hippies...

 

Nearly 30 years and still going strong!

A Boy & His Dumplings

You want to see this young man smile?  Feed him sushi or dumplings!  Or Mexican food...  or Subway.   Oh, and McDonalds.

 

Vaca 2020 - Day 13 - Cabin In Tennessee

By this point of our vacation, we're all pretty well burnt out,  but I was SUPER EXCITED to be at the cabin and hopefully just chill for a bit.  The cabin did not disappoint me!! 

This is pretty much what we first saw when we drove up and I was SOOOOOOOO friggin' happy to be off the harrowing roads that led us back to this place.  This driveway took a little getting used to, but as you'll see in pictures down below,  this driveway is better than most!

Notice that I pulled in forward the first time.  This was the LAST time that I pulled in forward!  In that first pic, I would pull forward into that part of the driveway, then back up to the area at the bottom of the picture.  Much less scary trying to get back out of this thing.  Also note the bear-proof garbage recepticles.

Out back where the bears play.

Caleb playing on the equipment built for much smaller kiddos.

Looking out the back windows of the cabin.  I spent a LOT of time in the seat where this picture was taken.

Caleb and I went for a walk one day.  The hills were some killers for me, which caused Caleb some good laughs.  You can see how narrow some of the roads were.

You see things like this too.  I am not exactly sure who the people are who look at a plot of land like this and think, Good Lord, what a great place to build a cabin where if you're liquored up and fall off your deck, you fall many hundreds of feet to your untimely death.  But what a view off of their deck!

Narrow roads...  exhibit 1.

Narrow roads, exhibit 2.

If you ever want to know why Lesley and I love the Great Smokey Mountains, this is a bit of evidence of why we love the area!  God's art is SOOOOOO amazing!!! 

This is close to across the road from our cabin.  Narrow road, and steps down to the cabin...  So what on earth does that driveway look like?

Like this!!!  We watched the peeps who rented this cabin return during the storm (you'll see below) and try to back into this driveway.  That had to be absolutely terrifying!

The community turkey's that we've seen around our cabin.  They make their rounds.

More narrow roads...

Ah, the storm.  This is pretty much at the beginning of the thing.  It's not raining very hard right now, but man, did it ramp up from here!!!  It rained and rained and rained...  It went on for hours and we eventually lost power.  If you've ever experienced a lack of power in the hills of Tennessee, it is pitch black!!!  Scary dark.  We went out to the van to watch movie's while it all played out.  Wasn't a totally fun experience, but it was kinda fun to watch movies in an idling van while the Good Lord was pounding us with his latest storm.

Caleb loved the oven mitts in the cabin.

From the kitchen,  a view of the cabin where I would love to retire!  Outside of that door, there is a porch with a hot tub on it.  That was very important to our recovery after the hike of death!  You'll see some of that coming up in future posts.

 

This was such a great experience I wish it upon everyone at least once, and on our family, another 30 times!  Take care all!!!