Gatlinburg 2008

After James' trip to Gatlinburg in the summer we decided to take a trip over one of his 6 day off mini-vacations as he said I would love it. When we planned this trip we knew we would be able get a view of the trees colors changing, however so did everyone else. Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge were extemely busy. We did make a small detour into North Carolina as we did "The Dragon" in Deal's Gap. For me it was 11 miles of clenched knuckles with a moment of heart failure. Imagine driving up the side of the mountain on a narrow 2 lane road. On some of the corners there is a little pull off area and we are in the lane looking over the mountain. James', without warning, pulls onto one of the pulloff areas to let a motorcycle go by us. Needless to say there was almost Flintstone's brakes on my side of the van and I think you can still see where I was grabbing the "Oh Shit" bar. Once we got out of The Dragon on the Carolina side there is a little shop where the parking lot is marked for motorcycle parking and tons of bikes. They do have a Tree of Shame with parts of wrecked out motorcyles in the tree. There is a few motel rooms located here where the bikers come and stay and then play up and down the mountain all day. Gatlinburg was beautiful. We did spend an afternoon walking around and doing some shopping. There are plenty of unique shops to keep you busy. I want to go back in the spring next time. The rhododendrums are everywhere, just naturally going on the mountain and I'm waiting to see them in full bloom.

Another busy weekend

We started the weekend out by suprising mom and showing up Thursday night. I needed some tomatoes to start my salsa canning again. Mom has a new addition to her family by the addition of Lucy, her new baby shih tzu. Ann had a blast with her, her response was "my puppy".

This is the first time in several years that James has been home on this weekend as he is usually in Talledaga for the big race weekend..."Go Tony" as Ann would say. One of my dad's farmer friends plants tomatoes, so we were prepared to do some picking. Ann stayed at my dad's with Grandma and we found the field. After getting about 8-9 5-gallon buckets of roma tomatoes, we warmed up with some chili and headed home with our prize. I ended up making 2 batches of salsa on Saturday, which I completed about 2 am. If you've had the salsa you know it's worth the time and energy. Ann was very willing to help, however we're going to have to wait a few years before I can really put her to work.

Sunday Ann & I went with friends to the pumpkin patch. We did a hay ride to the corn maze, which came out at the pumpkin patch. Ann picked her own pumpkin out, which was quite interesting. She would walk around and pick one up and then say "too heavy" and go on to another one. She did find one that she liked and was able to carry it back to the hay ride wagon.

Of course here she is being so good and not throwing the hay from the wagon.

Daddy, see I can drive a tractor too.

Corn maze