Family Vacation continued

Family Vacation 3

We got an early start the next morning, well, early for us. With many hugs and waves, we started toward Nashville, our friendly but aggravating GPS directing every turn. Early morning coffee necessitated a stop and more coffee for me.

How it happened I’ll never know but my hot (make that HOT)coffee landed on my crisp clean shirt and went right on down to my white pants. Not a drop of it landed on the seat of the car – it all soaked into the front of me. I exited the car with a gasp. Hot coffee with do that. The waitress didn’t or couldn’t say a word. My family was all sympathy and began dabbing me with napkins while I was trying to hold the hot fabric away from my skin.

After dancing around in the parking lot for fully five minutes and assuring the waitress we wouldn’t sue, we decided that since my suitcase was on the bottom on the trunk, I could wear the mess to Gatlinburg.

I will not bore you with the details of the rest of the drive. We stopped for lunch somewhere with me hiding behind one of the granddaughters before sinking into a seat in the restaurant. Maybe people thought my coffee stained shirt and pants was new look in tourist wear. Yea sure!

We arrived in Gatlinburg in time for a quick tour of the ‘burg and steaks on the grill at the fabulous cabin the family had reserved for our stay.

Words cannot describe the beauty of the Smoky Mountains. We saw a Momma bear and twin cubs in Cades Cove; we loved the old buildings that are kept in good repair by the park service. In one place, we were amused to see a crowd gathered around a long black snake. We stayed well back from that phenomenon. Being from the Ozarks, we were all too familiar with that kind of wild life.

One evening we arrived back at our cabin to find that a bear had been clever enough to open the trash bin and scatter our trash all over the yard. The next morning we saw the culprit, scoping out the possibilities again. That is a little too close for comfort. We took his/her picture safe on our cabin deck.

The granddaughters introduced me to geocaching. I don’t think they will take me again. My comments consisted of, “You’ll catch poison ivy. Don’t stick your hand in there. There could be snakes in there. You are gonna get lost, running round the country side in strange places.”

Needless to say, our trusty GPS got us home safely and so ends our family vacation of 2011.