How’s this for a word of wisdom we
heard on the TV early yesterday morning?
“Did you know that fleas’ babies eat their mom’s poop?” Great way to start the day.
We left early for our highly
recommended (by Larry and Diane)
excursion to Cades Cove. Never so glad
to get out of a hotel. We arrived with
no problem, only to be stuck in a bottleneck the entrance. Wednesday is bicycles only day until 10
a.m. We killed some time roaming around at
the campground store until time came for the trail to open up. And finally we were off. Or so we thought. We weren’t prepared for the massive amount of
cars that were backed up to join us on for the next eleven miles. And what I assumed was going to be a
leisurely drive looking for critters quickly became one big Teva hiking
trip. Around the very first bend, Chris
saw an opportunity to stop and explore.
We pulled over and walked a quarter of a mile to see some guy’s restored
log cabin. The car was so far away I
couldn’t even see it. And then we had to
walk back. Hike number one. But the worst was yet to come.
We soon saw a sign for a place
called Abram’s Falls. Hey, you gotta do
the waterfalls, right? So we turned off
the main road and made our way to the trail head. Yep.
Trail head. That means you have
to walk – no, hike - to reach your objective.
But we did that quarter mile hike already. How hard could it be? And what did it matter that we were both
wearing sandals? We are from Galveston. We wear sandals everywhere. And thus began the Terrible Teva 2.5. That
would be 2.5 miles. One way. Up hill.
And 2.5 miles back. Up hill (Still haven’t figured out how they did that). Over rocky, tree-root studded terrain. To see a waterfall. The trek was actually kind of fun when we
weren’t thinking about our pain. We saw
a little snake eating his lunch.
Reminded me that we hadn’t eaten yet.
And we didn’t have a water bottle either. We met some folks from Texas. All they could talk about was the
flooding. We met an older couple from
North Carolina who became our inspiration.
At least until she put her hand on a stone face for support and realized
she was just inches from a snake about five feet long. She wanted to jump up and down and run
away. But where would she go? She could barely stand up as it was. And the path was only about five feet
wide. So she screamed. She scared the poor snake half to death. We did complete the “little hike.” We forgot to time our walk up to the Falls,
but it took us an hour and twenty minutes to get out. To quote my Mom, “Oh, my aching back.”
A big highlight of the day came when
we saw Mrs. Yogi Bear. Ranger Rick told
us she was trying to lead everyone away from little BooBoo. Never saw the youngster. Later on we saw Daddy Yogi himself. He was one huge black bear strolling through
the Cove. Along with the human critters
and the Yogi family we saw a squirrel, bumblebees, birds, a blue butterfly, a
stink bug, a centipede, a Buddy-dog (someone
will know what that means, won’t you, Jennifer?), another little dog wearing
a diaper (I was quite embarrassed for it),
and no fish in the stream. Oh, and we also
saw a fully operational, antique, water-driven mill. It was grinding corn into meal. Chris bought some corn meal. One word for how we felt at the time about
our trip to the Cove? Exhausted.
We made it as far as Knoxville,
Tennessee. That’s not very far, but all we
both wanted a shower and a clean bed. We
grabbed some supper at Cracker Barrel and while Chris washed some clothes, I
spent some time talking with the fire fighters at the station next door to the
hotel. They were out on a really nice
patio they had built in the back yard of the station. They hadn’t been able to get approval to
install a hot tub yet. I suggested they
present it as a water rescue training module.
Good luck with that one, guys. They
seemed particularly interested in the fast water rescue stuff Galveston does,
especially in light of all the flooding.
Oh, and they told me Knoxville had a minor league baseball team. I let them know that if I suggested to Chris
that we go to a baseball game, they would likely see me fly from a third story
window. Their retort to that? “If we get a 9 -1-1 from the hotel, we’ll
look for you.” Thank you so much for that encouragement. I had a great time with them. It was good to see the fire fighter family
carry over the miles.
Hotel Rating: I’m not sure if it is
because the last one was so bad, but this Comfort Suites is really nice. The front desk lady set me up on their frequent
flyer plan, and it looks like we’ll get a $50 gift card when we get home. Woohoo.
The room is really nice. AC
works. Couch in the room. Real soap in the bathroom. Free breakfast. It’s no Huntley Bed and Breakfast five Star
Dream, but so far it is doing well.
Probably three and a half starfish anyway.
Psalms
32:10 says, “Many are the woes
of the wicked, but the Lord's
unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.”
Father, watch over the fire fighters
in Knoxville. And keep their brothers in
Galveston safe as well. Amen.
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