Patchwork Reflections

Thanks for the memories….

THANKS to grandpa Buddy's boss for the annual end of year bonus and THANKS to Buddy for sharing it for the family trip, wait, that check hasn't come in yet…. Hopefully no jelly-of-the-month club for us this year!

THANKS to SARAH for her idea, "let's have matching PJs this year" and to MELISSA (and Target) for making that happen!

THANKS to ALLISON for making the official family photos again this year.

THANKS to MELISSA and CARRIE for creating the menu and grocery list and ordering it online for pickup at the Kroger(s) in Pigeon Forge upon arrival, and thanks to the folks at Kroger for having everything ready right on time.

THANKS to KEITH and DANIEL for all the cooking.

THANKS to MELISSA for the neat hot cocoa bar.

THANKS for the memories, the baby holding, the hot chocolate, the puzzle, the music, the coloring, the laughs and fellowship around the table. THANKS for the big table and the fireplace to gather around, for the Christmas trees and décor.

THANKS to RACHEAL and ISAIAH for bringing the entertainment (baby LILI).

THANKFUL that everyone had safe travels from places near and far. THANKFUL that all of our kids and grandkids are grown and have jobs and cars and can fend for themselves, they could all go places either together or separate, whenever and wherever they wanted (after a few minutes of car Tetris to get out of the parking area). A few places visited this weekend by some of us: Dollywood, Gatlinburg Aquarium, Laser Tag, Mini Golf, GSM Foothills Parkway, Ferris wheel at Pigeon Forge. 

Thanks to Dollywood Cabins for another great destination lodging experience. Staying at DW cabins has a lot of perks but the two that stand out are the 'length of stay pass' - for $69.95 per person you can come and go to DW as many times as you want for as long as you are staying in the cabin. But the best perk we think is the free parking at DW. Yes parking costs $15 per vehicle or you could all cram into the car with grandpa who has the Gold pass, but if you stay at DW cabins every vehicle gets a free parking pass (we had 7 vehicles). But not just FREE parking in the main parking area and ride the tram, but FREE parking up at the top of the hill in the special lot G with a short walk to the back entrance.

Thanks all y'all for another great family Christmas trip!

I could have stayed all weekend at the cabin just looking out at the view.

Buddy had this great idea of renting a cabin in the Smokies and taking all the kids and grandkids to Dollywood. Reservations and plans were made, Dollywood tickets bought, then the wildfires came to the area. We watched the terrible news unfold and our hearts went out to all the families affected. The fires were still being fought, the roads were closed into the area, we heard that some rental cabins were totally destroyed in the area we had reserved, our plans were on hold. But then we heard that our cabin was fine, we saw the Mayor of Gatlinburg in a video on Facebook saying, "We will be back open for business on Friday morning Dec 9th, y'all please come back to see us!" So we did. Miraculously everything opened up that morning right on schedule, the town, the roads, the restaurants. We drove through the mountains and saw the scorched earth, the Smokies were living up to their name, you could smell it in the air.

Check in was at 4 p.m. so we arrived in time for sunset and moon rise over the mountains. The deck faced Mount Leconte, an awesome unobstructed view.

Friday night the kids were hyped up, trying out all the entertainment at the cabin - foosball, pool, air hockey, arcade games.

They couldn't figure out the arcade game console, with 4 IT specialists and one engineering student and one grandpa puzzling over it. Probably needed an 8-year-old to push the right button or combination of buttons, but there was plenty of other stuff to do.

The call went out for everyone to gather in the living room to play Cards Against Humanity, a game the kids had brought. It was funny watching them getting set up and telling each other hurry and come play because Buddy and Susan are playing, it will be so fun to watch them read these cards out loud. They tried to explain to us the goal of the game and how to win, etc., but apparently they just wanted to hear their mild mannered grandparents say bad words. Well if that is what they like, then they should just ride along with grandpa when he is driving, especially if it is a roundabout or 4 way stop. Or hang with granma when a snake comes crawling across the camper floor. What happened to the fun kid games like Life when we used to snicker about having babies?

Melissa and I were up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday waiting and watching for the sun rise, it was 17 degrees outside so we were watching through the window. Then a big breakfast of bacon, sausage, biscuits, waffles, before heading to Dollywood. 

This cabin has windows on 3 sides, 3 levels, did I mention the awesome view?

The cabin was big enough for everyone to spread out which is good with 12 'adults'.  Yes our youngest grandchild is 19 now, so all big folks who can entertain themselves, drive themselves wherever they want to go. The big plan at Dollywood was the kids would all ride rides while us old folks stayed warm in the shows. The first show on our list was the new "It's A Wonderful Life". The show was almost over when I got a text, 'we are right outside waiting for you'.  I hoped nothing was wrong, and as we exited with the throng of folks, we found all 10 of them standing there looking like little lost kids, "The rides are all closed because of the cold weather, what do we do now?"

Thankfully the rides started running after the temperature warmed up a little more, and they got to experience the Lightning Rod and Eagle. Aren't you going to ride grandma? I have ridden everything here at least once, so no, not today, wind chill is not my favorite thing to experience.

So a long day of park walking, being entertained by our crew of millennials and their parents, my fitbit says I walked 17,000 steps, what does yours say? and eating good food, drinking lots of hot chocolate, standing in line to buy cinnamon bread, riding the train, and seeing the millions of lights transform the park at night, it was a good day. The sun was out and it warmed up to maybe 40 at one point.

One goal of the weekend was a group family photo, the suggestion was to make it on the deck with the mountains in the background, but construction guru Buddy nixed that plan - we don't want to be on the news… Georgia family falls as deck collapses… so we opted for an inside shot with the windows in the background.

Sunday night everyone was back home safe and sound, the kids were posting pictures on Facebook, and Sarah summed it up nicely: The family vacation was a success!

Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, former home to 1200 folks before the park was created and they all had to move. 

Townsend may be advertised as the peaceful side of the Smokies but Cataloochee wins the remote award.

As many times as we have been to Dollywood, this time we had a couple of surprises.

We arrived early, around 8:30 or so, and got to park all the way in B section! We stood at the entrance waiting for the park to open, the ropes dropped and we moved forward to an area where they were checking bags - a first time for that.

Then we moved on up to the turnstiles which were not open yet. Standing there with all the other early folks, with the sun rising over the top of the Show Street Theater, a lady came out and welcomes everyone to Dollywood on this beautiful day, and then invites us all to take off our hats and put our hands over our hearts to join her in the national anthem - another first, a great way to start the day.

As is the case at places like this - hurry up and wait. We headed over to check out the latest greatest roller coaster, the Lightning Rod.

Waiting in line for the Lightning Rod we are listening to all the other folks, how they have been trying to ride this but it is often shut down for repairs, wow that is encouraging. About this time I am asking myself why do I let him talk me into these things, what if something happens, oh well it's been a good life and will make a good story to tell - about how granma flew off the roller coaster at DW.

Sitting in the roller coaster car, making sure everything was extra tight, we made the curve out of the loading area and faced the vertical rise. The car paused for a second like most roller coasters do to start the slow ascent, but not this one - we were shot out like a cannon up to the top of the first hill. My heart was in my throat, no wait it was my breakfast. From then on it was a minute and a half of eyes wide shut and jaw clinched tight telling myself just breathe it's almost over don't pass out.

All in all it was worse than the Tennessee Tornado or The Eagle or Thunderhead -  or in rollercoasterspeak I guess you would say it was better if that's the kind of thing you like - the nausea the lightheadedness the getting all shook up.

Check that off the list, we had now ridden all the coasters at DW, then on to the shows where the old folks go to rest.

We saw lots of turkeys - on the side of the road and behind the wheel. Encounters also included bears and elk and Floridiots... oh my

A trip to the Smokies includes going through the Nantahala gorge - 24 miles of narrow two lane road with no place to pass, so whoever you are behind when entering the gorge you will still be behind on the way out. We sized up the folks ahead of us as the 4 lanes narrowed to 2 at Andrews NC, the car ahead of us had a NY tag - and I have to hand to them, the Yankees did pretty well, handling the curves and hills with ease.

We were pleasantly surprised when our directions to Cataloochee took us onto the Blue Ridge Parkway - another two lane narrow curvy road. The tag in front of us this time set the tone for the trip, Oh No! Not the white with green numbers and big citrus fruit in the middle, yep Florida drivers, affectionately dubbed Floridiots.  Sometimes frustrating to drive behind, often entertaining, you just gotta back off and give them room because there is no telling what they will do. I am sure these folks are good drivers in their native state where the roads are flat and straight and wide, but when they come to the mountains, look out. They are never good with curves as there are apparently none in Florida, the brake lights are off and on like strobe lights. Then OMG a tunnel - you would have thought it was the end of the world. Brakes slammed on, car swerves, finally easing tentatively into the black hole. Cars coming toward us with lights on and horns blaring, great fun! The poor flatlanders ahead finally found their headlight switch about the time they popped out into the sunshine again. We were rolling with laughter, then 3 more tunnels in a row, poor folks.

Then there are the ones, no matter where they are from, who are possibly intelligent folks the rest of the time, but at the first sight of wildlife - they lose all common sense. They stop in the middle of the road, no they PARK in the middle of the road, get out, walk around, taking pictures. We came upon a bona fide bear jam at one point, please if you must stop, approach the bear, feed the bear, whatever, just pull over to the side of the road, is that too much to ask? Geesh people we see bears on our back porch!

Yes we saw a bear or two, some elk, and lots of turkeys - on the side of the road and behind the wheel.