My, what a week! We are so very tired, yet relaxed. Marsha and I and our two girls Haley and Taylor took a short vacation this week in the Great Smoky Mountains. We took along our eleven year old cousin Amber from Texas who is staying the summer with us. Boy, oh boy was it nice to get away. I had surgery last week to repair an umbilical hernia, so I couldn't really do any kind of action vacation, which means four days in the mountains was perfect. Very few things on earth are as relaxing to me as being in those beautiful mountains! I realize the mountains out west are much bigger, and have a beauty all their own, but the mountains of Appalachia are just perfect to me. Packed in together and covered in green...it really soothes me for some reason. I especially love the Smoky Mountains. The sort of mysterious look they have with the "smoke" up around the tops...the beautiful, cool, and crystal clear streams running from the mountain tops.Just beautiful. Every time I am there I am more in awe of God's creativity.Surrounded by the wonders of His creation, I feel so small, and yet so loved. Small because God and His creative works are so vast,; loved because I know He sees me even as I stand dwarfed by the mountains on every side. It is to me a feeling so grand that mere words can not do it justice. But thank God! He is a wonderful, powerful, magnificent God!
We left Richmond on Monday, a little later in the day than we had planned. That's nothing new. I don't even get mad about it anymore. Well, ok, sometimes I do. But not Monday. We were going to the mountains. I was so exhausted. We had gone to Elizabethtown Sunday for both services. I had preached Sunday morning, but had Brother Montgomery to preach the Sunday night service for me. He did a good job, and I got the night off from the physical exertion of preaching. I'm just the kind of preacher that gets pretty excited, and it's difficult for me to contain even when I'm weak in body.At any rate, I was exhausted and nearly ill when we got home.Marsha prayed with me and we got some sleep. Monday I woke up and knew immediately it was going to be a rough day for me physically, but my family and I needed the get away.We have a lot ahead of us, and it has been a hectic and difficult year or so for us in some ways. We just needed it. So off we went. By Monday night I was so sick. I stayed that way through most of the night. I believe I remember Marsha praying for me some more. Thank God for a Godly, praying wife. I mean that. She has prayed me through some of the darkest and most difficult moments of my life. That's one of the many things about Marsha Renee that I love. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling a little weak, but pretty good over all. For whatever reason, I was up way ahead of the rest of the family, so I did a little laundry,scouted out the free breakfast, and then since there was literally no one around, I went and kicked off my flip flops and soaked my feet in the hot tub. Now that was a nice, peaceful morning.
Feeling pretty good, I got the girls up and we all headed down to eat the breakfast, then out to see what Gatlinburg had to offer. It was very crowded but fun. Crowded is generally ok with me, because that means there are people. Yes, friends, I am a people watcher. Got it from my folks. Dad is an observer. He catches little funny things about people and makes them seem even funnier. Mom, she is just zany. The woman is wacky! She and I and my wife can laugh ourselves silly just sitting in a waiting room, or at the mall, or a restaurant watching people. Good old human entertainment. So, between watching the hilarious things that people do when they don't realize you're watching, doing a few silly things of our own for some other folks entertainment, and doing a little shopping, it was a nice morning and afternoon. One of my favorite times was when Marsha and Haley went in to a place and left me and Taylor and Amber to our own devices for a few minutes. We got the biggest hand dipped corn dog I have ever seen! It had to be ten to twelve inches long! Amber had a bite or two, then little Taylor Nicole the chick took over! She attacked that thing with gusto! Never have I seen anybody go after a corndog like that...it was downright inspiring. So she did take after her big ole daddy in some ways, right? What a chick.
We also went to my favorite store while in Gatlinburg, The Pepper Palace. A hot sauce specialty shop. Man, Oh Man! I love that place. They're online...you should check'em out, if you like spicy anything. They have it. After returning to Pigeon Forge, checking out some of our favorite things there, including some side splitting family comedy, we got some grub at the Happy Days Diner. It's an old fashioned greasy spoon diner with some fantastic burgers and fries, themed after the styles of the fifties. Pretty fun, and great food.
The next day was probably the best. We went to Cades Cove, an area in the National Park that was a busy little village in the eighteen hundreds thru the nineteen-thirties. It ceased to exist as a living village when the National Park took the land, but they have preserved several old original homes, churches, and an old mill to commemorate the lifestyle and toughness of the settlers there. It is a beautiful and peaceful place. I'm always sort of overtaken with the romance of that time period and the simple ways that they lived. Although life was simple, it was often brutal, and the people were hard working and tough minded. They were also very intelligent. I'm amazed at the ways they managed to overcome the obstacles of living in what could at times be a pretty unforgiving environment. Very inspiring indeed.
While there we had a family picnic, and got some great nature and wildlife pics, including pictures of six bears. These were wild bears, not prisoners in some cage. It was pretty awesome. Here are a few bear pics. This isn't all of them, but you can find the rest on my wife's Facebook page.
.
There's a ton of other stuff I could say, but I won't bore you. I will just leave this with you.We enjoyed everything we did there in the area. All of it was great. But the most fun we had was the day we spent in the mountains, picnicking, running from bears, looking at old places and daydreaming. The time we spen that cost us the least seemed to enrich us the most. Interesting, huh?
As we left the Cove, we headed back down the mountain, and we decided to get out and play for awhile in the stream coming down the mountain. it was cool clear water straight from the tops of the mountains, and it was just beautiful. We laughed, we played, we splashed. I taught the girls how to skip rocks. It was just awesomely simple family time. I highly recommend it.
i'll post some more and maybe some more pics later, but that's all for now.
Coming next week...
My first attempt at my very own Estep Family Recipe barbeque Sauce...not bad!
Plus pics of us playing in the creek!!!
3 comments:
WOWZERS! THREE weeks in a row! I'm liking the consistency of the Saturday Evening Post!
Your vacation sounds great. All except for the people part. We usually time our vacations when the LEAST amount of people will be around. The down side is, many of the shops, and even restaurants, are closed when we visit. But it's still worth it to us. Mainly we hate all the traffic. Perhaps we need to go to a crowded place with you so you could teach us how to more effectively "people watch"? If we could get some pointers and hear some sample commentary on the action we might learn to slow down and enjoy the crowds a little better. You never know!
Cade's Cove is a very neat place. But, again, we go CRAZY with the traffic! I mean, COME ON! Why do some people think they have to stop and stare for 5 minutes at EACH and EVERY ONE of the HUNDREDS of deer alongside the road??? And they won't move over so you can go around them at a lightening fast rate of 10 miles per hour! There's NO WAY I'd want to go to Cade's Cove during peak vacation time. I'd lose every bit of serenity and tranquility I'd gained by looking at the old buildings, watching the living history demonstrations and imagining life in quieter, simpler times. I get agitated just THINKING about all those cars jamming up the road! ;-) But I'm glad you enjoyed your vacation and I'm glad you're feeling better.
That's funny, and I understand your frustration with traffic. I honestly wasn't that bad this trip. The streets were crowded in Gatlinburg with people, but we got around in traffic pretty easily. We actually rode the trolley from Pigeon Forge into Gatlinburg and back, which WAS a little too crowded but kind of fun just the same. The only traffic issue we had in Cades Cove was when the cars lined up to see the first bear, which was right at the side of the road.
We have, twice, happened into the area at the same time as the Hot Rod Nationals Car Show. Whoa....now THAT was too much traffic. Bumper to bumper all day long. We took to walking around Pigeon Forge because you couldn't stand to drive. But this time, it was really not that bad.
Wow, I was going to comment on what a wonderful, relaxing vacation you guys had... until I read Mom's comment clarifying how truly miserable you were without knowing it. Ha! I'm glad you were ignorant of the agony of the crowds and had such a wonderful time with your family. We all need that from time to time. Our family's trip to California a few months ago was like that--full of great family memories and being WOWED by the breathtaking creation of our God. Those are the BEST vacations. I'm so glad you guys were able to get away for a few days like that.
Post a Comment