Possumblog

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

Well, I’m tired for one thing. None of that “tanned, ready and rested” mess for me--I’m bedraggled and still lacking about a day of sleep. BUT, I’m not complaining. Although I am having a bit of trouble remembering exactly what all this blogging stuff is about.

As for the vacation, being that I’ve been gone so long, there’s too much to tell so I’ll just hit the high points--

Miles traveled--795 miles round trip, including one 185 mile round trip daytrip through the Smokies.

Roadkill--surprisingly few fur pies in evidence this year. And most of them were in Alabama. I seem to recall approximately 10 raccoons, 7 possums, 2 armadillos, and a variety of chewed up mammals of indistinct species. I was amazed there weren’t more up in the mountains, and it made me wonder if they do a bit more policing to keep from disturbing the tourists or something.

Car trouble--none at all. Mileage ranged from around 23 on the highway to abysmal in the mountains. (Mainly due to my keeping the transmission in second or third most of the time.) The last time I drove through the Smokies, it was with my parents in their ’74 Buick Riviera, a car of great floatiness and thirst, and I remember thinking how difficult the travel seemed on the road that crossed between Gatlinburg and Cherokee. This Odyssey seemed much more buttoned-down, and this despite the fact that I’ve never been fond of its odd handling characteristics. But it handled the tight 20mph sweepers with a full load of six passengers with great aplomb and with no fatigue on my part.

Accommodations--Very nice little modern two bedroom cabin right in the center of Pigeon Forge that was surprisingly private. It had an upstairs and downstairs and two big back porches looking out into the woods, a good sized kitchen, satellite TV (on four different sets). Only drawback was that it was at the very top of a hill, and the pool was at the very bottom of the hill. Nice and quiet, though. I am NOT impressed with the money I was charged for the cleaning fee--they need to get another housekeeping service.

Scenery--beautiful, at least the mountain part of it. The parkway from Sevierville to Gatlinburg is better looking than I recall from childhood, but still much too full of the ticky-tacky crapshack souvenir places. Exactly how many different go-kart/miniature golf places can you build in one place?! I was surprised at how many of the trees up in the higher elevations were dead--the articles I’ve read cite insect damage, various fungi, and air pollution. Cades Cove was quite beautiful, though, and on that leg of our daytrip we counted about twelve deer, two turkeys, and a mob of people who found a bear and proved their intense stupidity by setting out on foot to go get a closer look. Idjits.

Potpourri--Saw a heaping wad of Hutterites coming down the pathway from Clingmans Dome. That's not something you really expect to see. Jonathan counted motorcycles during the trip, and managed to see a total of 465 or so. Rebecca counted license plates, and wound up with tags from 37 states. Ohio seemed to be represented well. Worst drivers? Still has to be anyone coming out of metro Atlanta. It's not all Georgia drivers, but the ones that make themselves noticed most by their rudeness and unnecessarily aggressive driving all hale from Atlanta. Work on that, please.

Activities--We got in Saturday and I didn’t want to go or do anything because I was tired, but later on that afternoon we did go grocery shopping. My New York friend of Hebrew extraction might think Birmingham not so amenable to those who wish to keep kosher, but let me tell you what, you’ve never seen a more pitiful scene than the search that occurred in the Sevierville Super Wal-Mart as innumerable clerks tried to help a young woman try to find some matzah. We pick up the conversation in midstream:

She: “Matzah--it’s Jewish unleavened bread, sorta flat like a cracker?”

1st Associate: “Uh, well, it might be over in the Mexican food--hey, [name of assistant manager]--have we got any matt-so?”

Assistant Manager: “Any what?”

2nd Associate (who appeared out of nowhere): “Masto--it’s a type of Jewish crackers!”

She (quietly, and now having been forgotten by the others): “Matzah, it’s not really crac--”

Assistant Manager (to 1st Associate): “All our crackers are gonna be over on aisle 12.”

1st Associate: “Well, she said it wasn’t like real crackers and that it wasn’t over in crackers at all, and she thinks it might be in the foreign food stuff. Like Mexican.”

This conversation continued in this vein for several more minutes I’m sure, given the exotic nature of the request, but we had other things to go get.

Sunday was overcast and we stayed close to the cabin, aside from a couple of trips to church. Odd, these resort/tourist-town churches--they seem only to have a handful of regular members, and tremendous crowds of visitors. They had 275 on Sunday morning, and barely 50 in the evening.

Monday was supposed to be our day to go to the mountains, but it rained from before dawn until well into the night. So we went shopping at the Pigeon Forge Factory Outlet. Wheee. Shopping in the rain is very fun. With children, even more so. But we did find some nice plastic covers for some of our Pyrex bowls!

Tuesday was absolutely stunningly beautiful all day long, so that was our daytrip day. Up to Clingmans Dome, parked and left Reba and Ashley in the van because the former was feeling bad, and the latter somehow neglected to bring along any shoes to walk in. Hmm. Imagine that! Up to the top with the other three, looked around, and came back down. On down the mountain for a picnic stop, then on into Cherokee to buy gas, then BACK over the mountain to go see Cades Cove. Did the loop, but with it getting late in the day, we only stopped at a couple of the buildings.

Wednesday, home again. Church Wednesday night where I found that it’s probably not a good idea to go on vacation right when the new quarter starts. Thursday and Friday and Saturday? I’m not quite sure, although I think we did laundry, and we had my mom and sister over for lunch on Saturday.

Stuff I didn’t do--watch the news, read a newspaper, or look at a computer.

Lot went by while I was gone, it seems.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at July 5, 2006 08:19 AM