You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout!

It took me a few days to gather my thoughts and get them written down. At the time of this post, I didn’t have the photos published yet, but they should be up by tomorrow. But here is what happened last week:

Sunday

This was a day of travel. ZDog and J had come to our house on Saturday and spent the night. Sunday we got up, went to church, went to a friend’s grandson’s open house, and then took off for Chicago. Our destination was the Courtyard Marriott… our park-sleep-fly hotel. We got up there later than we had wanted, so I dropped KC off at The Streets of Woodfield where there is a Tall Girl shop. (She ended up buying a number of needed items there!) Meanwhile, ZDog, J and I sped off to the hotel. I dropped off the luggage and the kids and went back to pick up KC. We then picked up Subway for dinner and about that time our friends Randy and Cindy and their daugher Emily arrived. They got their stuff unpacked and signed in their car (as we had done) for parking all week. Then Randy, Emily and I (the only hungry three!!) went to a nearby Hooters for some food. Then it was back to the hotel and to sleep.

Monday

It was early when we got up. The hotel shuttle left at 4am for O’Hare International Airport. We got there and went through all the formalities and waited for the plane. Other friends of ours Jake, Lisa and their kids, and Dave, Kelly and their kids and their daughters’ boyfriends, were there waiting as well. Lisa works in the IT department where I do and Kelly cuts my hair (what I have of it). They were to be at other resorts than ours. Soon they call our flight and we’re off! Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, HERE WE COME! It was an uneventful flight. We touched down at about 11:30 local time and had very little line waiting at customs there. Then it was off to the Apple Vacations bus to be shuttled to our resort. It took about 40 minutes to get there as our resort was the last stop. It is the Ocean Blue Beach and Golf Resort. Let me just say that it was everything I had hoped for. Our room was ready so we dropped our stuff there. Since ZDog and J’s room was not ready, we had them put their stuff in our room temporarily. We then changed for the beach and headed there. And what a beach! White sand, cool to the feet (not hot like the sand at Riviera Maya!) beautiful waves coming in, and pounding surf out about a mile or so from the shore. Beautiful!

We then got towels using our towel cards and we all signed up for a snorkel/scuba trip the next day to Catalina Island. KC, ZDog and J were to scuba and Randy, Cindy, Emily and I were to snorkel. Since it was all inclusive, we grabbed a bite to eat at the beachside restaurant and then waited a bit before going in to the surf. What fun! The water was a bit cold going in but once wet you were fine. After we got out, I opened the book I had brought to read this week, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and began at page 1. Later, everyone finally got settled into their own rooms and we met and went to the Mexican restaurant on the resort. The resort offered Dominican, Italian, American, Mexican and Spanish restaurants as well as a buffet.

Tuesday

This was our earliest morning as we hopped a bus and took off inland to La Romana (on the south coast) via Miguey (the province capital). It took us about 3 hours to get to La Romana where we then left the bus and got on a boat. From there we went to Catalina Island, a mile or so off the southern shore. Catalina Island is one of the premiere diving spots in the Caribbean. It’s big diving attractions are The Wall and The Aquarium. The Wall is a nearly 50 meter vertical drop underwater where there is a lot of coral; I’m told that you need to be aware of your depth as you can’t see the bottom and it’s easy to go too deep. The Aquarium is a rather shallow (5-6 meters) area that is literally FULL of fish to see. KC, ZDog and J all had a great time scuba diving. Randy, Cindy, Emily and I wet snorkeling. Well, I tried snorkeling but I’m just not that good of a swimmer and didn’t have a life jacket so I spent a lot of time on the boat.

Later, we had a meal on Catalina Island and sunned. We took some pictures (which are in my photo gallery) and took it easy after the “workout”. Then we all piled on the bus and headed back. Later that night was dinner at the Italian restaurant. We were all in after the big day so we headed back to our rooms for an early night.

Wednesday

We deliberately took it easy on Wednesday, after all we did on Tuesday. Well, I was GOING to take it easy. We were all at different places, so I couldn’t get a message to KC; I went walking with Randy and Cindy to the southeast looking for Dave and Kelly. We found them about five resorts away; it was probably about a half mile walk along the beach. Cindy volunteered to go back to tell KC, ZDog, J and Emily where we were. Randy and I went with Dave and the boys and were soon body surfing. Poor Dave looked as red as a beet - you couldn’t tell where his skin stopped and his red swim trunks started! Soon, Cindy was back with Emily - she had talked with ZDog and J but couldn’t find KC. We talked a bit with Dave and Kelly, made plans for them to walk up to our beach on Friday, had some beers at their resort, and eventually started walking back. KC met us along the way - she had wondered where I had gone.

Wednesday evening was the American restaurant on the resort - burgers and fries, mainly. Afterwards, we took our time going back to the room but eventually made it another early night - too much walking along the beach!

Thursday

Thursday morning was pretty uneventful. Mainly because the government shut down the beach. The waves were lapping up at the second and third rows of shades on our beach. It even took out a number of beach-side shops that the locals ran. Yowee! Thursday afternoon was quite a different story. Randy, Emily, KC and I all went ziplining! Wow! Was that ever FUN! Our zipline guide, who looked like a 5′8″ version of Dwayne Wade, was really into his role: “When I say ZIP! you say LINE!…. ZIP!” (us) “LINE!”; “When I say GO! you say FAST!… GO!” (us) “FAST!”. Stuff like that on the way out. We went inland about 45 minutes by bus and then changed vehicles to what was similar to a troop carrier with no suspension. Good thing there was no suspension as the road was quite bumpy with potholes you could lose a VW Beetle in! When we got there, we were fitted with a harness and a helmet and then given a quick demonstration about proper technique. What fun! It will have to be an included excursion in all our future vacations! Afterwards we were treated to fruit and soft drinks and we were joined by a small lizard. It seemed taken with Randy. If you check out the pictures in the photo gallery, you’ll see the little guy really like crawling on Randy’s arm.

When we got back to the resort, we had dinner at the Dominican restaurant. I’d never had guinea hen before but I’d recommend it to anyone; it was DELICIOUS! It tasted like marinated chicken. (Doesn’t everything you have never had before taste like chicken? Well at least that’s what they said in “The Matrix“!) ZDog had the goat. That’s right goat. He said it was like a very tender beef. He didn’t even offer to share any!?! Afterwards we had some mamajuana, a traditional Dominican drink and the waiter led us in a traditional Dominican toast: Arriba, abajo, al centro, chiki-chiki, para adentro (Up, down, to the center, shake it, to the inside.). KC and I were so taken with the taste of mamajuana that we brought some of the bark and herbs back with us. After this and after all the activity, it was again early to bed.

Friday

Friday. Our last full day. We were planning on spending it on the beach and just lolling around. The problem was that time played a trick on us. We thought it would drag on and on so that we would seem to have been there for many hours. However, time seemed to jump on an SST and just flew by. All too soon it was over. It was early in the afternoon when I finished my book; what an ending to the entire series! Then it was off to the local shops to pick up some souvenirs - and we did pick up quite a few of them.

Earlier we had decided on returning to the Mexican restaurant. It was just as delicious as before. Afterwards we called it an early night as we all had to pack to get ready to return home.

Saturday

Saturday was a big travel day. Go from the resort to the airport. Go through checkin at the Punta Cana airport. Go from the airport at Punta Cana to O’Hare International Airport. Go through customs. Go from O’Hare to our Park/Sleep/Fly hotel. Go from the hotel to home. (Then ZDog and J got into their car and drove from our home to their home.) We got the car unloaded and then were very happy just to lay down and go to sleep in our own bed.

WHAT A VACATION! I DIDN’T WANT IT TO END!!

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them! And they were sore afraid … And the angel said unto them, “Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings o great joy, which shall be to all my people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward men.”

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. - Linus Van Pelt

To you and yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I can’t think of a better way to do this, so I’m back-dating the posts from our vacation. I didn’t have an internet connection to use while on vacation so I couldn’t post the entries as they happened. I’ll make a total of seven entries, so I’ll probably increase the viewable entries just to make sure all seven appear on this front page. Here are the links for each day:
"Smoky Mountains - Sunday"
"Smoky Mountains - Monday"
"Smoky Mountains - Tuesday"
"Smoky Mountains - Wednesday"
"Smoky Mountains - Thursday"
"Smoky Mountains - Friday"
"Smoky Mountains - Saturday"

Driving, driving, driving! We checked out of our cabin at about 8:30 and left for home. With stops at Louisville for lunch (Chick-Fil-A) and gas, Bloomington for dinner (Subway) and Buffalo (Iowa, not New York!) for gas. We drove straight through, stopping and changing drivers every so often, so it wasn’t all that bad. We were tired but happy to be home at 9:45pm. It truly was a great vacation… but NOW I need a vacation to recuperate from my vacation!!

Our last day here. The visibility seemed to be a lot better today, so we decided to try to get to Clingman’s Dome again. It’s something I wanted to do and I know the others wanted it as well. When we got to Newfound Gap (about 3/4 of the way there) things seemed better. The visibility was still good and we were starting to get stoked for a great view from atop “the Dome”. Unfortunately, as we got closer the visibility went down. When we got there, we could see farther than the day before but we still couldn’t see any nearby mountains or even more than about 100 yards around the tower on the top of Clingman’s Dome. Oh well, we can’t control the weather!

KC, Bob and Norma then took off on a hike down to Indian Gap - 6.1 miles away. I got the honor and privilege of driving the car down to Indian Gap so they wouldn’t have to hike back up to Clingman’s Dome. While waiting for them to come down, I read more of the book and also hiked 100-200 yards up the trail to Clingman’s Dome and back - my knee was still bothering me. When they arrived at Indian Gap, they all thought that they had a nice hike.

I did learn why they call them the Smoky Mountains. When visibility is low, it’s because of low clouds - fog. However, the fog didn’t just settle in; it drifted and you could actually see it drift. It looked just like smoke from a fire wafting around. In fact, there were times when I was looking for a campfire or even a grass fire or forest fire because of the way the fog was moving. It even moved across the paths and through the trees as smoke would. Amazing!

After the hike, we went to Gatlinburg to do some “touristy” things. KC and I went on the Sky Lift while Bob and Norma walked around to a few of the shops. When KC and I got back down from the Sky Lift, we went into a few of the shops with our friends but we never did find a shirt we liked. Yeah, they had about a bazillion t-shirts but none of them had The Great Smoky Mountain National Park logo on them - they all had Gatlinburg or Dollywood or Pigeon Forge or some other tourist stuff on them. Bah! And none of us wanted to spend a lot of time looking for shirts so we just left. Besides, we were all hungry! We settled on The Alamo restaurant after asking a few people; and we weren’t disappointed. It was excellent — a bit pricey, but nothing like prices in the restaurants on the main drag of Gatlinburg.

When we got back to the cabin, we finished the jigsaw puzzle before heading off to bed. Big travel day tomorrow!

The weather went a little bad on us today. We took off for Clingman’s Dome - the highest point in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park; to be precise, the highest peak in the entire Appalachian Mountains - but because rain was in the forecast the visibility was almost nil. When we actually got to the parking lot to hike the half mile up to the top of the Dome, we couldn’t see the other end of the parking lot… much less any mountains around us. Rats.

So, we went back down most of the way to Indian Gap. KC, Bob and Norma got out and hiked the remaining 1.7 miles down the Appalachian Trail to Newfound Gap; I, being the gimp, drove the car down to the Newfound Gap parking lot and waited for them. KC took the camera and has some excellent pictures. I began reading “The Last Jihad” by Joel Silverstein. They definitely got the better deal, but I knew I couldn’t do that hike.

After they got to the car, we all headed down to a “Quiet Walk“. The park is dotted with Quiet Walks and we just picked one. I went with the hikers this time and was glad I did. We ended up walking along a nice babbling brook - it was just beautiful. And we timed it just right; as we got to the car, it began to rain.

Next we went to the visitor center. I had remembered there was a waterfall close to the Sugarlands Visitor Center - the closest visitor center to Gatlinburg. No one else seemed to remember this, though. Luckily, my memory was correct - Cataract Falls was a mere 0.7 miles away from the parking lot. It was still raining, so we pulled out our rain gear (did I mention that Bob and Norma are/were scout leaders - “Be Prepared!”) and set out for Cataract Falls. These, too, were just beautiful. I know I’m using that word a lot, but there simply aren’t adequate words in my vocabulary to describe these scenes.

After getting back to the car, we headed in to Gatlinburg - we needed gas!! We filled up the car and then headed over to one of the many artisan’s places in Gatlinburg. We just kind of tooled around at these places until we decided it was time to get back to the cabin. Once there, we had another nice dinner - burgers on the grill with chips and veggies - and settled in to a quiet evening of a jigsaw puzzle that KC bought in the Sugarlands Visitor Center. Another great day!

Wednesday? Already?! OK. We kind of slept in - I was the first up (well, not awake but up and out of bed) and made a mess for breakfast. A mess is a concoction of hash brown potatoes, eggs, ham and spices. We all decided that today was to be a light day. After the 8+ mile hike yesterday (plus my klutziness) I simply couldn’t do another hike of any distance. I felt kind of like a fourth leg on a tripod because the others were ready to hike some more; I didn’t want to hold them back from the fun they came here for.

It was decided that we do an “Auto Tour” of Cade’s Cove. Cade’s Cove is a sizeable area carved out in the mountains that is really a neat place. The folks at Smoky Mountain National Park have set up a nice little tour where you pick up a brochure (for a donation) and drive from place to place. At each place, there are volunteer park rangers who will tell you about the particular place where you are. We went from place to place to place along the Auto Tour. It was all quite interesting. I’m no history buff, but I do enjoy looking at historical buildings and appreciating the effort and time it took to make such structures without the advantages of power tools that we have today. Plus, the way the Auto Tour was set up they started with the most primitive structures there (which dated back to 1826) to the most recent structures (dating from 1910) you could really see how things had changed over that time. Of course, they aren’t the exact original structures but they have been maintained pretty true to the original buildings.

The coolest part of this was when we got to the Carter Shields Cabin. Here, we saw a bear in the stream behind the cabin. It was about 4pm and we were just getting the first indications of sunset. The streams in all of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park have been relatively dry this year, and this stream was no exception. The bear was making his way upstream, flipping over stones in the stream as though he was looking for something. Every now and then he’d look around as if to see if anyone was there. We were all about about 30 yards from the bear, so my photos aren’t exactly works of art. But, we did get some nice pictures of the bear!

After leaving Cade’s Cove, we went on a short hike to Laurel Falls. Let me tell you, my knee didn’t like the 1.7 mile hike there, but the end of the hike was worth it! What a beautiful sight! While the water has been in short supply, Laurel Falls still had some water coming down. VERY nice!

When we got back to our cabin, we had a nice dinner (beef hot dogs on the grill and baked beans) and again were quite tired so we went to bed at a decent hour.

After a breakfast of cereal and bananas, we loaded our backpacks. I had borrowed ZDog’s CamelBak backpack, so I loaded it with several trail mix bars, a couple of Clif bars, some cheesy crackers, some gorp and (of course) water. The CamelBak has a pouch for water built into it; it holds about 2 liters of water. I also packed in a flashlight and rain gear, recommended for any hiker in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. KC, Bob and Norma packed the same but their packs were larger so they also packed some grapes.

At about 8:30, we left for the park. Our first stop was the Sugarlands Welcome Center at the main park entrance from Gatlinburg. After doing some shopping there and picking up some maps, we then headed to Newfound Gap. From here, we took off on the Appalachian Trail with a destination of Charlie’s Bunion - over 4 miles away. Along the way, there was plenty to see. There were spectacular views of the Great Smoky Mountains. I’ve seen the Rocky Mountains from a few angles around Boulder and up to and in Rocky Mountain National Park, but they are different than the Great Smoky Mountains. The Smoky Mountains have trees and brush and animals and rocks and such; the Rockies have rocks. The only problem I had is that I was not used to such workouts and the 8+ miles round trip pretty much did me in. It took us about 7 hours to make the trek, with a break in the middle for lunch. Yikes! My dogs were barkin’ at the end of this hike. Yeah, I took all the precautions I could (wore knee braces, used hiking boots, wool socks, etc.) but I’m simply not used to walking that far on up and down grades on paths that sometimes were only a foot or two wide. Plus, my inner klutz came out: with about 30 yards or so to go before the hike was done and me thinking “It’s almost over!!” I took my eye off the next step and slipped. I caught myself and didn’t fall, but I strained my right knee. It simply ruined the exhilaration of completing the hike.

We all were tired so we headed home and had a nice dinner of chicken breasts on the grill, baked potatoes and mixed vegetables. Topped off with ice cream, it was the perfect ending for a rigorous day. I slept like a log after that. I don’t think a stampede would have awakened me, I was so tired. But it was a good day.

Up and at ‘em! We’re checked out at 8:30 and headed to the nearby Waffle House for breakfast. I had a pecan waffle and it was excellent. I’ve eaten at Waffle House before and I knew that the waffles are excellent but everything else is GREASY!! Off we went after breakfast, headed for Pigeon Forge. Once we crossed the border to Tennessee, we stopped at a Welcome Center. It was pretty cool - a lot about the local artists, artisans and such. It kind of whetted our appetite. Next, around Knoxville and off through Sevierville and on to Pigeon Forge.

Since check-in time for the cabin was at 4:30 and it was only 2:00, we had some time, plus the people who were supposed to be at the cabin rental office weren’t there. Sooooo… we headed back to WalMart and picked up some groceries. We had planned meals on our way down and had a menu list to work from. After the groceries, we went back to the cabin rental office and found instructions in the mail box. Cool! Driving directions to our cabin and instructions on how to get in and details on items in the cabin. Well, the driving directions were a kind of adventure in and of themselves - not that it was hard to get to, but it wasn’t easy, either. At least we were doing it in daylight; things are always harder to find at night, aren’t they?

And soon…. there was our cabin! It’s called B’s Tun Tavern Cabin. Tun Tavern in Philadelphia is where the Marine Corps was first organized, and some of the decor in the cabin is done with the Marines in mind, including a replica Marine Corps flag on the wall. But what a cool cabin! I had seen the photos on the web site where we found the cabin, but they simply didn’t do it justice. Neither do my photos, but I’ll try! How cool! Two levels, a living room and full kitchen (oven, stove, microwave, fridge, dishwasher), a gas fireplace, two king size beds in two separate bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a hot tub, a pool table, a charcoal grill… it was simply unbelievable for the price we were paying (split two ways of course!). After unpacking the car and settling in, we had pizza for dinner and planned our next day.

The start of our “Great Adventure”. We are headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee; specifically to a cabin between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Our ultimate destination is The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The “we” here is KC and I and our good friends Bob and Norma. We left town about 11:30am and started heading east on I-74. We stopped for a quick lunch at Subway in Galesburg, IL that we took with us and continued down the road. We pulled off the road in Bloomington, IL for a quick pit stop (and a Dairy Queen - I had a chocolate malt!) then on east we went. We had dinner at Fillmore’s Dairy Hut in Covington, KY (excellent ice cream, by the way) and then continued to Lexington. After a few “shop around” stops for a hotel room, we ended up at Motel 6. We were all tired from the trip so we unpacked only what we needed to for the night and crashed. We had driven for about 9 hours and had about 4 hours left. It was a good day.