Wow

Wow. That's all I've got to say. What have I been doing that time goes so quickly by? Who knows.

Between looking at the tons of work that needs to be done in the house, outside of the house and the yard we left. Sometimes you just gotta get out.

Drove to the Smokey Mountains and spent a few days. We drove up and down mountains, looked at beautiful scenery and hiked - a lot. Most of my view while we were driving was looking straight down with no shoulder to prevent us from certain death. Have I mentioned I have height issues?

We attempted to go through Cades Cove but after being stuck in traffic for about thirty minutes we took the first road out of there that we saw. The sign said "Exit to Townsend". We took it. I'm reading the brochure we got when we arrived at the Cove and I see that it says this road is "a primitive, one way road".

Gravel, one lane, twisty-turny and a lot of holes. Nothing to prevent us from death. We drove on this road for eleven miles. At approximately 10 miles an hour. I was afraid we were still going to be on it when it got dark. We weren't. But we did see a bear up close and personal. The husband stopped the truck and we sat there and just stared at it like idiots. The bear ignored us. We were delighted.

At some point in time we took a wrong turn and ended up in Gatlinburg. How about no? It was horrible. It reminded me of Bourbon Street but without the booze. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. We don't go on vacation for that kind of stuff - we go on vacation to relax and do nothing.

Although upon getting out of there we did finally happen upon a liquor store.

So we stopped and bought a bottle of wine. I wanted to drink it right then but my husband wouldn't let me. Something about drunken hiking and probable death.

We hiked up to Laurel Falls and I took hundreds of photos of the changing leaves. Our leaves turn brown, maybe yellow, and fall off. The reds, oranges and yellows make me happy. Coming down from the falls there was a momma bear and a baby bear up in a tree so we stood there and watched them for a little while. (Okay, fine, we stopped because by this time we needed to breath without gasping.)

We also went to Clingman's Dome. It's supposed to be the highest part of the park so of course we hiked to the top of it. While the hike was a little on the steep side it gave you beautiful views. When we got the top they had an observation deck that you could walk up to.

It never occurred to me not to continue walking up to the top of the deck.

I was about twenty feet from the observation deck itself, walking up this concrete ramp and the wind is whipping around like crazy when I made the biggest mistake of the trip.

I looked over the side.

I will say this: the effect was immediate. My knees locked, my stomach dropped, my hands started shaking and I really, really, really needed to fall to the ground and put my head between my knees.

I stood there for about five minutes with my eyes closed, slowly turned myself around and walked back down to earth staring at the ramp the entire way down.

My husband shares my fear of heights. It took him ten minutes to walk up the last twenty feet but he made it. Then he looked at me over the side of the observation deck so I could take his picture (with shaking hands) so he could prove to his mother that he made it to the top! We are so mature.

Then we hiked about two miles of the Appalachian Trail and took pictures of each other next to the sign so we could prove to the kids that we actually did it.

The silence at our cabin was delightful. There was no cell service, no internet, we were forced to unplug. It was so peaceful.

We've already decided that next time we go we're spending a full week and will probably camp.

I could use about three weeks of that.