The Great Smoky Mountains National Park
My nerves are completely unraveled. This is a great start for a vacation! I worked today and have already driven across Atlanta twice for two meetings before I left late for home.
I got home and Taylor was sitting in the car already buckled up.
"Sweetie, we still have to finish loading the car."
"It's ok daddy. I'm ready!"
We've spent several days packing up the SUV. My wife and I have extensive packing lists so that going on vacation is a breeze. However, we neglect to actually check off items sometimes like my wallet, which stayed in Georgia for the entire trip.
For the women out there who avidly read my blog you might not understand just how important a man's wallet is to him. You know it has my driver's license which I need. It also has debit cards, medical insurance cards and other important documents. Basically it contains everything you need to survive except the Swiss Army Knife (which I keep in the left rear pocket). I can't live without my wallet. Panic came over me.
We were over an hour away from the house and headed toward the mountains when I went to buy my daughter a soda at a gas station while Marie was filling up the baby. No wallet. My face went pale. I started to sweat. What will I do? Will I have to go an hour back to the house, then another hour just to get back where I am now? That is three hours on a four hour trip and I'm not even out of Georgia yet!
Nope. Marie has a debit card and cash. I have a photo of my license in the car just in case I get stopped going to the gym. We'll risk it. I'll go naked for four days in the hills without my wallet. More panic.
We're headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. If you have not been there we'll fill you in as we travel. To put it bluntly it is where rednecks go when their is oil on the beach in Panama City, Florida. I like to go there because I'm usually the thinnest guy on the street. You can also spot me because I won't have on a muscle shirt, arm tattoos or a rebel flag on any part of my clothing.
But that is the town.
The real reason to go are the Great Smoky Mountains. To me this is home away from home. My family spent their summers there to get away from the Georgia heat. We've got a huge "cabin" waiting on us there. It is 4,800 square feet with five bedrooms, six bathrooms and a million couches. It sleeps 22 adults. Ok, so we aren't exactly camping out.
I got a deal on the price and since it would cost the same for a three bedroom cabin, we went with the turbo cabin. Marie and I like to have people go with us on vacation since it is more fun that way and folks can help us watch the baby a little, so we invited the grandmothers and two close friends to join us.
Katie does not like to travel and was quite vocal about it. My head was pounding from all the screaming and crying. I would stop and Marie would feed her and she would be happy for a while, but that didn't last much past starting up the car again. WAAAHHHAHAAAAAA! I got out the duct tape but Marie said I was not allowed to do that. Marie was then wearing the duct tape which I am allowed to do in most Southern states.
When we got to the mountains two happy grandmas Mimi (Denette, my mom) and Izzy (Isabelle, Marie's mom) were there to meet us. Taylor was so excited! We looked around this huge "cabin" which was much larger than our house and couldn't believe the view. We'll like it here!
Marie decided that the lower two bedrooms would be better for her in that she could better hear the baby, so we kicked Izzy upstairs. While unloading my gear I opened up the bathroom closet and there sat an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels Original #7 Old Tyme Sour Mash Sippin' Whiskey. Wow! My lucky day! Someone left it behind!
Marie finally told me that her mom had bought it for a present for me and I was still just as happy. I'll save it for a special occasion...like Friday!
We washed the children and all went to bed early so that we could make a good start of the next day.
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