BLOGGED, BUT NOT ALONG THE WAY. AGAIN. DAY 2

I got up at the absolute butt crack of dawn. I was exhausted from the travel day before, but my internal clock is on Central Time, so I didn't have a choice. I got up and got ready for the day.

I didn't mention this before, but I managed to pack everything for the trip in a travel backpack! I've never been able to do that before for a multi-day trip! I still overpacked (it's a sickness) but I had managed to roll everything up in small, scrunched up bundles and get it all stuffed in there. It was very convenient! One day I'll learn to pack only what I need, but it was not this day.

Because I now knew that the weather was hot here, I decided to wear something that was supposed to be "moisture wicking" and "cooling." We will circle back to this in a little bit, so don't forget.

I stopped at the McDonald's next door for breakfast - McGriddles for the win! - and went on to the park.

One thing that doesn't happen at Disneyland that is very common in Disney World, is something called "Rope Dropping." For the unwashed, that is where attendees at the park wait in frothed-jaw, muscle-straining, eyes-on-the-prize anticipation for the eternally smiling cast members to unclip the barrier ropes into each part of the park so they can wheel their SUV sized strollers as fast as possible to whatever ride they have first on their Disney App itinerary. 

Yeah, you could tell who was from out of town by the people who were scrambling to get into the park first thing in the morning. I didn't do that simply because breakfast took longer than I thought, but otherwise I just got there, went through security, beeped my magic band, took my picture so that they could eventually use it in whatever AI program that they have to track your face (allegedly) and walked in!

The very first thing I noticed was that the Disneyland Cinderella castle was much smaller than Sleeping Beauty one at Disney World. I mean, it was adequate. A good size. I'm sure it does the job just fine! However, there was a part of me that wondered if they would eventually put a lift kit and a loud engine in it, just to let you know it's just as good at the Disney World castle, OK?!  

Heh.

Second thing I noticed was that it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be! Genuinely, it was almost quiet in there first thing in the morning. It was nice, because it allowed you to get your bearings before some flustered mom in a homemade "I'm here with my dwarves" Cricut shirt elbowed you in the face to get to Tiana's Bayou Adventure before the wait got too long

Actually, it really as nice without the morning crowd there. Since Disneyland is so much smaller than Disney World, I got the impression that it had a different vibe altogether, at least in the early part of the day. To me, it seemed more like a neighborhood boardwalk amusement park than THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!!! as I walked through and got on some of the smaller rides right away. I rode the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which was fun. I couldn't keep the skirt of my tennis dress down, so thank God for biking shorts! I walked right on It's a Small World (still creepy) and it was after that I started noticing the crowds getting a little bit heavier. I mean, I expected it, but it was a nice morning reprieve not to have to face a smothering crowd first thing.

**Stopping here to say that I know I sound snarky, but I had fun. How can you not have fun? It's Disneyland! Am I a huge fan? No, but I'm not going to be a cranky bitch about being at a theme park if I chose to be there, right? It was very cool to see the original park, and all the historic things that started the whole thing. The rides weren't exact copies of the ones in Florida, so it was fun to see the differences. All Disney parks are engineering marvels, no matter what you think about them otherwise, so if nothing else, seeing how they create such all-encompassing landscapes in such a small space was very interesting. The design differences were fun and exploring the nooks and crannies is always an experience.**

So I continued my day, getting on rides, standing in lines, slowly boiling in the heat like the proverbial frog in the saucepan.  Y'all, it got HOT. I really wasn't expecting the kind of heat I encountered, but it was nasty. Granted, I am an indoor kind of gal, and my days are spent inside of an air-conditioned office, so a lot of it is just not being used to being outdoors all day, but jeez. I legit almost fainted at one point. I don't know what it was, but I got swimmy headed and had to sit in the shade and drink water before I passed out in Galaxy's Edge. Can you imagine? Fainting, and coming to to see a stormtrooper hanging over you? No thank you please. Once I felt better, I went on to ride the Haunted Mansion ride, which is very similar to the one in Orlando, and Pirates of the Caribbean, which is really quite different! The Pirates ride is longer, I think, and is set in Louisiana at first (a swamp, at least, so I think that's right) and even though it hit some of the same notes, it was different enough to be like a new ride altogether. After that I rode a lot of stuff, ate some stuff, and looked at stuff. It was a full morning!

It was about then that I realized two things: 1) It was too damn hot to be there in the crowd that had been steadily growing the entire day. and 2) I was within walking distance to the hotel.

So I went back to sit in the AC and take a nap! Actually, I took a shower and then took a nap, because I had been sweating so badly that I couldn't deal with it. That outfit I picked wasn't cooling or moisture wicking. It was swamp ass city and I was the only inhabitant. Yuck. Also, I had a blister on one of my toes! I wore my comfy, old-lady walking shoes that never give me any problems, and I had a blister! I was glad to rest a while. I knew I'd be going back later once the sun went down a little, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything. 

You know that whole thing about overpacking? Well, it served me well. When I got up, I put on a clean outfit and headed back out. It was still hot, but much nicer than it had been earlier, so walking around wasn't as uncomfortable. However, by that point the crowds were SO bad. I mean, so bad. 

Maybe the locals know better than to come to the park in the middle of the day when it is hot, so they wait until closer to the end of the day, but it was as bad as I've ever seen it in Florida. It was so busy that I decided that I wouldn't try to do very much else because I'd be standing in line for likely hours, so I mainly just walked around and looked at things. Also, I had a reservation at a restaurant called "Blue Bayou" which was a Cajun place attached to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and I didn't want to accidentally miss it, because it was a hard reservation to get. One day, if you're good, I'll tell you all about getting reservations at the Disney Parks. It'll make your hair stand on end.

The reservation wasn't supposed to be until 9:30 PM (What is this, Spain?) but I was so ready to eat and get out of the crowds that I finally walked up to the host and asked if there was any way I could eat earlier. Thankfully, there was! Yay! The restaurant was so cool on the inside, both in temperature and in decor. It was like eating outside under a big live oak tree by a stream, and I could see the riders on the Pirates of the Caribbean boats go by. The food was phenomenal, but I expected nothing less. It was one of the fancy restaurants on the property, and they never disappoint. However, my meal was almost ruined by the family at a table nearby. I need you to understand that I'm not saying that it was almost ruined because there were kids at the table, I'm saying it was almost ruined because there were terribly behaved children at the table, and adults who didn't give a f*ck about those kid's behavior. It was fine at first, because the kids were just being loud and kids are loud, which is normal. But I looked over JUST as the little boy spit a huge mouthful of chewed food out of his mouth and onto his plate. I very nearly threw up. Then the two little girls got up and started spinning around and yelling, almost hitting the people at the table next to them. Then they stood up to eat, messily, and then proceeded to do chorus line kicks, again, almost kicking the lady at the next table. The adults were on their phones, not paying attention. It got really bad, but thankfully they finally left, and I felt like the whole room heaved a sigh of relief. 

The fireworks actually went off when I was inside of the restaurant, so I didn't see them, but that was ok. I was full, and sleepy, and ready to go back to my hotel and sleep some more. My foot was killing me by then, and it was only when I got back that not only did I have a blister on my toe, that blister had a blister underneath that as well. How does that even happen?!  It was gross, but I was too tired to care, and I fell asleep very fast!

BLOGGED, BUT NOT ALONG THE WAY. AGAIN. DAY 1

So, guess where I went! You'll never guess. Well, unless we're Facebook friends, because I posted a photo there.

I went to Disneyland!

I know.

I know.

I know.

Shut Up.

OK, so it obviously wouldn't have been my first choice of vacation destinations, BUT I had never been there before and was interested in the differences between Disney World, where I have been a lot of times, and Disneyland, where I had never been. So that's where I went.

I had the chance to get a free plane ticket because of points, so I got up at an ungodly hour and got on a plane. The first stop was Atlanta, of course. I am always going to be cursed with having to go to that airport. I can't explain why I hate it. It's a perfectly fine airport, and it's undergoing some very needed updates and remodeling, but it's a visceral hate I have for the place. My hatred is deep and it is unexplainable. The Atlanta airport is the Hattiesburg, Mississippi of airports. I will not elaborate further.

So I get there, and shocker: Delta has oversold the flight. I will never freaking understand why they do stuff like that. Like, OMG, someone might not show up and they NEVER have people on standby hoping to get on, so they should definitely sell some seats twice just to make sure they get every last dollar they can, right?  I know that's unfair, and I don't know how Delta does business, but it doesn't make sense to me. This is the sole reason I don't own an airline, you know. 

Anway.

They needed three people to volunteer to give up their seats for the flight, and although I've never done it before and since I didn't have any particular plans for the rest of the day other than getting to Anaheim, I volunteered. They gave me $800 and a seat on a later flight. I like money and I can be patient. It seemed like a fair trade. 

I got to California slightly later than originally planned and called an Uber to come and get me. I had to be bussed to a second location to be picked up, which I thought was weird, but apparently it keeps traffic at the airport down to a medium roar not to have people getting picked up their in ride shares. I would have liked to have rented a car, but 1) I had no idea what the traffic would have been like there, and 2) once I was at the hotel, I was within walking distance to Disneyland, so I didn't really need one. Except for not having the freedom to go anywhere beyond walking distance, I'm glad that I did the ride share because California traffic is awful. I only needed to go 35 miles from LAX, and it took an hour and a half. That is insane to me.

The car that picked me up was a fancy-pants Tesla, and I didn't know how to get inside. I've never been in a Tesla before, and there was just this silver thing flush to the door. Someone had to tell me how to use it, which was embarrassing. I felt like Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man when someone had to tell him how to use the three seashells. But get in I did, and they drove me to Anaheim. The car was self-driving, so the man behind the wheel was basically decoration, but he was pleasant. I didn't realize I'd ordered a "quiet ride" until about halfway through, so there was some awkward conversation at first, and I had the feeling I was being rude by not talking later on, but that's the southern woman in me. I was created by God to hold pleasant conversations and keep people entertained, and staring out of a window of a car that was driving itself through the metro Los Angeles area without talking was weird. That car was dope, though. I want one, but I'd have to sell parts of myself on the black market to afford it, and even then, I don't think I'd rate top dollar for those parts at my age. I'll stick with my rapidly aging Volkswagen for now, I guess.

Once I was at the hotel, the man had to tell me how to get out of the car because like the outside, the inside handle didn't make sense to me. I was glad to get out so that I could stop embarrassing myself with my lack of knowledge about sentient cars.

The hotel was older, but decent, and was undergoing some remodeling, so check in was a little awkward, but not too bad. My room got upgraded for some reason, but apparently that just meant I got a set of bunk beds in the small room, and the ability walk outside and see the nightly fireworks, if I looked to the left. My one big complaint was that the hotel had outside walkways. I know that sounds petty, but really, I like my hallways to be indoors. A hotel room that leads directly outside kind of freaks me out a little. Anyone off the street could wander to my door and try to open it. That is how true crime podcasts start.

Once I was settled, I changed into my Downtown Disney outfit (again, shut up, I was going to do my damnedest to have the best time I could, and I was committed!) I had a dress with a wild, Enchanted Tiki Room bird pattern on it, and I got LOTS of compliments, thank you very much. I actually went to Trader Sam's, which was a Disney owned Tiki Bar, and had to wait an ungodly amount of time for a table but finally got to have dinner. I had some Kalua-Style Pork Nacho Fries, and they were just as delicious as they sound. I also got a Zombie cocktail, and it came in a Zombie Head Tiki Mug that I got to keep, which was very cool. I was very blurry by the time I left, and unfortunately the heat, plus the cocktail (which had ALL the rums in it, and although I love rum, it doesn't love me) made me quite ill, and I had to spend about ten minutes fighting for my life in a Downtown Disney bathroom until I could walk straight enough to leave. 

I did walk around the shops a bit, going in and out of the air conditioning, because it was really freaking hot in Anaheim. I thought it was supposed to be a dry heat, but it wasn't. I didn't realize how close we were to the coast, so all the thought of "It's a dry heat" went out the window that first night.

I finally called it and walked back to the hotel and went to bed. I would be going to the park the next day and needed my beauty sleep! 

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: CAPE CANAVERAL, FL PART 2

OK, so where were we?  Geez.  I have a lot going on.

So my boss and I arrived at the Cape Canaveral port while it was still dark outside. This place is usually where cruise ships dock and take on their load of travelers, but today it was outfitted with a million little booths and tables for all of us who would be pimping out our businesses.  'Cause that's what we were doing.  Haha!

We got to our booth and set up our swag and flyers, and then schmoozed around with other business owners as we waited for the trade show to open. I really had no idea what to expect.  Well, I've been to trade shows, and I got a tiny taste of what it would be like at a much, much, much smaller venue here in town, but this was on a grand scale that I wasn't sure about.  Angela told me all I really needed to do if someone came up to the table was talk about our company.  Trouble is, I still had no grasp as to what our company really did!  That sounds terrible, but if you consider I only work there part time, and I generally do office administration stuff, it's not that surprising. However, after the doors opened to participants, and I listened to her do the spiel a time or two, I got the gist and was able to talk about what we do.

I could give you a play by play of the trade show, but you'd be terribly bored.  Let's sum it up by saying I talked earnestly about things I didn't quite understand, I joked, I complimented people's outfits, I visited other tables, and flirted with old men.  It was like customer service and marketing on steroids, and I can do that!  I was there for hours, and I stood up and talked for so long that by the time we packed up our booth to leave, my feet were swollen and I was dehydrated to the point of delirium.  It was actually kind of fun, though! 

Afterwards, Angela had a meeting she had to attend, and she said I could go with her, but that it wouldn't be anything I'd enjoy. I said I would indeed not enjoy it, so she drove me to the beach!  I was still in my business casual dress, so I'm sure I looked a bit out place around all the people in swim suits and shorts, but I didn't care.  She and I had a drink with some other people from Huntsville that she knew in the industry (I just nodded and smiled and made nonsensical jokes, per my usual) and then Angela left me there to relax.

I realized pretty quickly that Spanx and hose are not a good combination with sand and humidity, so I trekked over to some shops that were near the boardwalk and bought a bag to hold all of my stuff, a water bottle, and pretty much got mostly naked under my dress so that I could enjoy the rest of my time there!  And I was there for, um...longer than I expected.  I didn't mind, of course, because I love walking along the beach, but I had to keep myself in a pretty small area so that I wouldn't miss her when she came back. I finally had to find a bench and sit until she arrived. I think a group of teenage girls thought I was a creepy adult, because I sat next to the sand volleyball court and watched them play for about an hour.  Eh, well, what else could I do?! 

By the time Angela came back, I was starving, so we went to a pier restaurant, had dinner and then headed back to the hotel.  Haha, we actually got lost along the way, though, and it took us over an hour to find our way back!  We saw the seedy underbelly of Orlando that night, I tell you. By the time we got back, we only had a couple of hours to sleep before we had to get up again to catch our butt-crack-of-dawn flight back to Huntsville.  BTW, my room was roach free when I got back, so one point for me!

We had to leave by 3:00 AM to catch our flight the next morning, so by the time we got to the airport, got patted down (thankfully I didn't get another pelvic exam by the TSA agent) and boarded the plane, I was all but unconscious.  I think I probably snored and maybe drooled on my seat mate (sorry, man) but I made it back in one piece by 8:00 AM that morning and went home and went straight to bed! 

All in all, I actually really enjoyed the experience, even though it was confusing and exhausting, but I think I learned a lot about how the business development side of the defense industry works, so next time I'll be a little better prepared!  Who knows?  One day I may get to schmooze you!  :)

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: CAPE CANAVERAL, FL : PART 1

OK, you guys, this trip was a quick one and I'm still trying to recover!  Oy.

Tuesday evening, around 5 o'clock, Steve dropped me off at the airport for my very first, official, real-life business trip! Woo! I know I sound overly excited about it, and in a way I guess I was. I don't know why exactly, because it wasn't like I was going on vacation or anything, but saying that you're going on a business trip sounds awfully grown up and professional.  Those are two things I rarely get to say about myself!

Anyway, so Steve dropped me off and, since I'd already checked into my airline online, I went directly to security.  We are very lucky to have such a small airport nearby. While it's a pain in the ass that we can only fly directly to just a few cities, the silver lining of it is that it doesn't take any time to get through the unpleasantness of being scanned and x-rayed.  Well, usually.  For some reason I set off the scanner. Not only that, but when I looked at the body outline on the screen, the portion of my body that seemed to be questionable was (and forgive my indelicacy) was my crotch.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Kelly," you're thinking "there are better places to store your iPhone." You are correct, which is why my phone was in my purse. I genuinely couldn't think of any other questionable object that might have gotten lost in there over the span of the day, so I expected the TSA agent to get the woo-woo wand and do a few swipes over my person to make sure my crotch was weapon free, find me innocent of any devices, and let me go on my way.  Alas, that was not what happened. The nice TSA agent said that I needed to be patted down, and she explained in (almost) full detail about what she was going to do.  As I was wearing a trapeze dress for travel comfort, my considerable form was shrouded in a rather shapeless mass of cloth, so I figured that a good pat down would ease their minds. So I submitted.

Y'all...I've been patted down by security before, but this was the first time I ever got to third base with a TSA agent. Yikes. I'll say no more about it, except to say I thank God that I'd pregamed with my anti-anxiety meds before getting to the airport, because I think that was the only reason I managed not to faint in the process.  And just in case you're concerned, there were no liberties taken by this agent, I promise. From what I could tell, it was all by the book. I just didn't expect that my own "book" would be thumbed through, if you catch my meaning.

In due time, myself and my boss, Angela, got on the airplane and took off towards Florida. I'd been told we were going to Tampa, but found out a few days before it was actually Orlando that we were headed to. Eh, that was fine, although it was disturbingly close to Disney World.  We made it to our Hotel after 10:00 pm, and I grabbed some dinner at the hotel shop and enjoyed it, as well as the complementary cookie, in my room before passing out from near exhaustion.

We had to wake up early, and by early I mean by 4:00 AM, to be able to get ready in time to go to Port Canaveral, where the trade show was taking place. Everything was fine as far as that goes, except for one thing: Since I didn't have a napkin when I'd eaten dinner the night before, I'd wiped my mouth and hands on one of the washcloths from the bathroom. I'd placed it on the TV tray the night before, but when I went to pick it up to put it in the bathroom so it would be taken out my housekeeping, it was moving. Yep, there was a big, German roach having a field day on that washcloth. I've been in a lot of hotel rooms, both nice and questionable, and I've never seen a roach crawling on stuff in any of them until that moment. You'd be proud of me, though.  I didn't scream, or panic. I steeled myself and very gently picked up the washcloth so that I could shake that little hastared into the toilet and drown his wretched soul, but the minute I picked it up, it disappeared.

*SHUDDER*

I don't know where it went, and I didn't care. I got out of there ASAP, and I told the man at the front desk about my little visitor. I guess I could have made a fuss, but there was no point. I asked that the room be sprayed and cleaned, and went on my way.  Bleh.

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT- FRANCE TO HOME! JUNE 20

OK, not gonna lie.  I didn't have it in me to write about the day we left France on the day we left France. Or the next day. Or the next day.

It's been over a month, and I'm just now starting to climb back on top of the jet lag and being tired from the trip.  We had an amazing, AMAZING time, but I am old and cranky and I need sleep.  So about the end of our trip...

Let me explain... No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.

We got to sleep in a bit that Thursday before being taken to the Charles de Gaulle airport, wherein we had a heck of a time getting checked in. I still don't know what the deal was, but almost everyone in our group had a problem getting our bags checked and getting our boarding passes.  By the time we got all that finished, we had just enough time to go to the bathroom before we started to board. 

Me, and the brown kid in front of me, were "randomly selected" to be searched.  A very nice French man got to see me pull up my shirt and run a metal wand around the waistband of my pants.  I think by French law he's my second husband now.

The flight was...long. LONG. My kingdom for one day figuring out how to complain to the right people to get moved into first class during an overseas flight for some trifling reason.  Seriously, can someone teach me how to be the kind of jerk who makes that happen?

Air France did their best to keep us comfortable, though, I'll give them that.  A woman a row up from us had some kind of food allergy and monopolized the flight attendants attention and they forgot to give Steve and me any dinner, but once they realized what they did, they fell all over themselves to fix the issue.  The head attendant came and personally apologized and offered to give us more food or anything else we wanted. We were a little taken aback, because it wasn't a huge deal, but it was kind of them to do all of that. We said we didn't need anything, but they insisted on doing something, so we let them bring is a glass of champagne.  So I was tipsy and/or asleep for the next hour or so!  Haha.  Yep, still really dehydrated!

We landed in Atlanta, went through customs, rented a mini-van, and Steve, Anthony, Kayla and Me made our way back home.  Steve drove, and I don't know how he did it because the rest of us were dozing off.  I tried so hard to stay awake to talk to him and keep him awake, but I kept falling asleep!  We finally got Anthony and Kayla delivered to their respective homes and Steve and I headed back to our own house.  Unfortunately, Steve dozed off and ran off the road, but we are ok.  It scared both of us enough to stay awake all the way home!  Silver Lining! 

Now we're back, and I am very glad to be home.  I did get my alone time and lots of it, as it turned out, because Steve had to go to Alaska for work. It took about three weeks to really get back into the swing of things, which is pitiful, but we were really running ragged by the end.  I had an absolute blast and would love to go back to both countries again, but there is still so much world to see that maybe I'll go someplace new next time! :) 

Thanks for reading about my trip!  There are still a few anecdotes that I'll talk about later, but for now, let's get back to real life, shall we?

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 5 - AN ECLIPSE, A GOOD BOY, AND A LONG DRIVE HOME

We left fairly early Monday morning and headed back to Valdosta.  We did make a stop at the Jacksonville Trader Joes, because when you don't have a local Trader Joes, you have to make a haul when you find one, amiright?  The cookie butter alone...oh my.

We made it back to Sara's house right as the solar eclipse was starting.  If there was anything I regretted about this particular trip, it was that I was so far away from eclipse totality.  Eh, it's ok.  If I'm still alive in 7 years, hopefully I'll get to see it then.  At any rate, we all got our stylish cardboard glasses and headed out to the backyard to watch the moon go by.  It was still pretty cool, even at 94% totality!  It got dimmer outside, and the temperature cooled off considerably, but it wasn't so drastic that it looked much different than just a cloudy day.  Still...cool stuff!

Afterwards, Sara and I decided to end our vacation with a bang by getting a couple of Red Box DVDs, getting into our PJs at 4:30 in the afternoon (do NOT judge us), and watching two of the worst movies we've seen in years, "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" (the dungeon octopus lady is worth checking out, heh) and "Snatched" with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn...bless their hearts.  Still, though, it was nice to hang out and relax.

There was one aspect of the day that wasn't so much fun.  I haven't mentioned it before now, because it was very sad, but Sara's 13 year old Jack Russel terrier Scrappy had been very sick.  The vet didn't know what was wrong with him, but he had stopped eating and drinking, and would pretty much just follow you around with big, puppy dog eyes, albeit with occasional bursts of barking, but mainly, he just wanted to be held.  The vet didn't think he'd make it for very long, but he hung in there the whole time we were in Florida, and seemed to be about the same when we came back.  I was glad to be able to see him again, because he was a very sweet dog.  So during the movies, Scrappy and I cuddled on the couch, I petted him, and I told him what a good boy he was.  I also explained that he didn't need to worry, because when he was ready to go, my own boys would be waiting to play with him when he got to the other side.  Needless to say, Sara and I loved on and cried over that dog a lot that afternoon. (Kind of like I'm crying now thinking about it, damnit.)  As it turned out, Scrappy hung in there for another few days before Sara finally had to make the call take him to the vet.  That's never an easy decision, but it was the best one.  He was a very good boy. :(

We basically just hung out, watched TV and talked until I had to go to bed.  It was low key, but nice.  It was a long drive back to Huntsville, so I was going to have to get up fairly early and gird my loins to drive with the semi-trucks. The next morning I got up, said my goodbyes, and headed home.

As luck would have it, when I was getting my GPS ready for the drive, it gave me a meandering, slightly longer, yet Atlanta-avoiding route home.  It was only about 45 minutes longer and instead of driving up I-75, it sort of wobbled through west Georgia, back into east Alabama and headed north.  I was fine with that, and as it turned out, it was a much more pleasant drive.  Mostly it was rural highways, and some of the roads were so backwoods that it made where I grew up look positively metropolitan, but I managed to avoid the big groups of 18 wheelers and heavy traffic. If I have to complain about anything (and I'm beginning to think that I do, haha) it was that I had no idea where I was for most of the trip.  I didn't even realize I'd made it back into Alabama until I passed a sign for Roanoke, Alabama, which I'd never heard of!  I found out that I don't know about an awful lot of places in my home state, but I'll remedy that one of these days.

I made it home just after 2:00, and I was glad to see my house.  After hauling my stuff in, I immediately took off my pants and fell asleep for about an hour! I love Sara, and her family is awesome, but they haven't reached Kelly Doesn't Wear Pants Around Them status (a high honor, of course, ha!) as of yet, so it had been a long week!

It was a really wonderful trip and I am so glad Sara and I got a chance to get together and act silly for a few days.  It's hard when you live so far away from your best friends.  Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss them until you get to see them, which makes spending time with them all the better, but the leaving part sucks.  It's still worth it, though. :)

So there you have it, folks, a tale for the ages! It had it all: danger, intrigue, exotic locations and lots and lots of food! Hopefully time and circumstance will allow me to visit her, and my other far away friends, so that I can have more adventures to tell you about!  Thanks for reliving it with me!

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 4 - DAY OF REST

Sunday we were going to get up in time to watch the sun rise from the beach.  Of course, when the alarm went off, I turned to Sara and asked "Do you still want to get up?"  The response was "murflemurflemurfle" which I took to mean, "No thank you, please!" and so we slept blissfully for another couple of hours. 

Hey, the sun comes up every day.  We'll watch it another time. 

When we finally did get up for realsies, we got ready to head down to the beach.  That day had been set aside for all beach, all day!  Woo-Hoo!  We packed up our cooler and our chairs and all of the other accoutrements, and drove down to the shore.  One of the surprisingly awesome things about this beach is that it is wide and flat enough that they allow driving and parking right out on the sand.  Normally I would hate that, I think, but there was so much room that the cars didn't get in the way and it was very convenient to have your vehicle so close by.  I didn't understand the desire to drive along the length of the beach, but I guess people need to cruise somewhere. 

Once we got settled, we sat for a while and watched people come and go.  It was really very nice.  Well, except that Sara's chair (provided by the Air BnB place) had a rip in it that kept getting bigger and bigger until she was barely hanging on for dear life. We read for a while, and then I left her behind to walk around a bit.  I didn't feel like swimming, so I only got into the water up to my knees, but it was nice to just be there. It wasn't that hot, and it was a bit cloudy, but it was wicked humid out there. I'd look down and water would have condensed all over me.  It was really strange!

We hadn't been there for long, but when I went back to our spot, Sara was looking kind of pale. She wasn't feeling well, and after a few minutes of trying to convince her that I wouldn't be upset if we left, she allowed us to pack up the car and drive back to the apartment.  Dunno what was wrong, but she must have felt terrible.  When we got back, she fell asleep and stayed asleep for a long, long time.  In the mean time, I showered and changed, and sat by the bed reading and hoped she wasn't going to die. Granted, that's a huge overstatement, but I was worried!  I finally went out on the balcony so as not to disturb her and I fell asleep out there, myself.  Naps are awesome!

I have no idea how long I was out there, but Sara was awake and feeling much, much better, so we decided to drive around a bit and get lunch.  We ate at a place called "Yellow Dog Eats" and it was wonderful.  They have great barbecue and our waiter looked a lot like Jesus, so it was awesome!  We drove around a bit after that, just talking and looking around, until we decided it would be a good idea to go back and clean the place up.  That's one of the rules, to clean up after yourself, so we did so and then packed up what we could before the next day so it wouldn't take us as long in the morning. 

We decided to eat much later in the evening, so we searched around until we found something still open and settled on the NSB Seashack, which was delightful, even if their live music was, eh...coffee shop level at best.  We still had a good time! 

Unfortunately, this was our last night there and just like any trip where you're having a good time, the fact that we were leaving the next day loomed.  Boo! We resigned ourselves to the fact and went to bed.  I wished we'd had several more days, but until I can become independently wealthy and not need to go back to work, I suppose all vacations will have to end at some point! 

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 3 - BEWARE THE WHITE MYSTERY GOO

Saturday morning we got up early so that we could make it to the local farmer's market that was being held not very far from where we were staying.  Actually, almost everything we did was not very far from where we were staying, which was nice, because driving when you don't have to sucks!

The market was fairly small, but it was much more varied than any other one I'd ever been to.  There was food, of course, but mainly the rest of the booths were crafts and things.  I really enjoyed it.  We did one circuit around the place before we bought anything, and once done, we shopped in earnest.  Well, Sara shopped in earnest and I instigated her shopping, haha!  We had a lot of fun, though. I did buy some yarn made by a local alpaca farm (because of course I did) and got a beautiful lotus shaped candle holder from a local potter.  We didn't want to buy any food, because it wouldn't have traveled well, and for that I'm sorry, because there was some awesome fruits, veggies, and prepared foods for sale there.

One incident at the farmer's market has to be told, though, because it's so stupid.  Scratch that, I am the stupid one.  I think you'll agree.  One of the stalls at the market was some kind of hippy-dippy couple selling powdered clay of some kind.  I don't remember what it was called, but I think it was supposed to be used as a cosmetic mask.  I wasn't sure, because I got distracted by another thing they were selling.  They had a small table off to the side that held what looked like small bottles of lotion. There was a sign that had the name of it (I'm not going to put it here, because I don't want anyone googling it and finding this entry) and it had a list of many, MANY, special benefits that included aligning your chakras, finding your soul mate, lucid dreaming, levitation, telepathy and the like.  Basically, it was your run of the mill hocus-pocus BS, but I was intrigued.  I asked the guy behind the table what it was (to be polite) and he started trying to explain it to me.  I asked him if it was a lotion, and he said "No, you put it under your tongue, want to try it?"  Now, normally, I'd never, ever do that unless I knew what was in it.  However, I was in "Adventurous Vacation Mode" and didn't even think before I scooped some up and put it in my mouth.  As soon as I did that, my brain kicked in, and I immediately regretted my decision.  It's pretty solid advice NOT to put random white mystery goo into your mouth when it's offered to you at a farmer's market, or really anywhere else, to be frank.  It could have been ANYTHING, y'all, and I had voluntarily put it in my mouth!  Blerg!  He offered it to Sara and she was all "Hell No!" which made me feel even stupider.  So for the duration of us standing there talking to these people, I couldn't swallow or spit, so I had this mystery substance in my mouth for what seemed like a year.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to spit without anyone noticing? I do!  I finally managed to spit it out, and I don't think I absorbed much of whatever it was, so I didn't meet my soul mate and my chakras still feel in the same position as they were before. I'm not convinced that it was a real thing.  I guess I'll never know. :)

We left the farmer's market and had breakfast, and then we moved on to Flagler Ave, which was the main street of where we were staying.  It was lined with shops and restaurants, so we spent the next few hours of the day walking, talking, shopping and eating.  It wasn't so much about spending money or eating, though, we were just enjoying hanging out.  It was great fun! I'm pretty sure several of the shop keepers we met thought we were an adorable lesbian couple (and I mean, we would be if that was the case) so that was kind of hilarious!  Eh, that's fine with me. Sara should be so lucky!  Haha!

I'm not sure how long we were out, just that by the time we got back to the apartment, we were tired.  At this point we probably could have just hung out for the rest of the day, but there was one thing that Sara wanted while we were in Florida that we hadn't found while we were out.  She told me that when she was a kid, she was never allowed to buy one of the cheesy, air brushed vacation shirts that seemed to be so ubiquitous when we were kids, so she wanted to get one as an ironic souvenir.  Used to, air brush shops were everywhere at the beach, but we had to drive 30 minutes away to Daytona Beach to find a place that still did it!  That was a mess.  I don't know how many of your have been to Daytona Beach, but it's a big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap surrounded by enormous hotels and restaurants that pretty much obscure the ocean view, but it's a POPULAR big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap.  We drove down the strip and around and around all of the places trying to find the air brush shop, but we couldn't find it!  Sara, who was driving, got angrier and angrier because we couldn't find a place to park, or even a place that resembled where we were going.  We almost gave up, but decided to call the number on the facebook page and see if they could help us.  Turns out we were driving right by it, over and over, but it blended in with all the rest of the neon, so we never saw it!  We finally managed to put our shirt order in, but it was going to take an hour and a half, so we spent the next little bit continuing to drive around and around and around and up and down Daytona, until we stopped at a beach ramp to walk out and take some pictures.  We should have done that much earlier, because about three minutes later, the air brush shop called to let us know that our shirts were ready.  Oh, they were glorious.  You can see the final design here:

Good Lord, how big is my forehead?

We've promised that these will never be worn as functioning clothing, although I'll admit, I wore mine to a drive through window after I got home, but mainly these are just for funzies and to remind us that we are classy through and through!  Haha!

It was late by the time we made it back to New Smyrna Beach and we were starving, so we found an open restaurant, which was kind of a bar, I think, and had delicious hamburgers for dinner.  Next to us was a family with small children. In a bar.  Let that sink in.  We were wiped out when we got back to our apartment, and so we got ready for bed and sat up and talked for a long time before we fell asleep.

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 2 - TEQUILA BAD

Friday morning we got up relatively early and set off towards New Smyrna Beach!  Sara drove, thank goodness, and time seemed to go so much faster with someone to talk to!  It only took us about three hours to get there, so we got there well before we could check into our apartment, but that was fine.  We drove around and got to know the area a bit.

We stopped and got provisions for the apartment, had lunch at a tiny place called Cafe Verde, and wondered about until it was time to check it.  We LOVED the apartment.  It was small, to be sure, but so cute and perfect for what we needed.  We got settled and changed clothes, and decided to ride one of the provided bicycles down to the beach to check it out.  Unfortunately, that didn't go so well.  There were quite a few bikes in the little shed, but none of them were in great condition.  They weren't anything fancy, just regular bikes like we rode as kids, but Sara had not ridden a bike in a very long time.  I'd peddled one of the bikes to the end of the driveway to wait on her, when behind me I heard a crash.  Sara, bless her heart, and gotten on and promptly fallen off of her bike.  It was too tall for her, and the gears were rusted from exposure to salt (I assume) so when she tried to pedal, the bike hadn't gone too far.  Oops.  To my credit, I never laughed.  Ok, yes I did, but only after the fact.  She scraped up her leg pretty good, but she got it cleaned up and we walked the 80 or so yards to the beach. Screw you, rusty bicycles!

The beach was beautiful, of course!  We walked around and stepped out into the very warm water, and I looked for shells.  There weren't that many there, so I don't know if that is normal, or if it's the time of year, or what, but I found a few.  We'd brought some beach mats with us, so Sara sat and rested while I walked around some more.   It was very nice.  We had accidentally sat our mats down too near the edge of the surf, so once I came back and sat down next to Sara, a wave came and surrounded us!  It almost made off with my shoes!  Haha.  After that we decided that we would save the beach for another day and go get something to eat.

We went back to the apartment and looked in the little travel book for a restaurant.  One of the great things about New Smyrna Beach was that there weren't any (that I know of, anyway) chain places around, so we'd get to try something new each time!  That night we picked Blackbeard's Inn,  which seemed to be a very popular local place, and we had such a good time!  We also had cocktails, which might have been part of why we had such a good time.  Sara said hers didn't seem to have any alcohol in it, but mine sure did. Yikes. Ok, look, y'all, I like tequila. I just do. Pretty much anything else is gross to me, but I like tequila, so I got two margaritas.  That was too many for me, due to my low alcohol tolerance, but at least I didn't do anything embarrassing.  I did, however, tell Sara all of my secrets and now I can never make her angry, or she'll ruin my life.  :)  Everything got very fuzzy for a bit and I had trouble walking to the car, but I didn't take off any of my clothes and I didn't French kiss a stranger, so at least there was that!  Thankfully, even though the alcohol hit me pretty hard, it didn't bother me for long.  By the time we'd made it back to our place, I was only just a little silly and we sat up and talked for a long time before finally going to sleep. 

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: PART 1 - HELL IS FULL OF SEMI TRUCKS

Hello, friends and random Internet people who've never been here before!

I went on an adventure last week!  Sara (one of my best friends in the world) and I have been wanting to go on a girl's only trip for some time now, and after talking about it for a year or two we finally decided to do it!

Sara, who is used to organizing things for her family, basically planned it for us.  I'm very grateful for that! She found a nice Air BnB apartment (this one, which was awesome and you should go and stay there too) which is located in New Smyrna Beach, FL.  I'd never even heard of New Smyrna Beach. It was charming and small, had all kinds of shops and restaurants, and it wasn't anything like Panama City Beach, which is a plus. Trust me.

My part of the adventure actually started on Thursday morning, because I was going to be driving down to Sara's house, which is located in Valdosta, Georgia.  I'll admit, I was a little nervous about driving all that way alone.  After getting my license, I was never allowed to take long trips by myself (I was quite sheltered. Heh.) and even when I became an adult, driving long distances my myself was heavily discouraged by my family.  I'd love to say that I thumbed my nose at them and went where I wanted anyway, but when you have people who you love and trust telling you all kinds of horrible things, it can get in your head. HOWEVER...I finally decided that I needed to be an adult and do this thing, because I'm way too old to have people telling me what I should and shouldn't do, don't you think?  (Yeah, 39 IS a little old to come to this conclusion. I know this. Bite me.)

At first the drive was fine. I had my audio novel going and my GPS directing me through some twisty little north/east Alabama roads.  I was so chill and wondering why I had waited so long to do this.  Then I hit I-75 and was transported into straight up flaming hell, and hell is full of semi-trucks.  I've driven on interstates before, and I've driven next to 18 wheelers, but I swear to you, almost the moment I merged onto I-75 I was surrounded by these things, and I was not prepared. It doesn't help that this particular road is very wide and full of traffic, all going much faster than I had anticipated, but Brunhilde is a small car, and being surrounded by giant trucks unnerved me.  I know it wasn't anything horrible, really, but since it was the first time driving I-75 myself around all the traffic, I was very nervous.  Actually, I did pretty well, all things considered.  I managed to make it to Atlanta and take the proper exit to the perimeter roads so that I didn't have to drive straight through the city (another level of hell altogether) and had just made it to the other side of Atlanta when I almost died.  It was my fault, because I didn't realize the lane beside me was a merging lane, and I was trying to speed up to get ahead of this big semi.  He sped up too, and I had to slam on my brakes to keep from getting destroyed.  It rattled me so badly that I had to take the next exit and sit in a parking lot until I could stop shaking.  Once I got back on the road, and further away from Atlanta, things got a little better.  It was still unnerving to get surrounded by semi-trucks, but at least the traffic thinned out a little.  After that, my main issue was that the last leg of my journey was 127 miles of straight road, and I'd catch myself sort of zoning out while watching the lines go by.  I know road hypnosis, but I'd never experienced it like that before.  Bleh.

Anyway, as you can see, I finally made it to Sara's house in one piece!  Thank goodness!  She and her family had just moved into this house last summer, and so it was all brand new and gorgeous.  Her three dogs tried to eat me the minute I stepped into the house, but they are all small, so I wasn't too worried.  We sat and talked until Ron, her husband, came home and then we all set out to Parent Teacher night at Sara's stepson's high school.  Yep, I went to parent teacher night.  I told them I'd just pretend I was Sara's sister wife if anyone asked.  Ron liked that idea, haha! When we got back, we all sat around and talked until bed time.  Sara and I needed sleep because we were heading out to Florida the next day!  Woo-Hoo!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to me!  Well, yesterday, anyway.

Yes, I am now a woman of a certain age and that age is 38.  I'm no longer the young, beautiful, blushing spring flower that I once was. Pardon me while I weep in a corner.  *SOB*

Nah, just kidding! I'm still pretty awesome. Actually, I've got 38 years of awesome built up, so I'd say it's a fairly significant amount of awesome. 

My birthday was good. It was a good day. It wasn't the most exciting birthday I've ever had, but that may be because it was a Sunday and it was cold, and I was not feeling well.  I did manage to make it through the day without any major disaster, so at least that's a thing!  I went to church in the morning, had lunch with Mr. Lee and Steve that afternoon, and spent the rest of the day at home relaxing. 

The church was showing a movie last night and it was one I flat out refused to sit through. One day I'll explain why, when I'm not ashamed of myself. So I got it all ready except for pressing "PLAY" on the machine and left it to someone else so I could spend the rest of my day in my pajamas.  I know... pajamas, but it was just too cold here not to wear pants.

I'd actually been celebrating on and off since Friday, when my mom, sister and I went to lunch and went shopping. We usually do that together before our birthdays.  It was a lot of fun!  That night we also got to have dinner and watch TV with Anthony, who I've missed a lot since he changed jobs and he's been too busy to hang out much. 

Saturday was kind of a weird-ass day, but only because I think I experienced every emotion a person can have, all in the space of a couple of hours.  True story!  Steve and I were out, doing Saturday stuff and went from having an argument in a Cracker Barrel (well, not so much an argument as it was a misunderstanding. We didn't cause a scene and throw syrup or anything.) to laughing and joking five minutes later, to me getting frustrated as I ran all over town looking for something that apparently isn't sold until spring, getting my feelings hurt by a rather rude shop owner who didn't seem to feel I belonged in her store, and then I UGLY cried, and that is not an exaggeration, over a dog Steve wanted to bring home from an adopt-a-thon (he was a 12 year old dog named Augustus, and we can't have a dog right now for several reasons and I had to be the voice of reason about it, but the idea that we were leaving him behind and alone unhinged me for a while. Do you have any idea how hard it is to drive when you are full on weeping? Very hard! Oh, and just in case you're worried, if he is still not adopted by July, we're going back to get him.) THEN, less than an hour after I got home and calmed down from the dog thing, I got flowers delivered, which made me happy.  I honestly don't remember the rest of the day, because that was too many feelings to process in such a short amount of time and I think my brain shorted out.

On my actual birthday, lots of people at church very kindly remembered my birthday, and of course, my Facebook friends and family told me happy birthday, which is always nice.  So, all in all I either saw, spoke to, or got texts (and a video) from the people I love the most in the world and I don't know how things can really get much better than that! 

In light of full disclosure, there was one tiny thing that didn't go my way.  It's so stupid and personally embarrassing that I'm not going to tell you what it was, but it really was such a dumb, little, truly unimportant-in-the-scheme-of-all-things thing that I'm sorry I let it bring down my day even a little.  You know how sometimes little stuff can sometimes take on huge proportions when you think about them too much?  That's what it was.  I just wanted a certain thing to happen, and it didn't. I could have probably forced the issue, but I didn't want to, and got upset that no one read my mind.  It was really silly.  I think if I hadn't had so many other good things happen, it might have upset me more, but even then, it was a dumb thing to get upset over.

Stuff like that is the just way I'm made.  Really, it's because without those little flaws, the gods would get jealous and destroy me in a truly spectacular way. It's best for everyone that those flaws exist. :)

So anyway, let's see what my 38th year has in store. I hope it's lots of good things! Keep your fingers crossed for me! 

BLOGGED AFTER THE FACT: FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN

This is weird.

I usually do my writing while I'm actually traveling, but this time I was lazy!   I was lazy and I didn't think that with such a short trip, I'd need to write every day, so I decided to try something different this time!

Steve and I took a rather impromptu trip to the Smoky Mountains.  Well, it was as impromptu as we get, I guess.  I went to work for a couple of hours on Thursday to finish up preparations for church on Sunday, and when I got home, we headed off on our adventure!  Steve had downloaded the audio novel "A Walk In the Woods" by Bill Bryson, which was his story about walking the Appalachian Trail, so we listened to that on our drive up.  I love Bill Bryson's books.  It was a fun listen, and kind of appropriate subject wise.  It made the trip go by fast!

Instead of staying in a hotel this time, we rented a cabin from Dollywood Cabins, and after we checked in at the office, we followed a map up the twistiest, turniest, most confusing road I've ever had the pleasure of traveling.  I'm very, very lucky I didn't get car sick, because I usually do on roads like this!  We couldn't even see around the turns, so every time we had to take a corner, we took our lives in our hands.  Our cabin, named Magical Sunset (I know, it had a name,) was near the very end of this mountain road.  It was a great place!  It was built on the side of the mountain, and our whole back wall was made of windows, so we had a beautiful view.  It wasn't very big, but it was just perfect for us.  Another plus, was that we could see the nightly fireworks display from DollyWood from our balcony, which was a nice touch, I thought.  We had a hot tub outside, and a loft that had a garden tub, a pool table/air hockey table, an old fashioned arcade console, and a TV.  It was a very nice place.

Our first evening there, we pretty much just got settled.  We went to dinner, got some provisions for the house, and spent the rest of the night relaxing.  I think I might have accidentally swallowed some of the water from the hot tub, though, which I do not recommend.  Yuck.

Since we'd rented the cabin from DollyWood properties, we got free tickets into the park for as long as we were there!  We decided to go on Friday morning in hopes that it wouldn't be as crowded as it would be on the weekends.   Most of you know that I do not enjoy amusement parks as a rule, but since I'd never been to DollyWood, I was willing to give it a try.  We actually had a really fun time.  It wasn't that hot, and we got a pretty good parking place.  It was crowded, but not as badly as it could have been, and I only got slightly wet once, so most of my usual arguments against going to an amusement park were invalidated.  We mainly rode the roller coasters, which I love, but we did a few other things, too.  We didn't stay late, because we got tired, but it was a fun day. Once we got back, we spent the rest of the day just enjoying the quiet and reading. I fell asleep so hard once I went to bed that I didn't know where I was, and Steve scared me when he came to bed.  I couldn't understand why the door to our room was in the wrong place!

On Saturday we went into Gatlinburg to just walk around.  The first thing we did was stop at this haunted house attraction that Steve had been to when he was younger.  It was off the main strip, and it looked pretty impressive.  We decided to go through, and we were the only ones there!  I'll admit, I was a little worried about going through, but not because haunted houses bother me that much.  I can go through them all day, unless they have live people working inside.  I don't like places where anyone can grab you or scream in your face.  Mainly because I am jumpy and I tend to protect myself if I'm startled.  The guy at the front desk said that we weren't allowed to touch anyone or anything, which made me wonder if there were actors inside that I'd run the risk of punching by accident, so that made me uncomfortable.  We got through the first part with no problem, but the next room was very dark.  I mean, it was really, very dark.  All you could tell was that there was a central chamber surrounded by doors.  We tried the doors, and only one would open, so we went through that one, and it turned pitch black.  Honestly, we couldn't see anything at all.  I was having to feel my way along the wall, and we couldn't find our way out.  Every time we found a door, it would lead us right back into the central room.  Now, I'm sure that was supposed to be part of the fun, but we literally couldn't find the way out of that part of the house.  Steve was holding my hand, and every time he opened a door and went through, I couldn't see well enough to catch the door on the rebound, so I kept running face first into the edges of the doors.  I kept asking Steve why he'd want to do something like this, and telling him I was so mad we were stuck in this stupid room, and he was frustrated because we kept walking down the same stupid hallway in the pitch dark and not finding out way out, so when we came across an emergency exit (which was so poorly lit that we didn't even see it the first three times we went down this hallway) that he just opened that door and we went out.  I wasn't really mad that he took me to a haunted house, I promise, and I felt bad that we'd cut our visit short, but we literally couldn't find our way out of that room.  I kept expecting that a voice might come from a speaker telling us where to turn, or maybe the lights would be turned up so we could see, but that never happened.  The galling thing is that I'm positive that the teenagers who worked in that place thought we left because we were too scared to keep going, but that wasn't why!  We could not find our way out of that stupid hallway, so we just went through the only door we could find.  It was embarrassing.  Now I want to go back just too prove we aren't cowards.

We finally made it to the main street and walked down that for a while.  We visited a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, which I loved, and spent the rest of our time just looking around.  After lunch, we drove down to Sevierville.  We tried going into the outlets, but once we realized it was the tax free weekend, we went right back out again.  Yikes.  We also stopped at the Titanic Museum.  It's supposed to be pretty great, but we just went to the gift shop since we weren't in the mood to do the whole thing.  I'd like to do that one day, but it was really busy and would have taken a long time!  Once we got back to the cabin, Steve fell asleep, but I stayed up to read and wash our clothes so we didn't have to worry about them once we got home.  That was a complete mess, let me just say.  Our cabin had one of those stacked combination washer/dryer things.  It was tiny!  I managed to get the clothes into the drum and washed them, but when I put them in the dryer, it didn't work.  It would tumble, but no hot air was running to actually dry the clothes!  GAH!  I ran them on every setting that machine had, just to see if any of them worked, but I ended up having to pull out all the clothes and lay them out on the furniture to dry.  It looked like a rummage sale in there!  By the time I got into bed, I was exhausted, but I must've had a bad dream, because I woke up a couple of hours later in a very troubled state of mind.  I don't know what I dreamed, or why I felt that way, but no more sleep for me!

Sunday we began the day with some delicious pancakes, and afterwards we came home!

It was really nice to get away and get to just do whatever, or not do anything...no one telling us we had to do something or go somewhere.  No plans, no itinerary, just fun and relaxing.  Not all trips can be like that, but I really appreciate the kinds that are.

SOME NOTABLE THINGS:

1) Our cabin had one of those hotel-type hair dryers on the wall of the bathroom.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the cover over the intake was gone.  One morning I was using the dryer, and it sucked a chunk of my hair into the intake port.  Not only did it touch the heating element inside (shoo, burnt hair is stinky) but it got twisted around the fan and I couldn't get loose.  We didn't have a pair of scissors, so Steve had to use a pair of nail clippers to snip my hair off .  SIGH.  My poor hair is constantly getting caught in everything around me! It's making me rethink the whole long hair thing.

2) Did you know that if you sit in a garden tub while it's filling up, that your body will displace a certain amount of water?  Did you also know that if you try and get out of said tub while the jets are on, and the level of water falls just below the jets, but just above the intake port, that the jets will basically power wash the entire room?  If you didn't know that, please take this as a warning, because that entire loft got sprayed down.  I felt so bad!  Not only that, but the whole room was made of wood, not to mention the pool table and tv got wet.  Luckily they weren't damaged, but geez, we were worried there for a while.  We cleaned everything off as well as we could and had to leave it to dry overnight.

3) If you are in the areas surrounding Gatlinburg, don't be fooled by any store claiming to be an "As Seen On TV" store.  You know my weakness for such things, of course I needed to go to one of them!  Unfortunately, the "As Seen On TV" store we went to was an ex K-Mart with a bunch of cheesy souvenirs and bad t-shirts, maybe a few as seen on tv products (but you can see those same things and more at your local Target) and row after row of old, trashy, products that look like they'd languished in a storage shed for a couple of decades!  Honestly, the sign on the building had a giant "As Seen On TV" logo on it, but it was a lie! A FILTHY LIE!