Outdoor Adventure-Us!

This past weekend, Jeff and I were able to get away on an adventure to the Smokey Mountains.  Thanks to the Families "A" who helped out with our children, and doggie, we were able to go all on our own (thank you so much!) (And to the R's for letting us have the opportunity to do the river run :) We decided to kind of take our time on the way to Georgia, and stop when we felt like it.  I've heard great things about Asheville, and so we stopped in and walked around a bit . . .

I thought this "general store" was great, they had all the candy you could think of from your childhood, and some you might not have.  We didn't actually buy any of the candy, but it was fun to look over the selection, and wonder where they found them? They also had candy cigarettes, not so cool. I was actually a little surprised that they still sold them. Anyway, I am partial to gummy candy...

We strolled the streets for a bit, and had fun people watching.  There was this wonderful aroma that we tried to find the source to, without success, but we did find a fun Jerusalem restaurant with terrific humus, pitas, and chicken or lamb dishes.  It must have been really funny to see us wandering around the plaza trying to find the food. We would walk, stop and smell, look into a store, smell, walk some more, smell some more. Ya, we looked funny. Lick the plate good, although we didn't actually lick the plates (I did lick the plate, don't tell Kathleen).  Kind of a fun atmosphere, the back room (we didn't sit there) had seating on the floor with short tables. 

. . . and for dessert? over-sized cupcakes of course, with enough sugar to leave you satisfied for at least an hour.  Mine was German chocolate, and Jeff actually got a woopie-pie (everyone loves a little woopie :).   We enjoyed the ambiance of the town, and street musicians here and there (I did like Asheville. It reminded me quite a bit of Boulder, CO. The shear number of people dressed in Gratefull Dead attire really was the tipping point. That and the hookah bar Kathleen wanted to go into. She saw a place called WonderLand and thought it looked cute with all of the Alice attire. I was a little wary). 

We did finally make it to our camping destination: Black Rock State Park.  This is the view from the top, loved the open skies, and the chance to drive through windy mountain roads; I'd almost forgotten how fun that is! Vroom, Vroom ;)

After we set up camp, we went exploring around a bit, and found fun look-outs.  Jeff is seen here, not actually sticking his tongue at you, he's illustrating the awesome tattoos found on our fruit roll ups (If you are going to put tattoos on fruit roll ups, they are meant to be used).  I tried to bring snacks, and some food that would hold us over when we got hungry.  I thought I had brought our trusty travel food, but noticed a little too late there was NO Nuttella in the food bag.  Jeff improvised with a few Mike & Ikes.  I know, we are totally impressing you with our maturity and innovative-ness ;) (The Mike and Ike tortilla was awesome. Again, my penchant for gummy candy. We didn't even do the campfire bit. We turned in quite early, and then fell asleep laughing to the David Sedaris book Live at Carnegie Hall) .

Friday morning,we got up extra early to make sure we made it to the river in plenty of time for our rafting trip.  I'd seen some pictures of the sunrise over the smokies, and heard the night before there might be some fog in the morning. . . it was gorgeous to put it mildly.  Hauntingly so.  I think I'm hooked (It was amazing. I loved to see it. The mountains, the fog, the sun coming up. It was awesome to be able to see above the treeline. It felt like coming up for breath). 

We grabbed some breakfast on the way, and made it to the Natahalla Outdoor Center for the Chattooga river (not to be confused with the Chattahoochi, which I did see a sign for, or maybe it was the forest? I don't know, but it did manage to get the song stuck in my head: way down yonder on the Chattahoochi, never knew how much that muddy water meant to me, well I learned how to swim, and I learned who I was, lot about livin' and a little 'bout love . . .  ha! now it's in your head too :)

Back to the story . . . we got outfitted, received safety instructions, and were on our way for a beautiful day on the river, full of rapids, a couple hikes to beautiful water falls, a lunch on the river bank, and a cook out when we got back.  I think they did a great job, had a wonderful guide (thanks Stephen, don't know if he'll ever see this, but hey, got to give him credit, he really watched our for our team) and a beautiful day to see the river, wildlife, and beautiful blue sky.  I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, pretty AWEsome! (When I did this river last year, I unleashed the Overwhelming force of Kapow (hence my nickname from the boys) on one of the young men in the boat with me as I knocked him out of the raft. I was glad to see that in this trip I did not launch my girth into any pour individual (insert Kathleen here). As I look at the photos I notice that while the other raft occupants are anxiously engaged in paddling, I am focused on getting deeper into the raft. I thought that was a good use of my effort. Stephen kindly directed me where to sit, explaining that it was necessary to "balance my weight". Thanks old chap.)

We decided to go and see a movie after spending time on the river all day, and I think the funniest part was after the movie was over, we were walking out and this older gentleman stood up and poured out half of his popcorn in the process, not seeming to mind at all.  Not really sure why I still think that's funny, but trust me, really funny! (Another funny part was our drive to the theater. We kept going a mile. Stopping, turning around, going stopping and turning around. Were we confused? Not so much, stinking Mildred my GPS was having a kanipchen fit. Not cool Mildred. Not cool. Another funny thing was to watch the 7 minute loop of local commercials. Hi-larry-ous).

Our last day on the mountain, we cleaned up camp, and wanted to go on a hike, and ended up walking through the clouds essentially (The clouds were really thick).  Good thing I got the emergency ponchos, eh?  Notice how they are pretty much a plastic bag with a hood?  Totally worth a bit more than a buck, although they were a bit difficult to maneuver over my hat we'll say (I heard that the plastic bag ponchos are going to be the next big thing in the great fashion shows).

Our first stop was a great waterfall (it reminded me of walking through a rain forest in Brazil), it was a pretty short hike to it though, so we tried out another one that took us to the top of Black Rock Mountain, looking for Tennessee rock, that's what the sign said.  I think there should be a rule somewhere that says if a trail is in a loop, it should be called "loop."  Or, maybe we should have looked at a map?  Turns out, it was a loop, and we'd almost completed it, but felt like we'd been going for a while,and turned around and walked back, essentially doubling our distance.  Sweet! Needed to walk off some of our trip snacks anyway, right?  Beautiful scenery, even though the clouds that we were walking through left us damp, and the views limited, we had lots of fun (this reminded me of a hike in Rio, I kept looking for the sloths).

Before heading home, we decided to get some more travel snacks (we'd obviously walked ours off ;) and couldn't pass up the chance to go in a Piggly Wiggly.  Since moving to the South, it's been one of the things I've wanted to do.  Jeff was kind of like a kid in the candy store again, looking at the different options.  He didn't buy any of these, but did get SOUSE, and even ATE it!  I don't know why I am surprised really, but I wasn't feeling that adventurous myself at the time.  ;) (For those who don't know what Souse is, it is what you get when you gelatinize pig snouts, hoofs, tongues, and anything else you can find. It is definitely an acquired taste. Especially the part when it starts to melt, but that is another story..... I also like the huge can of boiled peanuts, one of my favorites. Now I am wondering where I can find the Costco version of this here.)

The trip was a wonderful experience! Thanks to all who made it possible for us to do so, and for any who have chosen to read this REALLY long post, I tip my proverbial hat to you!