Cannon's and Cherokee

We are still running pretty fast and furious over here. I must admit to getting very little actual R&R, but having a great time none the less. I did plan on doing these posts more often, but it's been so busy, and my mom has satellite internet which is slow at the best of time and has been playing up on us lately. Seems everytime I get ready to post, something goes wrong with it.

Now, on with a short narrative and the pictures.

Tuesday of last week we went with mom and Jessie, first to Paris Landing, which is a boaty, touristy area along the Tennessee River:



Then we went further north to Fort Donelson, an old civil war fort along the Tennessee River. We toured around the museum a bit





Then out by the river to the old fortifications











Here's mom and Jessie at Fort Donelson



Next we went further north up into Kentucky, to a place known as "Land Between the Lakes". Mostly just gorgeous scenery, but we went to a place that is a working farm that does everything the way it would have been done in the 1850's, called The Homeplace. I absolutely loved it there. Spinning, weaving, quilting, natural dyeing. A whole lot of things that were just right up my ally.

Here's one of the cabins:



Chris next to a tobacco smokehouse (smoking as we watched):




Wednesday we had intended to stay at home, but then my sister Sheri came by, and I did spend the afternoon riding around with her. She has a small local paper and had to see to some business. It was nice riding around with her in any case, since we hadn't spent much time together since I've been here.


Thursday morning we headed out for Chattanooga. Chris was meeting up with a group of geocachers he had hooked up with online on Saturday, but we left early to see the sights in that area first.

After arriving in Chattanooga, we went first to Ruby Falls, my favorite sight in Chattanooga. Essentially, you are dropped down underground in an elevator, then walk a half a mile through caves till you come out in a large cavern in an underground waterfall.

Here's part of the cave we walked through:



I tried taking pictures of the waterfall, but they didn't come out. The lighting is funny in that cavern, and the falls are so high, my poor camera couldn't cope, but here is the one that came out best, of Chris with the falls behind him.



After leaving Ruby Falls, we went up on an outlook spot and I got this picture of Chattanooga proper.



At the motel that night, I did some googling and found a yarn shop that I wanted to visit over in Murphy, North Carolina. To get there from Chattanooga, we had to go through the Cherokee National Forest. I told Chris that if he had to be drug along to a yarn shop, this was by far going to be the prettiest trip to one he would ever have.

A good deal of the route lay along the Ocoee River







And of course there were geocache's in "them thar woods", and Chris had to crawl down a river bank looking for one, but he found it.



After my visit to the yarn shop, we returned via the same route through the mountains to Chattanooga, then headed a bit north east to the outer suburb of Soddy Daisy. We stayed in a hotel near a pretty lake.





We spent Friday night in Soddy Daisy, and Saturday morning Chris went to meet up with his geocaching mob. I stayed in the hotel that morning for some "down time", and then met up with Chris and his new friends for lunch. After lunch, I went and hit the local yarn shops, where I predictably spent copious amounts of money.

We came home, stopped off in Murfreesboro and happened across the Stone Creek Civil War battlefield. Yes, more monuments and cannons.







From Murfreesboro, we took a detour through Lebanon, then on through Nashville and back to mom's in West Tennessee on Sunday.

We've had a fairly busy week this week as well, but I'll wait to put that in the next entry. Tomorrow we are leaving to go back up to the Reelfoot Lake area to spend the weekend with Finis, Kristin and the grandkids, so I'll be able to post from the faster internet (hopefully) in the motel.

Till next time...

The Grandkid Pile Up

Now for the first grandkid installment. I'll give a short narrative of the events, but this post is going to be more picture heavy than anything else.

Early Friday afternoon we arrived at my my son Finis' house. His wife Kristen and the kids were there to greet us. It was so cool, no shyness on their part, just full on grandma hugs. They are just moving in to a fixer upper, so some parts looked like a construction zone, but it's a nice enough big house, and will be fine once everything gets sorted.

We took the kids to Maccers, as you do, and then to Walmart for a bit of toy shopping. Then played with the toys...

Taylor and Junior playing in the carport:


Chris and Christian trying to work out the new transformer:


Junior and his dinosaur:


Me, Christian and Kaitlyn


Christian and Kristen on the sidelines:



Kaitlyn (with Christian behind her) with the big pink ball



Moments later, Kaitlyn showing Chris what's left of the big pink ball:


Christian decided the big pink ball was now a cool hat:


After a busy day playing, we left the kids with friends and took Finis and Kristen out to dinner at Ryans, a well deserved rest for us all.

Saturday, day two of the grandkid visit. We took the kids, Finis and Kristin to nearby Reelfoot Lake to have a picnic and see the sights.

Me and Taylor by the lake (me in my new "hip hop" clothes..I forgot about the US size differences when I bought them):


Chris and the "gang":


Junior looking cute:


Playing by the water:


Taylor by the lake:


Chris saw his first squirrel along the boardwalk along the lake:


Finis preening



Bald Eagles, another first for Chris


After we finished playing and looking around the lake, we took the kids "geocacheing". We told them it was a "treasure hunt", and they had a grand time of it. Taylor was actually the first to find two of the caches, and Finis found one.

Here the "crew" is hunting for a cache around a flower garden:


Hunting for caches around a civil war memorial:


Kaitlyn, Chris, Finis and Christian posing by the same memorial:


Finis and Chris...well, who knows what they are doing:


That's all for tonight folks. I'm going back in the morning to visit for a bit, then off to drop in on my sister before heading back to mom's for dinner tomorrow night. Monday is packed full of activity. We're going to a couple of civil war sights with Mom and Jessie. I'll try to get more up in the next few days. Till then....

The Flight and the First few Days

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The hardest thing to do is figure out how to begin one of these things. I'd like to say something witty, but really, my brain is just too fuzzy at the moment. So in the interest of getting this thing done and "out there" tonight while I actually have time to do it, I'll skip the small talk and get straight to the narrative.

I did get plenty of sleep Monday afternoon and night, we headed out to the airp0rt just before 4:00AM. The flight to Melbourne was uneventful. We didn't have very long in Melbourne to get from one flight to the next, but everything went smoothly and we were on the flight to Los Angeles before we knew it.

The flight over the Pacific was much longer, and a bit more interesting. We were seated on the very last row, which was great for me since proximity to the toilets is always a plus for me. Unfortunately, it was also right next to the back emergency door, which is where everyone seemed to want to congregate when they got up to stretch their legs. Sitting in front of us were a group of about 8 Victorians who were headed for LA and decided to start celebrating their holiday early. The more they drank, the louder they got. Eventually, the flight attendants cut them off, but the damage was done. Next thing you know one of them was screaming at the rest of them and we were getting worried that things were going to come to blows. Quick as a whip though about 4 male flight attendants had popped out and quietened things down. They stood near the partiers in question for the next half hour or so till they were sure everyone was quiet and settled down, and they kept one eye on that area for the rest of the flight.

Meanwhile, all the kerfuffle made it rather difficult for us to hear the sound from the movies we were trying to watch, but we soldiered on minding our own business. I turned on some classical music, lay my head on Chris' shoulder and managed to catch a couple hours of sleep, which was a pleasant surprise.

We arrived in LA after that very long flight, got through homeland security and customs with surprising ease. I think we looked too boring (or too exhausted) to be any sort of threat.

Here is the ONLY picture I took on the entire trip over, of Chris in front of the international terminal in LA, finally on US soil.

From LA, we flew American Airlines on to Nashville, with a stopover in Dallas. That was, most definately, our least pleasant flight. We boarded the flight at 1030 local time. It was a bit early for lunch, and we figured it would be served on the plane, but there was no meal. We thought we might get off and grab some lunch in Dallas, but in the end didn't have time. Finally, we guilted a flight attendant out of a snack pack of cheese, biscuits and nuts to tide us over.

Mom and Jessie were waiting for us when we arrived at the Nashville airport. We headed out of Nashville heading for West Tennessee. We stopped at a lovely country restaurant in Dickson where we were treated to a nice country spread. Real cornbread even! We got back to mom's late, saw Justin and Jessie's daughter Sis, and visited for a long as we would last.

The next day, Wednesday, was our first full day there.was a bit better. We were still feeling jetlagged.

We decided to stay close to home, but Chris did go out for awhile to introduce mom to the fine fun of "geocaching". Mom actually quite liked it, and is now going to get her own GPS and have a go at it.

I mostly just sat around the house with Justin, who took the day off to spend some time with us.

Jessie hung out with us at the house as well

Jessie's daughter Sis came by with baby John, whose the sweetest thing

And her daughter, the lovely Shelby, who was so excited to see her Australian relatives and tickled with the souveniers she got.

Thursday we decided to go up to an old civil war site on the Tennessee River. I drove while Mom and Chris went looking for some caches on the way there

Mom got her first find and was hooked.

We went up to the Nathan Bedford State forest, went through the museum there and took in some of the sights before heading home.

Today, Friday, we drove up to my son's house, picked up the grandkids and had a great day. Tomorrow we're taking them up to Reelfoot Lake for a picnic. It's late now though, and I'm tired, so I'll have to continue with photos and stories of the grandkids in the next day or two.

Till then...

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