My thr3e weeks: Tennessee Hobos ( Final Part )

I finally got around to posting my final post on our vacation in the hills of Tennessee, and I must warn you that it will be a rather random post, using up the last few pictures.

One day we all just went into Gatlinburg to go walking/shopping down Main Street. And somehow all of us ended up taking a picture as this mountain man, and I figured it was the perfect set of pictures to show us off as the Tennessee hobos.

:: GRinddddd :: Every time we started the Expedition up and started driving this is the sound that we heard coming from the rear right side tire. I guess a vacation is never complete without a break down of some sort. The truck was still drivable but it made horrid grinding noises that made you cringe and wonder when the tire would just fly off. Knowing that we needed to find out what the noise was, Dad, during on of the sessions at the conference, went out with Micah to pull off the tire to find out what was wrong with it. It ended up being the wheel bearings which they would have been able to fix themselves if they had the right tools and parts... but we were on vacation and obviously didn't have any of the tools needed. So, Dad asked at the conference where we could find an auto shop, and ended up finding a guy who was local who recommended a good place. So having only Christine's car to work with we were kind of in a pickle, for you see it was lunch time, the truck was in the shop, and we had eight people and a five passenger car. Now, don't get me wrong, we were still very thankful we had a car, but we could only fit five people at a time into it. We couldn't eat at the conference center, they didn't allow outside food in. And Mom had packed us stuff for sandwiches but we really didn't have anyplace to eat it. Especially since it was 90+ outside and there really wasn't any shade around the conference center. So it was decided that five people would climb into Christine's car to go find a place, and three people would stay and wait to be picked up as the second load. Now I was among three people that stayed at the center so I was not a party to the group who was driving around trying to find us someplace to eat. I was able to stay in the nice air conditioned building, while the other party sweated to death in the non-air-conditioned car. I really do think us three got the better end of the deal. Forty-five minutes after leaving us, Christine came back all wet and very weary looking to pick us up, and she said that after searching for a food court at the outlet malls which they found out didn't exist they had finally decided we were eating at Wal-mart. Hmmm... I don't believe I have ever had a picnic lunch at Wal-mart but I suppose there is a first time for everything. When we arrived I gave Dad a call to find out exactly where they were we finally found them outside a little bus stop in the Wal-mart parking lot. The lady inside Wal-mart said it was the only place she could think of that we could sit down and eat. Apparently they didn't even have picnic tables for their employees. So, she had recommended the bus stop, but it was about the temperature of a greenhouse and smelled worse then a cigarette pack. So, looking very much like homeless people we ate out of a Wal-mart grocery cart. It was an adventure to say the least, and provides a lot of memories.

After our picnic lunch was over we visited Chic-fil-a and got a few milkshakes to cool us all off, and then we started Christine's tram service back up. Five of us went back to the conference center and three decided to go shopping at Wal-mart. This time I was in the first five to go back. Upon arriving back at the conference center we all found a couch or chair and made ourselves comfortable and took a nap. When the second "tram" run arrived, we found out they had gone and rented a car so we could go home that night without Christine having to drive for three hours to get us all back to the cabins. Thankfully we only had to rent the car for 24 hours 'cause our truck was fixed and ready to be picked up the next afternoon.

After spending four days in the conference center the plan was to take it easy on Friday, our last free day before heading home. Our plans changed very quickly when we were given 7 tickets to Dollywood. We would only need to buy one ticket for all of us to go and they were selling them for a special price at the conference. So, we all got to go to Dollywood for thirty-eight dollars. It was a fun theme park with several roller coasters and a few water based rides. One of the last things we did there was ride on their steam engine/coal powered train. This was the perfect ending day to a very nice but busy vacation. The next day we loaded the truck and trailer up and drove 14 hours straight home. Thus ended my three weeks in Tennessee which were exhausting but awesome.

My thr3e weeks: The Hike (Part 3)

It 'twas a fine day for a hike and one of the only opportunities that we would have to go... So we all loaded up into our Expedition and went to the nearest State Park headquarters to get some maps and figure out where we wanted to go hiking. After looking at some of the maps we realized that we'd better find a hiking trail that was nearby as it was getting later and later into the afternoon and getting lost in the Tennessee mountains at night on vacation did not sound like fun. So we chose a trail that had an old homestead somewhere along the way... that is if we could find the right trail. Finding the park entrance was the easy part... being in Tennessee was a little bit different then being at home where every trail is marked with many different signs and arrows showing you which way to go. There were no signs telling you how far to go or where the trail started. So we just drove, and drove, and drove. Now the road that we were on seemed to get narrower as you went on. And it was a two way road, so occasionally we would come upon an oncoming car or truck and sometime I think I could feel our car cringing as we squeaked by the other cars with just inches to spare. But needless to say we finally got to a gate blocking a pathway and a parking lot, so this must be the spot. It had to be the spot, wherever we were, we were going to go hiking, whether we found the old homestead or not, we would at least get our hike in. It was a beautiful day, only slightly humid... which is better then other days when it was unbearably humid. And so on this beautiful only slightly humid day we took our hike.

There were a couple very cool trees that I had to get pictures of... (Above) A tree that was right by the creek and because of the rush of water all of its roots were visible. (Below) A tree that Dad said probably grew on top of another tree stump that had over time rotted away, as there was a big cavern that the tree grew on top of.





A spider web that I nearly wore as a mask, thankfully I ducked away before I met the web and its maker.



After all the wondering and wandering we finally found the old homestead, which was actually a barn that was built in 1875, and over a little stream was a hikers club cabin that was built in the 1930's and a little cold spring cellar that they must have used for refrigeration. The cabin was actually built using logs from a nearby Whaley family cabin. Our hike was successful and was pretty cool to boot.

"Located along the Porters Creek Trail, the John Messer Barn was constructed in 1875 by Pinkney Whaley. The only remaining structure of the pre-park community of Greenbrier Cove, it was added to the National Register in 1976. The Messer Barn is a type of double-cantilever barn unique to East Tennessee and rarely found outside its immediate vicinity." ~ Wikipedia

My thr3e weeks: The Cabin (Part 2)

This post should be labeled "The Cabins," for we did have two. One cabin was a three bedroom and the other was a two bedroom. Christine and I stayed in the master bedroom of the two bedroom and Isaiah and Nathanael had the second bedroom. Mom and Dad had the bigger cabin, where Micah and Colin both had there own rooms.



A lot of our time was spent in the bigger one mostly because they had most of the food... but we did have the snacky type food in the smaller cabin, and we had the pool table.

It had beautiful pine interior and exterior. It was gorgeous.

The cabins looked about the same with a few differences in layout and furniture set up.

The Master Bedroom, had the most comfortable, huge, ginormous bed. It was like laying on pillows, you literally sank down into it... Christine said she had to really look for me the first morning, only my head was partially visible.

I didn't get a picture of the back porch which had a hot tub, and I also didn't get a picture of the super cool pool that they had at the resort, or the huge hot tub they had right next to the pool, which because it was so big, was pretty much a hot pool. It was a truly beautiful vacation spot. To bad we couldn't pack it all up in our suitcase and bring it home with us. But then it really wouldn't be special if it was normal, so I suppose we will have to leave it where it is. :: sigh ::
But anyway, enough about how wonderful the cabins were, forward to the next post...

My thr3e weeks: Summit (Part 1)

How do you sum up three weeks of awesomeness? You cannot do it in one post, I can tell you that much. So I will be doing a few posts on my last 3 weeks. Some of the content will be taken directly from my journal, so bear with me.
July 4th, Day 1: (Diary entry 1) "Chattanooga, T.N. here I come... Christine's alarm went off at 5:15 this morning. Dad greeted me with a "Happy Birthday!" and an omelet at my bedroom door. I donned my red, white, and blue star-spangled shirt, Dad grabbed my 48 lb. suitcase, Mom grabbed my really heavy carry-on, I gave Christine a hug and we were off. We made it to the airport by 7:00 am and I was through customs and at my gate waiting at 7:30. The flight was uneventful which is good. The only thing that happened worth some notice, was, as I sat down in my seat in the very back of the plane, I looked down and I had egg and cheese clinging to my shirt, breakfast left-overs. I quickly wiped them from my shirt and thought, "is this as embarrassing as egg on my face?""
~~~ Making it to the college campus late afternoon on Sunday, I then settled into the dorm room
met my room mate, ate dinner, and then I headed to orientation. Looking at the schedule I knew the two weeks were going to be exhausting. This is what the first full day looked like:

• (Diary entry 2:) ~ "5:40 - get up, get stuff out and be ready to take your shower at six. Read your Bible, take a 12 minute shower. Get ready to go to breakfast.
• 7:00 - Walk down to breakfast in cafeteria
• 7:15 - eat breakfast.
• 8:05 - Classes start. Ben W---'s does a couple sessions with a couple of breaks.
• 10:20 - Scott K---- does a couple of sessions
• 12:00 - lunch
• 1:00 - Another session with Ben W.
• 2:00-5:00 - free time to join in with the group activity or whatever you want to do.
• 6:00 - Optional-open forum with Scott K. I go play pool with a girl in my small group.
• 7:00 - Worship with Josh B---'s then last session for today.
• 9:00 - Get out of session, and walk to dorm to take your contacts out, that are starting to bother you after wearing them since six-something. Write in journal.
• 9:45 - small group meeting, which goes to 10:30
• 11:00 - Lights out."

Pretty much this is what everyday looked like, just different speakers and different topics. Over 72 hours of teaching and many different topics were covered. It was a truly awesome challenging time.
~~~

On Saturday after being at Summit for almost a week, Kami (my room mate) and I decided to join in a hike through Pocket. It was a beautiful day for a walk/run in the heart of Tennessee. I think it was a six mile hike, and it was extremely warm for this northerner. It was fun though... and Kami and I realized we were dressed alike which was pretty funny.

The two weeks went by very quickly... and before we knew it we were sitting in the last sessions... Friday night they had a graduation ceremony which we got to dress up for, which was cool. Kami and I were reunited with our families, and we both stayed in the same hotel Friday night.

This was my small group... we would meet every night and discuss the stuff that we were learning. Jessica (the one standing next to me) was the small group leader, and she would direct stuff and ask questions. We had fun together, they were a cool bunch of girls. It is weird to think that our paths might never cross again, after spending two weeks together I feel like we should live closer... it is kind of a strange feeling, knowing that they live a long way away, and I might not see them on this earth again. I am thankful for the time we had together though.

Well, that just about sums up my time at Summit... there is a lot more I could write about worldviews, and post-modernism... but I think that is better in person, and it would take forever to talk about even half of what was taught there. So this will be my last post on Summit, but family vacation (part 2) is coming shortly...

"Well if were going to go to a barn raising then lets go!" - Adam from "Seven Brides for Seven Brother's"

Sunny day, blue skies, a nice breeze, a good work crew.... ahhhh, it is a perfect day to be on the roof. Last Saturday felt a lot like the barn raising scene from the movie, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." All of the guys were on the roof and all of us women were in the house making "viddles." There were only two things missing, first was the line dance, second was the fistfight that breaks out. ;)

Joanna and Curtiss' barn was in need of a new roof so a couple of the families from our church joined us out in S---- on Saturday to get the roof put on before Curtiss and Joanna cross "the big pond" as they call it.

The new roof was a lovely color green that gave the barn a whole new look.

Joel looks like he is about to use the roof as a big slide.

Enjoying the "Viddles" i.e. Cinnamon rolls and Lemonade

Mr. G... working very hard, or at least he looks like he is... ;)

Hanging out as the work day comes to a close

The younger boys spent there day on the back of this little wagon being pulled around by Zack. They did an awesome job getting all the sticks and pine cones picked up out of the yard.

After we were done cooking the snacks, Joanna and I sat on the porch working on starting our tans and painting our toe nails. lol

Curtiss our host, he kept himself so busy I never was able to get a good picture of him on my camera.

And our beautiful and charming hostess, who kept all of the guys hydrated and fed.

Three Strikes I'm In...

Three things that have happened since August First.

1. Isaiah fell off the monkey bars in the park and broke his left arm.

Mom said it was a good thing it was his left so he can still do his school.

He wanted to pose for Joanna's sake

He really didn't want me to post those last two pictures on the blog, BUT as I told him everything is for Joanna!

On Monday he is going to the doctors to get a hard cast on, he is looking forward to everyone signing it.

2. I got to go to Kingdombound with four of my very good friends.

Here is all of us in the camper that we stayed in.

Alice had this display set out on the table. In the baskets in the background she has movies, Cd's, toothpaste, a mirror, Tylenol, and a little bag of tissues. She also had chocolates set on all of our pillows, and towels all nicely folded for each of us.

Sarah and I eating a very yummy dessert that Alice served the night we got there.

Alice and I enjoying a Third Day concert. We all had so much fun at Kingdombound together.

3. The Empire Farm Days...

This is the third year that we have gone to the farm show, and we always have fun running around taking pictures in all the big, huge, gigantic, farm equipment.

Jesse just loves the big tractors. He just walks around going "BRRRUUUMMMM."

In this picture he had just found the horn on one of the tractors. Uncle Nathanael had fun trying to get him to stop honking it.

As always he had big grins for Aunt Elise's camera. He is just to cute for his own good!

WE'RE HOME!!!

Just as the bells were chiming telling everyone it was noon on Monday, the Blue Moose came roaring into town telling everyone that we were home. We all had a blast in our two and a half weeks of fun. I have over two hundred pictures on my camera, a lot of which are of "The Little Man," Jesse. I got to spend some good quality time with my Dad, Mom, my brothers, sister-in-law, and nephew. I read almost ten books. After four nights on the bus I figured out I can sleep almost anywhere! ;) Over all it was a wonderful vacation. We are all glad to be home in our own beds though. God proved himself strong through our whole vacation, and I would just like to say a big thank you to him for getting us to our destinations and home again safely. Here are a few pictures of our vacation, I hope you enjoy. (Joanna, I hope it won't take forever for you to load this page with your slow connection, just let me know if you have problems and I will take some of the pictures off.)

One of Jesse's favorite games is to say "AAAAA" really loud and have us all yell right back, he always gives us really big grins!

After the bus broke down we were all pretty tired, here is Isaiah proving that we can sleep anywhere. ;)

Looks like Cabela's doesn't it? Well, it isn't, it is Trina's uncles living room. It is one of the most impressive living rooms I have ever seen. In this picture it looks really crowded, but in real life it doesn't look crowded at all. It must be my camera that crowded it altogether like that. ;)

This is everyone stuffed in a little corner in Starbucks chatting with Joanna. Everyone looked at us really weird, and we even had a lady come up and tell us that nothing was that interesting, we all said, "Yes, there is!" Joanna I thought you would really enjoy this picture.

On the bus with a few extra kids, they all sat on the back bunks waving and yelling at people and cars that we went by.

Hosanna isn't she the cutest. This ones for you Sarah. ;)

The night we left we all went out for ice cream. Nineteen of us rushed out of the bus and into a little ice cream shop ten minutes before they closed. The poor workers thought they were going to have an early night until they saw the Blue Moose!

Trina was really enjoying her chocolate milkshake, can't you tell?

This is a picture of me and my hairstylist Gracie. If anyone wants their hair done too, I can give you her number. ;)

This is a picture of Jesse which I have titled; "The Weary Traveler"

I can just hear him saying, " I can't believe the bus broke down again."

I still have many more cute pictures of Jesse, I told you I took a lot of him! :)

"Look at all the windmills!"

On the way from Iowa to Wisconsin we passed hundreds probably thousands of these windmills, out of many pictures this is my favorite one of the windmills, and I thought it an appropriate ending to a vacation post. Riding off into the sunset, looking for our next adventure in the Blue Moose.