Family Vacation '13 (Part 2 - Great Smoky Mountains)

After we left Boone, we drove to the Smoky Mountains, where we had rented a cabin for 3 nights.  This one was back in the "sticks," at the top of a REALLY steep hill.  We liked it okay, but it was a little unnerving for us city people to feel so far from civilization.

The first day we drove through the Smokies to Cherokee, an Indian reservation on the North Carolina side of the park.  The drive was beautiful, and we stopped to hike on the Oconoluftee Trail, one of only two hiking trails in the park that allows dogs.

Cooper is sort of in an in-between stage, where he thinks he's too big to ride in a stroller (and this wouldn't have been a great place for a stroller anyway), but he's not really ready for long walks either.  That presented a little challenge, but Don and I took turns piggy-backing him when he got tired of walking.

 

 

There is an old farm there that people can tour, which we have done before but not this time, since we had Nash with us.

The next day we left Nash at the cabin and went to breakfast at a pancake house (a family tradition) and then into Gatlinburg and walked the strip and got a few souvenirs.  This time we made Cooper ride in the stroller, which made things more pleasant for all of us.  I have a special liking for handmade soaps, so I got a few different bars of it there and also some saltwater taffy, another favorite of mine.

Afternoons and evenings were spent relaxing in the cabin, which had a nice porch on the front with rocking chairs and a screened-in one in the back with a swing.  It also had a jacuzzi that was so big Cooper thought it was a swimming pool, and a hot tub.  There was a little TV, but no Internet, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

The last morning we checked out of our cabin and then drove through Cade's Cove, where we saw some beautiful scenery and lots of wildlife: turkeys, deer (including a tiny, speckled fawn with its mother) and a mother bear with two little cubs.

It began to rain while we were in Cade's Cove, and we drove through rain most of the way home, but for the most part we had really nice weather while we were there and in Boone, even a little cooler than usual for this time of year.

It was a fun trip, and I'm thankful things worked out so that we got to take it.

Snake!

I just looked out my front window and saw this:Now, as women go, I am not too squeamish about this sort of thing, but this was right next to my front porch, which is right over a closet in our (finished) basement. It seemed to be crawling out of a crack in the porch as I watched. Where would this crack go but into our basement?

Just so you'll know, if I find this thing in my basement, I'm moving to Hawaii, where there are supposedly no snakes. Nice knowing ya.

A Lesson from a Tree

" . . . Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7
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My neighbor has a tree in her yard that I have always thought was an eyesore that needed to be cut down.

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One morning I was visiting with her on her porch (as I often do on my morning walks), and she looked out and said, "I like that old tree. It has character."

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Suddenly I began to look at it differently. Rather than seeing an old, rotten tree, I began to think of it as a tree with a story to tell. How old was it? What had it seen during its life? Had children of yesteryear climbed up into its branches, looking out over the neighborhood? And now it was a playground for birds who regularly visited the feeder my friend had hung on it, and for squirrels, who likely made their home in its hollows.

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I will never look at the tree the same way, now that I know it has "character."

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How often do we judge people this way? They may be old, unattractive or handicapped, and we label them in our minds accordingly. But what if we looked instead at their character? Wouldn't we see them in a completely different way?

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Like the old tree, I need to look at a person's character, at their heart, as God does. I will likely find that there is a lot more there than meets the eye.

Cade’s Cove (Smokies, part 3)

Our last day in the Smokies was spent at Cade’s Cove. This is an 11-mile loop that can be driven or biked, and where you can see a lot of beautiful scenery. I wouldn’t recommend taking this loop if you are in a hurry, as traffic often moves very slowly, especially if there is some interesting form of wildlife making an appearance. This was at one time a settlement, and there are a number of old houses, churches and other buildings as well as cemeteries that can be seen. You can pull off the road and get out of the car to tour some of them. This is a corn mill that is still in operation. They run it while you watch and then sell the finished product. There are several hiking trails through the woods that you can take (most of which don't allow pets, as we found out when we got stopped in our tracks by a park ranger). There was one area where we were able to get the dogs out and take a little hike into the woods, though. As you drive through, you are likely to see some of these. If you are lucky, you might see one of these. We were lucky. Blessed, rather. Not only to find ourselves just a few feet away from this apparently-friendly fellow, but with two days of nice weather, being surrounded by some of God’s most breathtaking handiwork in every direction and a generally fantastic trip.

Clingman’s Dome (Smokies, part 2)

We climbed Clingman’s Dome (or "Klingon’s Dome," as Don insisted on calling it) on Tuesday morning. At 6,684 feet, it is the highest peak in the Smoky Mountains. Don’t worry, we didn’t climb all the way up! You drive most of the way, up a steep, curvy mountain road that is closed in the winter. When we finally got to the parking area, it was FREEZING. It hadn’t occurred to me to bring a jacket, as it was a warm June day when we left our cabin. Nonetheless, we followed the ½ mile paved trail to the top. It is a constant slope, and made me realize how out of shape I was. I'm sure the altitude didn't help either. They had little benches to rest on every few yards, several of which I took advantage of.
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Almost there . . . here is the observation deck from below. This activity is obviously not for anyone who is afraid of heights.
We were right on the Tennessee/North Carolina border, so the state line would be here somewhere.
Unfortunately, we found out why they are called the "Smoky Mountains" – we couldn’t see too much. A friendly man did offer to take our picture though, just to prove we were there.
We took a few other pictures on the way back down (a much easier walk) as things began to clear up a little.
There were a lot of "serious" hikers around, many of whom are hiking the whole Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Guess I’d better get in better shape before I think about doing anything like that.

Noah’s Flood

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. Genesis 7:17-20

I am finishing up a study of Genesis in my Bible study. I am studying creation in my Sunday School class. And it is springtime, and everywhere around me I see beautiful life springing forth that has God's fingerprints all over it.

I am planting a garden. Sorry if you’re getting tired of hearing about that. But I have noticed as I have been digging in the soil is that there are rocks. Lots of them. Not jagged-edged rocks, but smooth rocks, such as those in a river. How did they get there? There are no rivers within at least a mile of my house. I don’t live in an area that would ever flood under normal circumstances.

One thing I have learned in my creation class is that there are fossils from sea creatures throughout the Grand Canyon. This intrigues me as well. How would sea creatures get into the Grand Canyon . . . unless it was once covered by water?

Some may claim that the story of Noah’s flood is myth. Others may say that it was just a localized flood. But Bible says the waters covered the whole earth, and that’s what I choose to believe. Not to mention that there is evidence of it everywhere, including my own back yard.

There is so much around us that supports what the Bible tells us in Genesis. I don’t understand why there are those who refuse to see it, who choose instead to believe in a "theory" that really makes no sense if you try to study it very deeply.

So Genesis is MY story. And I’m stickin’ to it.

Iris Time in Tennessee (well, almost)

The Ellington Agricultural Center has an iris garden, which is beautiful when the irises are in full bloom. These pictures are taken from the top of the hill looking down on the garden.

They have an iris festival every year which they try to time for when the irises will be at their peak. It is this weekend. Unfortunately, everything seems to be running a little late this year, and the irises weren’t quite ready. We did get to see some of the early bloomers though.

We had a nice walk there with the dogs and took a few other pictures. Everything is so beautiful right now. We are hoping to go back in a week or two and maybe catch the irises at a better time.

Grafted Into God's Family

"Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again." Romans 11:22-23

I love this tree. It’s in my neighborhood, and I see it when I am walking. I’m not quite sure how it came to be, but my best guess is that a pink dogwood and a white dogwood were grafted together when they were small.

It always reminds me of Romans 11, the only place in the Bible that mentions grafting. It talks about God grafting the Gentiles into His family so that they too could receive salvation. To do this, He had to cut the Israelites off for a time, because of their transgressions, but He will bring them back.

I don’t fully understand it all; I only know that I am thankful to be "grafted" into the tree of God’s family. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, salvation has been extended to the Gentiles who believe.

The tree in this picture represents to me the two parts – the Jews and the Gentiles, blended together to make one tree. And what a beautiful tree it is!

Pam’s Tree

When my friend Pam died, two of my other friends went in together and gave me a gift card to buy a tree in her memory.

Don and I got engaged at the Ellington Agricultural Center about 3 weeks after she died. It was the first day I was really happy again, and one of the main things I remember about it was that there were dogwoods in bloom everywhere. So I chose a dogwood tree to remind me not of the sadness of Pam’s death, but the renewed hope that came afterward. I think it’s what she would have wanted.

I also chose it because of the dogwood flowers’ unique resemblance to the cross. Besides its obvious shape, each petal has a hole at the end that appears to be outlined in blood. The center looks somewhat like a crown of thorns.

I got the little tree the fall after we got married, 3½ years ago. The first one I got died, and we had to replace it. Neither the first one nor the second one has ever bloomed, much to my dismay.

Until this year. For the first time, it is beautiful. I get a bit mystical sometimes, but it is interesting that this wonderful event happened so shortly after this one. Pam asked me to stay in touch with her kids, and I have not even seen any of them at all in the last four years, until about three weeks ago, when I began making a real effort to get involved in her younger kids’ lives. I hope this will lead to getting involved with her older kids as well. At least the ones who are still alive.

Just a coincidence? Possibly. It’s one of the things I want to ask her when I get to heaven.

Tornado!

I was getting ready to leave for a Weight Watchers group I was working yesterday afternoon when my mom called. She works at the airport (which is between my house and my Weight Watchers group) and said they had all been evacuated to the basement because a tornado had touched down in the area. She begged me not to leave my house.
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I wasn't sure what to do. I'm not one to just not show up for work. So I took the dogs down into the basement and tried to turn on the TV. If you read this blog, you may remember that this is no small task. At any rate, I could not get anything but static on the TV. Then I called my co-worker from Weight Watchers, and she turned on her TV, which showed that indeed there was a tornado, and they were advising people in my part of town to take cover immediately. She lives in a different part of town, so she was going to go ahead and go and assured me that she could handle it without me since there probably wouldn't be very many people there anyway.
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Don got home a few minutes later, and I was still struggling with my decision. He tried to discourage me from going too. He also turned on the TV for me, where I saw that two tractor trailers had blown over and were blocking I-40 in both directions, during rush hour, so even if I tried to go, I probably wouldn't even get there before the group was over. So I stayed home.
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As it turned out, there was a building destroyed not far from Weight Watchers (this picture is from our local newspaper, The Tennessean). Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.

To look at a picture like this is just a reminder to me of God's power. He destroyed a building in seconds, yet in His mercy He protected those inside. I am filled with awe as He has made both of these attributes real to me.

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"Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness." Psalm 150:2

A Day in the Country

I blogged a couple of weeks ago about Don and me trying to find an old family cemetery in nearby Wilson County, Tennessee, where some of my ancestors are buried and being unsuccessful. Well, in the meantime, I did a little more research and got some more information. Yesterday I went back over there with my brother and his family, and we found it! These are the graves of my great-great grandmother and her parents. Needless to say, we had to traipse through a lot of brush (including thorny bushes) to find them.
Things are so different in the country. We went to the door of the lady whose property the cemetery was on to ask for permission to check it out. She opened to the door without suspicion. We told her what we wanted to do, and she told us to go right ahead, giving us as much information as she could. Then she sent her two preschoolers out to play in the back yard unsupervised while we were there.
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I’ve lived my whole life in the city, and this is just a totally different mindset. Actually, it is more like the way life was when I was growing up. Nashville was a smaller town, but the world was just different then. It made me feel good that maybe it is still that way out in the country.

After we found the graves, we rode around a little more and spotted some animals. The kids (and adults) loved these baby goats and guineas.

I have been told that my great-great grandfather was a Presbyterian pastor and have been trying to find out more about that. I would love to know more about my spiritual heritage as well as my genetic one. We found this Presbyterian church near the area where he lived, which was built in 1801. I have e-mailed them to see if he was ever a pastor there.
We looked for one more cemetery that has some of our other ancestors buried in it. Apparently my great-great grandfather remarried after his wife died and is buried with his second wife. The information I had on that one was sketchy, and we were unable to find it, but all in all, I’d say it was a really fun day.

Spring!

Well, Spring is officially here, definitely my favorite season, and it is just showing off everywhere. I took a few pictures this morning in my own yard and my neighbor's yards. There is just so much beauty to behold. I'm sure you have similar scenes in your yard, but I still wanted to share some of mine. It seems like the first colors of spring, besides green, are usually purple and yellow, but now I am starting to see some pinks, whites and other colors.

My neighbor Wanda's daffodils.



My neighbor Corky's henbits (I know these are technically weeds, but I think they look pretty when a whole yard is full of them.)

Also in Corky's yard: I don't know what kind of bush this is, but it sure is pretty.


My first tulip that is just about to open.









A robin gathering twigs for her nest (or maybe it's a he; I'm not sure).






I spotted the first violets of the season yesterday. I love their delicate beauty.

Did Someone Say Snow?

In Nashville? Before Christmas? Well, not much, but we did get some. A rare occurrence, no doubt.
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This is Nash’s third winter, and he has never seen a serious snow. Dasha, who is in her eleventh winter, got to see an eight-inch one a few years ago, which she could barely get around in!
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The county schools around here were all closed on Friday, though as you can see, there was little, if any, on the roads. That’s just what they do around here. The kids don’t mind. Neither do the teachers. The snow was all gone by noon, as is often the case here.
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Though I really don’t like winter much, a little snow is kind of exciting, as long as I don’t have to drive in it. I wouldn’t mind if we had one big one that just shut down the whole town, after everyone got home safely. We usually get one every few years, so maybe we are due for one.

Iowa City Floods

Iowa City, where Don’s parents live, was the site of some major flooding over the summer, caused by torrential rains which made the Iowa River rise way above its banks.

We saw some of the devastation when we were there Thanksgiving. Thankfully, though the water rose into his parents' yard, it didn’t come into their house. They provided a boat for their neighbors to row to their homes and salvage some of their possessions. Many houses in the neighborhood adjacent to theirs are still uninhabitable.

Many businesses there closed down for good. This disaster made a huge impact on this small college town.

Ellington Agricultural Center

Ellington Agricultural Center is a little-known place that I consider to be one of Nashville’s treasures. Once a private estate, it is now owned by the State of Tennessee and used for government purposes but open to the public. If you take Hogan Road away from Franklin Road, you will run right into it. There is also an entrance on Edmondson Pike.
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We’ve been blessed with a whole week of gorgeous, sunny days with temperatures in the 70’s, so one day I took the dogs and went over there to take some pictures while the leaves were pretty. Before I got married I lived right down the road from it, so Dasha and I went over there often. She LOVED it. I merely had to say, "Do you want to go the Ag Center?" and she would begin dancing in circles. I don’t go nearly as often now since it’s not so close by, but just to test her, I asked her that question. Sure enough, she remembered. Nash joined in the excitement too.
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Up on a hill in front of the main entrance is Brentwood Hall, a home built during the 1920’s by Rogers Caldwell.

Just to your right is a beautiful hill with a gazebo at the foot of it. This is where Don and I got engaged.
The gardens behind the gazebo are planted with various kinds of irises and are a burst of purples, pinks, whites and even yellows in the springtime. The iris is the Tennessee state flower.
There is a museum section consisting of several buildings containing all types of historical artifacts. Admission is free.
Not long after Don and I first started dating, we came for a walk over here and got caught in a rainstorm. We ended up on the porch here talking for probably an hour. (Hmmm . . . I might just like this guy.)
There are all types of trees, now showing off their beautiful fall colors.
A number of gardens can be found, not in full bloom right now, but pretty nonetheless. The tree in the middle of this one is a tulip poplar, the Tennessee state tree.
As I said in an earlier blog, I am fascinated by old cemeteries. Some of the graves in this one pre-date the Civil War.
The horses that live here are used by the Metro Nashville Police’s Mounted Patrol.
There are walking trails that wind around the 207-acre campus where you may get some exercise and enjoy the beauty of it all. There are a few picnic tables scattered about, if you want to take your dinner. This can be a fun, no-cost outing for the whole family.