Jumping, Dancing & Jamming Our Way Through Walt Disney World! I'm With the Band Now!

[KatMark]

Great updates, Lisa. The Ranger kind of looks like the late Ranger Stan from the WL.

I cannot believe how Hunter has grown. What are you feeding that boy?

 

[MeMom]

I had to scroll through the cave pictures. Just the thought of going in a cave makes me a little queasy.

We went to a church at Cades Cove when my oldest two were very little. I'm guessing it was the same one.

We saw bears a couple of times over that way, but that was around 25 years ago.

Reading the tombstones and thinking about the people and the lives they led is interesting.

 

[MEK]

More cool pictures from your Tenn trip! Love them!

My favorite is the view from the cabin in Cade's cove. (did I spell that right????). That is a gorgeous shot!

It makes me wish I had gotten to spend more time in Tenn last summer.

 

[natebenma]

The last set of photos from the caves are great! Love the waterfall shot and you did a great job showing the stairs. I can see why you took a picture of the unknown plant. Could they be hot peppers growing?

Cade's Cove looks beautiful.

I work at a historical site- a stone farmhouse built in 1690 and and the oldest continually operating farm in the country, so I appreciate when people visit sites like this and immerse themselves in the history and beauty of the surroundings.

 

[jenseib]

looks like a great time. I have to say that Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are typically always bumper to bumper traffic. I am guessing it wasn't any busier than usual, but thats just how the traffic flows through there.

I love the cabin pictures. I laughed when you told Jessie to be careful of the bears, but to call you over if her find one.

 

[johnsonmatt3]

Hey Lisa. Haven't heard from you in a while. I'm kinda getting somewhat a little worried (and anxious for another installment). I hope it's nothing to serious though. I just finished your 2nd TR and have now read all of them. The first two were really fun to read. Hope we can hear back from you soon.

 

[Kathy Jetson]

That form letter could have been sent to anyone I'd like to see if everyone else who sent them something got the same letter.

Thats really strange that resteraunt closed at 2:00pm maybe they don't need any money. I wonder if that waitress visited the dentist with your tip money?

Your wild hoodlums sound scarey I wouldn't want to be behind them!

That was a great sign about Bob I loved it!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Hi Lisa. Home from Disneyland and all caught up. Looks like you had a lovely side trip to TN. I am sure you are quite busy right now getting ready for the wedding. I hope all goes well for your family and that Lacey and Jesse have a beautiful day.

 

[brookelizabeth]

All caught up now and I'm enjoying both reports! The bit about Subway being out of BREAD and the BBQ place closing at 2:00 made me laugh out loud. Excellent TR fodder.

The cave looks amazing! It sounds like you find the bears...I'm hoping so!

 

[PirateKate]

I love the pictures from Cades Cove. The first time I went there, I was pretty young and I thought everyone was saying it was Kate's Cove. I thought it was really cool that we were going to my very own Cove.

That cave looks pretty steep in some places. I'm sure it was worth it, though.

 

[Villainess]

All caught up after a bit of an absence - wonderful cave pictures! Hope all is well with the family and the wedding planning!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Good afternoon everybody! I apologize that I haven't posted any replies or been on the last few days. Please know that I am not trying to blow anybody's posts off....it's just been so very busy at our house and at the office.

The wedding is on the 20th of this month! Yesterday, we had my sisters and my nieces over to look through all of the wedding boxes to make sure we have everything we need. The town where Lacey is getting married in a small town and there's just a Walmart and a few small stores so if we don't have everything, there's really no place to go and get "it" (whatever it may be ). When we finished going through everything, we realized that we only need three things and they are small items and shouldn't cost more than $20 total, if that much.

As you may remember, she is using sunflowers for her bouquet and the corsages and boutinniers (spelling?). We came up with a cute idea for her wedding favors. We were at a wholesale candy store a week or so ago and saw little bags of sunflower seeds. We are going to make tags to hang from the bags that have their name and marriage date on them. I think they are going to be so cute. Of course, we are also going to make a sign to put near the basket with the sunflowers saying to enjoy them afterwards we don't have a bunch of sunflower seed shells on the church grounds.

Lacey's dress had to have one more minor adjustment to it and it's supposed to be ready this Wednesday. All of the girls have their dresses and shoes and I think the guys have their clothes as well. We still have to buy John and Hunter plain white shirts but we can find those just about anywhere so I'm not stressed about getting them.

Elsewhere on the home front......Hunter has started football again after taking off for two years. They work those boys like crazy and he's loving every minute of it. They have changed their workouts from 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. because it's been so very hot here. Yesterday, our temperature was 104. I have no idea what the heat index was but I'm betting it was at least 110.

Kathy, you asked what I was feeding him 'cause he's growing up so quickly. I think the football workouts are turning him into a young man much more quickly than anything I can feed him. He's getting a six pack and he's proud to show it off.

Thursday, the football team had a Night of the Revolution at our local high school. They had various stations set up where the boys performed the drills/skills that they have learned. We got to follow them around to each station and cheer them on. Hunter did pretty darn well for a skinny little dude. Or should I say, Pre-Adult which is what Hunter likes to call himself.

Hunter's first football game is going to be on the day we leave for Georgia and he's not real happy that he's going to miss it. He hasn't missed even one workout/practice so I am sure the coaches will understand. If not, they will have to just get over it 'cause he's going to his sister's wedding.

I have the rest of my Tennessee pictures uploaded and it shouldn't take me long to finish up my off topic report. I'm ready to get back to Disney since I am wishing I was lying in one of the hammocks at the Caribbean Beach Resort right now instead of sitting at my office desk.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

We all understand! The favors for Lacey and Jesse's wedding sound great, and very creative! Yay for them that their wedding is less than 2 weeks away August 20th is actually the date for my fitting for my dress for my sister's wedding. So, I'll be wearing my maid of honor dress while they are getting married

Good for Hunter getting all that exercise and enjoying his football practice. I'm sure the coach wouldn't expect him to miss his sister's wedding for a game! And it was that hot up here about a week ago, but it's been "down" in the 90s for the past few days. And supposed to be in the 80s at the end of this week. Hope it cools down there for you.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your TN trip and then your WDW trip!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Lions and tigers....wait there aren't any lions or tigers in Tennessee! But, there are bears and that's what we were on the lookout for. I wanted to see a bear so badly! Unfortunately for me, we saw no bears at the cabin (only poop and scratched up trees) nor did we see them on our way to Primitive Baptist Church. I was not giving up though and I am sure that everybody in the van was sick and tired of me telling them so.

We came to the next church and we pulled into the little parking space and went up to have a look around. I took one picture of the church (that I can't find anywhere) but couldn't take more because there were quite a few people in the church. We walked up to the pulpit and John said the church reminded him of one of the little country churches his daddy used to preach at. It was so out in the woods that it had an outhouse. Yes, I said an outhouse.

Hunter played a song on the church piano and Lacey and Jesse had a seat while the rest of us went out to the cemetery. The headstones there didn't seem to be quite as old as the ones we had seen at the other church. The one thing that I noticed though was that there were a lot of graves of infants in this cemetery. I know back in those days, people didn't have birth control but I do believe that I would have figured something out after having three or four or even more babies die. It was sad and made me appreciate the health of my children. I guess I didn't take any pictures.

After we were done looking, Lacey, Jesse and Hunter joined us and we walked down the little path to the parking space. Lacey noticed that there were quite a few people pulled off on the side of the road and they were looking out into a field. I told her to run ahead and tell me what they were looking at. I had my camera handy and told John and Mama that I was leaving them if they told me it was a bear. I was serious! Lacey and Jesse and Hunter started waving their arms at me and telling me to hurry (as quietly as they could). There was a bear! Oh my gosh. I turned on my camera and.....and.....and....the memory card was full. Noooooooooooo! I opened the van and grabbed my other camera and put that card into my the camera I was using. By this time, John and Mama had caught up and were walking towards the field. I sprinted ahead and we were just in time to see a mama bear and two cubs!

I was so excited and actually forgot to take more pictures. I was too busy watching the bears. The pictures make it look like they were super far away but they really weren't. I could see the mama bear really well and the babies must have been pretty small because you could only see them when they were in the lower grass. All too soon, they were across the field and making their way into the woods. I didn't care if I saw anything else. I was as happy as could be.

I can't tell exactly what we saw next or when we got to the visitor's center because I am thinking that some of my pictures may be out of order (and I'm too lazy and photobucket is acting too crazy for me to organize them) so for those of you who have been to Cade's Cove, forgive me. For the rest of you, I guess the order won't really matter.

We got back in the van and continued our drive. Almost every open field had a little pull over for those who wanted to watch for wildlife. If you saw cars pulled off, you pretty much knew that there was something to see. As was the case when we saw these up ahead:

We inched our way closer and saw that there were several more:

This is not a zoomed in picture, the deer were that close to us or were we close to them? Either way, we were close to each other:

We reached the Visitor's Center a little while later and we were glad that we did 'cause it was time for a potty break. It was also pretty late in the afternoon and I didn't relish the thought of driving through the mountains at night. We did that last year and I was a nervous wreck! A few pictures from the visitor's center:

When I saw the bear spray, I remembered the scene from Did You Hear About The Morgans where Sarah Jessica Parker sprayed Hugh Grant in the face with bear spray. Unfortunately, that was about the only funny scene in that movie. Anyway, we left that building and went to see what else was around. Hunter was bringing up the rear:

I forgot to mention the sign we saw when walking down the trail. It was a warning that snakes were often found near the buildings. Great! That was one creature I was NOT looking forward to seeing.

As I said, it was late afternoon, it was hot and we were ready to start heading back to Knoxville. We were going down quite a few steep hills and we saw several of these signs:

Just as I took this picture, I look ahead and saw this:

I inched closer:

And, the deer finally went into the woods:

Scenery (that I may have already posted pictures of):

We made it through the Smoky Mountain National Park and to the Jameson Inn before it got super late. We were all hungry but didn't have a clue what or where to eat. Jesse had to work the next day and Lacey needed to pack up her stuff because she was following us home the next day. We all decided that they would go back to the apartment and would pick something up on their way there. We weren't far from a few fast food restaurants and told them that we'd find something. We ended up going to Papa John's and bringing two pizzas back to our room.

**Up next: Our drive back home.....would we make it back without serious transmission problems?

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Love the pictures, especially of the Bears and Deer! I have never seen a Bear in the wild, only zoos and such. I actually see Deer a lot and it surprises me sometimes how close they let you get!

Hope you guys made it home without any more problems!

 

[natebenma]

Wow, those were a couple of awesome side trips- the caves and Cades Cove. Beautiful scenery and I'm so glad you got to see BEARS!!!

Good luck with all of hte wedding festivities in the coming weeks! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[mickeystoontown]

All too soon, it was time to get up and head home. It was July 4th and I really wasn't looking forward to driving home because: 1) I hate going home after a good trip; and, 2) I figured traffic would be bad since it was a holiday. Lacey called and said that she and Jesse were on their way there since she wasn't familiar enough with the area. That was fine with us because it would give us an opportunity to give Jesse more goodbye hugs since we wouldn't be seeing him again until the wedding. John and I went down and got breakfast to bring up to the room while Hunter finished getting dressed. Mama had already gone down and was ready to leave whenever we were.

Lacey called when she got there and we said our goodbyes to Jesse. I took a couple of pictures of the Jameson Inn before we pulled away:

And we hit the open road:

Look at the traffic! Yep, traffic wasn't bad at all which made me happy:

I don't have many pictures of the drive home. I know....what's up with that? The first part of the drive was pretty and sunshiney.

Did I mention before that we were also on the lookout for a fruit stand? When we visited Georgia last July, there were fruit stands galore and we bought some of the best peaches I have ever eaten. They were firm yet juicy and had the sweetest taste to them. Somewhere within 100 miles or so of crossing into Alabama, we stopped at Wendy's and ate lunch. As we were eating, we made the comment that it looked like we wouldn't be getting any peaches this year. Well, lo and behold, we pulled out of Wendy's and what did I see across the road? A fruit stand! I zipped across and we got out to see what all they had for sale. They had a little bit of everything.

I bought a big basket of peaches for just $20.00 and five ears of fresh corn for just $2.00. Mama bought some peaches and corn too but not as many as we did. I was now a happy camper...I had seen a bear and I had my peaches. I know, I know...simple pleasures.

We weren't happy for very long because the skies started to look gloomy and it started raining. HARD! It was raining so hard that the van was shaking. I couldn't see and I knew Lacey was probably having a hard time seeing too. We called her and told her that we were getting off at the next exit and would wait for the rain to lighten up. We sat in the parking lot of a gas station for about 15 minutes and the rain hadn't let up at all. As a matter of fact, it was raining even harder and it started hailing a little too. I texted my sister, two of my Dis friends and told them where we were.

Finally, after about 45 minutes, the rain had slacked off enough that we got back on the interstate. Thankfully, we drove out of the rain and it looked like we were going to be ahead of the storm for a while.

Mama and I needed to make a pit stop so we stopped at a rest area in Alabama where Hunter saw a truck full of one of his favorite snacks:

When we went into the rest area, we listened to the weather station (they had a button you could push that started the National Weather Service forecase). They were making a tornado warning announcement for the area between exits blah blah and blah blah. Holy Crap! We just left that area! They also said there was a tornado watch for exits blah blah and blah blah. I looked at the lady sitting behind the information desk and I must have had a scared look because she said "yes, that's where you are".

We all hopped in our cars and we were off again hoping we could stay ahead of the storm that seemed to be quickly approaching. Before too long, it was raining again and it was raining hard. Hard enough that we needed to pull off the interstate. Hard enough that I couldn't even see the next exit until I was right upon it. We sat in a store parking lot for another 30 minutes or so before we started out again. That wait, combined with our previous wait, put us over an hour behind in our drive home.

The rest of the way home, it showered on and off but, thankfully, the worst of it seemed to be behind us. We didn't stop again until we reached Vicksburg, Mississippi. I had made it as far as I could without a bathroom break and we all needed to stretch our legs. I walked out behind the visitor's center and took a picture of the bridge:

And Hunter slid down the handrails:

John said he would ride the rest of the way home with Lacey so that Hunter could lie down and watch a movie in the van. While we were getting loaded back up, it started thundering and lightening. It looked like we would be driving straight through another storm. We got back on the interstate and I told Mama I wasn't waiting around for Lacey and John. They knew their way home and would be fine without following along behind us. Mama didn't like that one bit and kept telling me that I needed to stay close to them in case they needed us. I told her that I'd simply turn around and go back if they called saying they were broke down or something.

It never did rain hard on us the rest of the way home but the lightening never did let up. It would streak across the sky and light everything up. It was actually neat to watch. We pulled into the house about 11 1/2 hours after we left Knoxville which was better than our drive there. Lacey and John pulled up about 10 minutes after us.

We had a wonderful trip to Knoxville and I was glad that we had gotten to see Lacey and Jesse's apartment. Knoxville is a beautiful town and there's plenty to see and do that's near enough by that you can make a day trip out of it. I see many many trips to Knoxville in my future.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Ok, so I'm posting for a third time this afternoon! That is definitely scary that you drove through two areas with tornado warnings! I remember the first time I drove to WDW (I had ridden in my parents' car when we went when I was younger, but I mean the first time I drove it) and about 1.5 hours into the drive a sudden storm developed and my sisters and I had to pull over (along with tons of other people) because you couldn't see anything at all! And this was around 11pm so it was DARK! Then last year coming back I drove into a hail storm. The rain and wind weren't that bad, but the hail was scary. And that was a solo trip, so no one else to talk to and help keep me calm.

Glad you got your peaches and that at least the vehicles cooperated so you made it home safe, albeit a little wetter. Looking forward to the rest of your WDW TR now!

Oh, and as a warning. I just got off the phone with WDW DRC. I got 2 copies of my Reservations for February this afternoon, and they each had something wrong with my reservation. One had a random person's name as the guest (instead of mine!) and the wrong departure date, and the other had the wrong phone number. The woman couldn't tell me much except that everything was right in their system. She did say that they all got an email that morning that there was some virus going around causing things to show up wrong to guests on their reservations, and that is what she thought it was. She had several calls before me with the same issue, but everything is right in the system, despite what the emails show. She said it was important to delete those emails and not click any links, as they were not sure yet if it could cause you to get a virus too on your computer.

 

[TinksThree]

I keep saying I am so glad I do not play football or soccer because it is so hot! I am glad coaches take the heat more seriously now and adjust times and allow more water breaks! It is supposed to finally get into the mid 90s later this week....I am so excited!!

Love the bear pictures!!! When I saw the bear at Laurel Falls in March I took about 30 pictures and Keith was getting scared he was about to attack...but that was due to another group yelling for people to "Come quick! Thar's a bar up thar!" I lie not--that is exactly how they were saying it! But it was the coolest thing ever and I was happy the rest of the trip!

Did I tell you I love Cade's Cove and I am adoring your pictures?? These are just as good as Disney for me, but I am with you on relaxing in a hammock. That sounds way too good right now!

 

[Disneynut4ever]