In July my husband was beside himself; he needed a break, a vacation. So we started looking on the internet for vacation packages. Of course, I started in Europe. Don said, "I'm thinking less money." So I looked up islands off the Mexican coast. Then I understood that Don was thinking "NOW" and our passports were long expired. So for a week we didn't decide. I wanted the date nailed down and then the destination. So Don put in a vacation request for the week beginning with the Labor Day Weekend. REJECTED/ALREADY SPOKEN FOR. Now we had time to get passports, but after researching and thinking about the cost, Don decided we needed to go somewhere we could drive. We both hate flying anyway. Don loves trains and sleeper cars. We've been there done that. Don never leaves the sleeper car. That does not excite me. I like to drive and check into hotels.
The first week available was October 15- 23. So that was decided. Then beach, ocean, city or mountains? We both like cabins in the mountains. So now we had narrowed things down. I found the website for Welcome Valley Village in Tennessee. http://www.welcomevalleyvillage.com/creek-crest I showed the site to my daughter, Bridget and she decided her family would join us on the last 4 days.
This turned out to be a perfect vacation. We drove to Chattanooga Saturday the 15th. That part was not good. We learned that one should never show up on the weekend in Chattanooga without hotel reservations. We were on the internet in a hotel lobby at midnight looking for a place to spend the night. We had to drive 30 miles north of Chattanooga to get a hotel room. This was absolutely the first time I have left town without a hotel reservation, but hopefully it will be my last. I hate reservations, because then you drive into a strange city and have to find that hotel as you drive passed 20 or 30 that would be great. But not so great if they are all full.
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| Don is impatient with my picture taking. |
Sunday, we bought groceries for the week and checked into the cabin.
On Monday we drove to Blue Ridge, GA and rode a train. It was okay, but a little boring.
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| The Ocoee River |
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| There were a dozen of these huge buzzards in the tree. |
Tuesday, Don went fly fishing and I just hung out in the cabin and walked through the woods. There was not internet in the cabin, but I survived because my cell phone worked most of the time.
Wednesday it rained. We had almost forgotten what rain was. It got rather cool so we had a fire in the fireplace and stayed in the cabin all day and read books.
Thursday, we drove toward Asheville, North Carolina and ran into snow at the higher elevations! We drove through Brasstown, NC, twice, because I was looking for the $2.4 million mountain farm I had found for sale on the internet. http://www.greatcarolinaproperty.com/farms/208728a.html#a It was a cute, very small town; under 400 people. I was not determined enough to find it, because I never stopped and asked anyone where it was. Most likely because I don't have $2.4 million and I was making Don angry driving all over the place. Oh well, I'm sure it looks better on the internet and hundreds of miles away.
Thursday evening Bridget, Trinity and the grandkids arrived and we spent the rest of the time with them. I'll write another post about those adventures.
