The End of our Vacation-2009

Well, as much as I love this area, all good vacations come to an end eventually. Here are the last of our photos. We do not take a lot of photos anymore, unless it is something new that we see. We vacation here in the smokey mountains at least once if not twice a year. So I have a lot of great photos already of these beautiful mountains. Here is the view we saw from our little cottage where we stayed. See the dark smokey mountains...notice: if you look close, you can also see the taller mountains- they blend in well with the clouds in these two photos...




Here is Scott, no he is not sleeping standing up! We were at this store, a knife store, and tourist trap --really. Some of the contents were interesting, it had a lot of old stuff in it, and a number of floors that held it all. If you are looking for some interesting things for your kitchen, those strange things we use when we cook-you could find it here. But other than that, not too great of a store. Ok to see at least once I guess!
I did enjoy seeing the store that sold lodge cast iron stuff! I love cooking with cast Iron! I got a new cast iron pan/fryer. It is a deep dish fryer-













Here are two photos of Scott on the porch at the cottage...look at the bright sunshine! That is what we miss in the winter around here!














The following photos are: one of Scott with a dark back ground is after the sun was going down, of the lights in town at sunset, our fire place, our breakfast on the counter top that we liked, (nice counter top) and finally one of Scott doing bible study.

Dinner with Friends!

Well the day is almost done, the evening was spent at dinner with the Boomershine family, we all met at the road house steak house for dinner.

They had just finished a very long hike up in the mountains.

Here is the blooming onion thing...served with horse radish mix...ummmm!
not healthy at all, greasy, but good!



Below -Scott and I...He got a haircut today.

I did not.

We had a great supper/dinner-We both had a rib-eye steak, a salad, and I had broccoli and carrots and he had steak fries.

















Here is Jamin and Josiah -
Jamin -was that 6 or 8 of those rolls you had???

Here is Bethany and Joel...and ignore the budweiser sign, no we did not have any drinks like that, in a steak house they often advertise with those signs, sigh.
I did not pay attention when taking the photos, as I hate to advertise for those companies...

and here is Janele...no she is not sniffing her hubbys ear, wrong time to take the photo I guess!

and here is the littlest boomershine!
I hear she did great on the long hike!
and here is Celia...
Oh yes, here is the smile from both of them!!!

and grandma with granddaughter!

Top of the Mountain!

Frozen water falls!


We went up to the top of the great smokey mountains today. There was snow at the top!
Here are some photos of the adventure today... the rivers, frozen water falls and the mountain views...enjoy!!!

vacation lunch

Lunch today...huge salad, (in photo above)....
home made chicken nuggets made from chicken breasts, spices used were paprika, hot pepper, chicken season, a little flour, salt and butchers pepper...then baked them along with patio beans.

Vacation 2009

A View out of our cottage...
Our cottage...
Inside of our cottage...part of the living room area

The kitchen area...
Below:
The cottage at sunset
The view from our cottage at sunset...

Vacation!!!!

Well a much needed time of rest/vacation is finally here for Scott and I. We travel to the smokey mountains (we call it our second home) each year for the past 18 years or so.

We usually go in the fall time, but the past 4 or 5 years have come down in the winter time instead. This year we were not sure if we would be coming down due to some issues at the last minute, including financial, (always can be a problem) and health issues. But it all worked out. Thank you to YHWH!

We were open to leave wednesday evening or by thursday morning about 4 am. Due to the weather we saw coming in and the report that there would be possible ice storms in the area we were going to be traveling in the next day, we decided to leave wed evening. Scott got off of work on time, the first in a few weeks now, so we could finish up last minute stuff and was on the road by about 5:45 pm. Stopped at our sons home -Jason, and left some stuff that they had left here at our home, then on the highway by 6:35 pm!

There was ice storms reported in the ft Wayne area, but as we traveled it was not too bad. We did decide to stop now for a meal, since we would not be in an area of a decent restaurant until about 10 pm, (were very picky where we eat-no fast food, and no grease pits).

We took our time, after all it is vacation!

Once on the road again- Now I am driving, Scott decided to take a nap. He had worked a long day already. On into Ohio, still really no bad weather, but once on a smaller highway, I did come up to some slightly slick roads. An area where the fields were allowing drifting of snow over the road. The farmers remove the tree line along the fence rows and where this is done, it will often drift and have dangerous road conditions-

Sure enough-flashing lights ahead. lots of them. I slowed way down and as I went by- an ambulance left the scene, I could still see one ambulance, and a rescue squad, and about 6-7 police cars. There was a semi off the road, obviously involved, a jeep style auto that was smashed in the front, and a car, in the field all smashed up real bad. It appeared to be a really bad accident, I prayed for all involved. Our time we took to eat-was a good decision, possibly if we would have waited, we might have been at this area at the time the accident had happened....

We made good time, and after Cincinnati, came upon another accident, cops everywhere again, cars all smashed up -Thanks again to Yahweh for HIS protection of our lives.

Finally we stopped somewhere to spend the night-about 1 am. Got a hotel room and slept until about 7 am. As we were checking out, (daylight allows you to see things you miss in the dark-even with your glasses on) I noticed mold on the heater! It was so gross! I had the woman at the desk come back and showed her-black mold actually is what it appeared to be.
Well, we did have the charges for the room removed-she offered that, I did not even ask for it as I was just showing her since this is a Major health issue. (my sinuses were acting funny-now I know why!) But that was the right thing to do under the circumstances. That is one of the reasons I do not like staying in hotels-I do find them to be sooooo unclean! At least they were willing to work with us about it.

We was on the road by 9am, enjoying fresh organic grapes, bananas, golden delicious apples and yogurt for breakfast. Scott did eat a few jelly rolls from the hotel! It is vacation after all, and so some indulgence is allowed!

We did stop at Cracker barrel for lunch, and when we went in we had snow left in the back of the truck bed, by the time we came out, it was all melted except for about a hand full! It was about 48-50 degrees down here that day!

We arrived in town about 1 am, or so, stopping at (unfortunately-walmart) to stock up with some final things -food wise- then went to the cabin. It took forever in the store, after all it was thursday- Dec 24th-the day everyone was shopping for that pagan holiday-christmas- the lines were sooo long!
Once at the cabin/cottage, we settled in, then -to the hot tub! The view over the mountains were so peaceful. After a dinner of grilled steak, and a spring mix salad, we shut the drapes, put on a movie, and turned on the fire place (a gas one) and rested.

Friday we did not venture out at all-just stayed here enjoying a breakfast of farm fresh eggs, on toast, with prov. cheese slices, and slices of turkey too. Then back to the hot tub and more rest! Later in the evening a meal of sirloin steak (small pieces) that had marinated all day in coffee, garlic, onions, worch. and soy sauce, sesame seeds, and herb flavored chicken nuggets (home made with home grown herbs of coarse-and yes that is a lot of meat!) Then more rest in front of the fire place.

Saturday:
Spoke with the boomershines, whom we will meet up with tomorrow!
Today-Sabbath / aka saturday--- we spent time in the word-
our readings for this week / church fellowship have been Gen 41-44, Judges 18-21 and Psalms 39-41.

Scott and I spent some time sharing in HIS word. Listening to praise music, and enjoying the views of the mountains!

Red Beard is a Part of the Keeslar Family?????

Dustin and Samantha came to visit, shopped at 'Keeslar country family grocery store' ...I noticed that Dustin was growing a 'red beard'...his new nick name, red beard.
Dustin had red hair when he was born, then it went blond as a infant and has remained blond ever since.
Todd does not have a red beard...see here, his nose and eye, could not get a clear shot of his chin...
And here you see samanthas chin, no red beard here either!

The 'Oh So Beautiful Ugly Slippers'!!

Here Dustin and Samantha model their new ugly slippers.
Samantha has the blue pair and Dustin has the camouflage...

Ugly slippers are slippers that the mother (ireena) makes for her children to wear. They are a one of a kind slipper that is padded and never really match at all...they are comfortable, and warm. Note the blue ones even are made in a different direction, the one goes length wise with the foot and the other goes around...but that is what makes them unique to each individual pair. People that receive them state they are really really warm, great for winter nights to keep your feet cozy, and very soft to walk on.