Monday, July 4, 2011

Day 5- Travel Day to Gatlinburg, Tennessee

You might think there is nothing really to blog about a travel day, but you would be mistaken. 
We got to relax in the morning since we didn't leave until 11:00 am or so.  This is good for John and I because we tend to get up and going early and go all day when we are on vacation.  Just relaxing is.....hard. 
The men going to use the potty.
We took two cars.  The guys and the kids were in the mini-van, while Mom, Angela and I took the Volvo.  Awesome ride, nice and quiet in our car except Mom likes to talk.  I only say this because at the end of the 2 hour ride, she said her jaw was tired from talking too much.  Angela and I wisely didn't agree. :)
Tennessee rest stop.
One incident on the road happened when we witnessed a car pulling over on the freeway, a young lady got out and the car left her on the side of the freeway.  I called John in the lead van and they saw it too. We double backed to see if she needed help.  This is not easy because the off-ramps are few and far between.  We had to try, we just couldn't go by and just wonder what happened or help if we could have.  Of course, when we finally passed the same area we saw that she had been picked up. John said he saw the same car come by again and pick her up.  Lovers quarrel? Tennessee discipline?  We will never know.

What happens in the cabin, stays in the cabin
unless I blog about it.
Swimming.
We finally arrived at our wonderful cabin.  Good choice J. R..  The kids and Grandma and Grandpa went in the jacuzzi.  ( I will take a minute and talk about our names.)  Sander and Kingston have called my dad, Grandpa Bob.  So Grandpa Bob it is, but what to call my mom?  They call John and I, Grandma and Grandpa, and Mom doesn't want to be called Grandma Carol.  We were going to discuss the situation with Jade and maybe have her decide what to call her great-grandmother.    We weren't getting any closer to a name, so while were discussing this at the Waffle House, the South Carolinian native waitress suggested, "Ya Ya."  This is a very southern name and also in Greek means, "Grandmother."  (So she says.  Someone please correct us soon if it means something unbecoming.  Ha)  So now, Grandma and Grandpa are John and I.  Grandpa Bob and Ya Ya are my Mom and Dad.  The kids are using the names and it helps to figure how who we are talking about.  Now back to the day.
Cabin Living Room.
Once arriving at the cabin, JR and Angela went to the store to....have to stop blogging for a minute, they are yelling  "Bears!!"   I will come back to finish
.   
Ok. Phew.  Got some good shots of the bears.  I will talk about that on the next blog.
Her sting and her Band Aid.
While JR and Angela were at the store, Jade got stung by a wasp!!  Loud screaming can not describe what she was doing.  I first thought of Max and his bee sting and told John we needed to take her down to town right away.  I have to say I wasn't at my best.  John was looking for baking soda or a first aid kit and I thought he wasn't going fast enough.  I called Angela to see if she knows if Jade is allergic.  The reception was bad and all she could hear was Jade screaming.  Eventually she related to me that if she was going to have a reaction it would start very soon after the sting. Jade was breathing ok and Grandpa John was excellent at calming her down and putting ice on it.  She kept screaming, "I need a band aide."  She thinks that cures everything.  Grandpa Bob took a very large band aid of Ya Ya's and cut it down to size for Jade.  Also we gave her anything she wanted.  All is ok now.  She did say she couldn't walk and couldn't play because she got stung.  Drama.

Relaxing looking at the Smokey Mountains
Finally,  Angela had brought all the ingredients and Emril's Jambalaya Recipe to make Jabalaya for dinner.  I was her sui chef.  Chopping and dicing veggies while she cut up and marinated the chicken, Adouillle sausage and shrimp.  BAM!!!  That was the best Jambalaya ever, if I do say so myself.  Great dinner.

The General Lee
Gatlinburg, Tennessee is known to have the first 4th of July parade in the nation.  How do they accomplish this?  They have the parade at 12 midnight.  In our family the only people that made it out to see the parade was John, JR and Angela.  I stayed to watch the babies and Grandpa Bob stayed back to watch Ya Ya.  The parade was not very special according to John, but he did mention that Catherine Bach, who was Daisy Duke in the old Dukes of Hazard TV show yelled out from the parade to John, "I love you."  Angela said that John yelled to her, "you are looking beautiful."  I thought two things after hearing this story.  One, "I probably should have went to the parade." and "I wonder if she was wearing her Daisy Dukes?
"
See I told you there was stuff to blog about on a traveling day.
Next....The bear story.

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