11-28-11

I didn't post for three days because there was just so much going on and I was trying to soak every last bit of it up.

Wednesday~ we left around 5 am and stopped at Hardees for a fine southern biscuit for breakfast. We had only a slight deviation from the itinerary for a quick stop at Walmart near the Tennessee line for a coat because one of us left theirs at home. We had to stop for lunch at Pal's for a Pal Burger and some Frenchie fries. After we fortified ourselves we made the trek through the beautiful Smokey Mountains to Gaitlinburg and up Ski Mountain Road to Ober. Ski Mountain Road is the kind of road that has a sign at the beginning saying, "In the winter months only cars with chains are allowed." Mike and I thought this would be a good way to break up the long trip and it was.

We rode the ski lift up to the Alpine Slide. It was quite chilly on the side of that mountain so one of us was really glad we stopped and bought that coat. We picked up our sleds and got in line for our trip down the mountain. They let you go two by two so I rode on one slide with Shelby and Mike rode on the other with Abby. Abby was a little apprehensive because she had never done it before and you can go pretty fast. Well, somehow we weren't even in line so Abby went ahead of us. That wouldn't have been so bad but a guy lost his cell phone on the track and they wouldn't let anyone go until it was located and all the pieces cleaned off because it could've caused someone to wreck. Mike and I were getting a little panicked because Abby is going down this huge slide on the side of a mountain and we were stuck at the top waiting to go. We thought for sure she would be at the end and freaking out because she was all by herself. We shouldn't have worried. When they gave us the green light all three of us took off down that mountain to "rescue" Abby. She wasn't even to the end yet. We laughed and laughed because she was going so super slow that Mike caught up with her before she even realized she was alone.

After that ride, we rode the ski lift again but this time we rode it all the way to the top of the mountain. I'll tell you one thing, that view NEVER gets old. I have mountain blood running through my veins and the sight of them just makes me feel at home. It was really, really cold on that mountain top.

After that little detour, we got back on track just in time to get stuck in some holiday traffic. When that busted loose it was smooth sailing all the way to Jessie's house where we followed her and Trevor to our ridiculously cheap hotel room. Not cheap as in a bad room, cheap as in "we feel like we're stealing this is costing us so little". The room was perfect.

Stay tuned for more detail rich posts about our trip because I want to document it for our family.