I haven’t stopped running! Took Eimear to the airport in Houston this morning, got back around 6. The girl doing farm chores said there was a dead ling.
Outhouse was fine til the rain drew out the little worms. It was a porta potty and was supposed to be cleaned before we got there, but it wasn’t. I braved it for a few days then had enough, so I started squatting in the woods like the rest of them. I heated water and bathed on the porch, once after dark in the wide open (the staff was on the Appalachian Trail so just my fam at the cabin) and the second time behind a tarp they rigged for a “changing area.” We drove to the top of Wayah Bald, it was 82* hot and sunny at the bottom and 61* and spitting cold rain at the top. 5300+ft, it was the highest place we were (to my knowledge). The cabin was at 3600. The staff camped at the top of Standing Indian, I never looked that one up.
We spent one day at the lake, and the same man who owned the cabin pulled the staff around on tubes with his boat. One of the guys was having trouble with his truck, so I stayed at the cabin with the kids while everyone else went to church and the top of Bell Mountain. This was all in North Carolina. We went to the next cabin in Tennessee and stopped a few hours in Cherokee, NC. the second cabin was like a luxury rental, plush beds and a hot tub on the deck of the second floor. We spent a day floating a river in tubes, then I laid down for a 20 minute nap and slept 14 hours. I missed the fun stuff in pigeon forge and was pretty upset about it.
We drove through the Smokey mountain national park and stayed the night in Nashville. No one wanted to watch the kids, so we took them bar hopping. Turns out the downtown bars are open to all ages til 7 or 9 in the evening. We went to Tootsies Orchid Lounge, The Valentine, and The Wild Horse Saloon. The kids loved hearing all the music, and they really loved the horse statues at the saloon. Then I went to the room with the kids and everyone else went back out and met up with a former staff member who is a musician in Nashville now. Half the staff were under 21, so they went to The Grand Ole Opry and then Dave&Busters.
We ended up staying one extra night on the road and crashing at a staff person’s dad’s house in Tuscaloosa. We got home yesterday. It rained easily 70% of the time we were there. I'll post some pics next. It was a good trip, for the most part. I’m getting ink envy and considering a new tattoo in Ireland.
bad mom spankies for her
