Todd and I Took a Drive on the Cherohala Skyway

Ok, we were looking for something different to do and today we definitely fit a lot in a short amount of time. We started by driving down to Concord Park near The Cove and checked out the Concord Sailing and Yacht Club (we have a friend with a sailboat there). I must admit, very very cool, makes me want one!
Then we headed toward Sweetwater after a delicious meal at Back Yard Burgers and ended up on the Cherohala Skyway which runs from Tellico Plains to almost Robbins NC (check out the visitors center as you get on - the ladies that work there were so friendly!). When it ended about 52 miles later we ate in Robbinsville at the Smoey Mountain Restaurant (yum) then headed up 129 through The Dragon (Fontana Dam area)towards the back side of Maryville. The Dragon being a famous place for motorcycle riding never disappoints even when you're in a car. There were many great bikes, and watching people ride there is pretty darn exciting.
But I have to tell you - the Cherohala Skyway was gorgeous! In places it was if the mountains went farther than the eye could see once we were at some of the highest overlooks... just rows after rows of mounatins. Dead silence but for the wind blowing, sweet smells of blooms on the blackberry briars nearby, the mountain laurel, and things we couldn't even see... it was such a clean fragrance wafting on the breeze...
There is the Joyce Kilmer Forest (trees almost as big as redwoods if you hike a special trail there), Bald River Falls (150 foot drop) that you can literally drive by and see without having to even get out of your car, campgrounds, picnic areas, and more.
The best thing? Just talking, laughing, and seeing Gods wonderful creation!
Take a drive every now and then...
Here's a picuture below from the drive - just click here to be taken to my Love89 page where you can see a flipbook photo album of all of them!

TGIF!

Even with the short week (with Memorial Day) I still looked toward this weekend with much anticipation... now it's here and I feel like I wish it wasn't!I have to clean house :o(
This is an all too familiar situation I find myself in. Sometimes I seem to either be looking ahead waiting on something, or looking behind me wishing the time had passed slower. I try to live in the here and now but am not always very successful.... here's to being in moment and enjoying the present... each hour, each day!

Trip to Morristown Today

Yep - I went to Morriston today... it was cloudy, sprinkling rain, right after lunch time and I hadn't eaten yet. I stopped at Wendy's at the Strawplains Pike exit (one of the friendliest Wendy's drive thru's I have been thru in a long time too I might add) for a chicken sandwich and then got back on to the interstate.
Ok, I admit it... I was dreading the trip, the drive, the weather, I was hurried, a hundred things to do and really wanted to just stay at work and finish my list. Or go home and take a nap :o)
But I jumped in my car, took off for my scheduled appointment and headed to Hamblen County.
I got about maybe 5-6 miles down the road - eating my delicious sandwhich, talked with a few folks who called my cell phone and then realized something. WOW! I'm eating a great sandwich, looking at the cool cloud layers God had provided as a backdrop to my ride, actually alone and able to think, to pray, to just enjoy being with me, and also just see something different than I see each and very day. Different trees, different buildings, different billboards. I met a different person at my appointment, a new person I may not have met otherwise and that I look forward to getting to know a little better over the next few months. I saw a beautiful park I never knew existed - Fred Miller Park in Morristown is very cool.
I had a fun afternoon!
It took awhile but this thick headed gal finally thought about the obvious. God gives us many opportunities each day to see things differently but do we always take the chance to do so? Most times not I'm afraid. I know that I tend to put off what may not fit perfectly in our daytimer... but I can only answer for me.
Next time I will look forward to a trip in the car that may not be the most convenient thing time wise in my schedule - becuase it may just end up being just what the doctor ordered!

Memorial Day and a few laughs

Have you ever wondered why sometimes the most random things/people come into your life in a day and that they can bring such a smile to your face? I think it's God's way of insisting that your brain take a short break before it overloads...
Like maybe your in traffic and all of the sudden the person in the car in front of you begins dancing in their seat like they have just become the dice inside the bubble thing in the board game "Trouble" and someone else is pushing the bubble down over and over again?
Or maybe a big hulking sasquatch sized guy walks by you in a powder blue tshirt that says "I'm not too big, you're too small".
Both things happened to me on Monday - Memorial Day - while my husband and I were out and I was thinking too much about work on my day off... God works very creatively sometimes to get our attention... He's cool like that...