Happy New Year! Yesterday was quite a light news day, so I had time in the afternoon to clean and organise my desk at the office and get ready for the new year. That's my favourite way to spend New Year's Eve - cleaning and doing the needful so that when I am back in the office in the new year, I feel like I'm starting on a fresh note. As is usual for me, I was in bed and asleep long before midnight. Let's just say I was on Malaysian time and wide awake when it was midnight in KL!
This is a little late, so I'm going to use it as a memory test ...
I had a whole nine days away from the office over Thanksgiving (if you include the weekends preceeding and after Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday). Almost seven of those days were also computer- (and therefore work-) free, a rare treat for me. I didn't miss checking e-mails and doing news searches even one bit.
We left Atlanta on Saturday, November 22nd for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We chose to stay there instead of Gatlinburg because it's close enough to the Greak Smoky Mountains and had a pet-friendly hotel. We stopped at the visitors centre in Sevierville, which is just a few miles away from Pigeon Forge, because it is pet-friendly and there is a great open space behind it where the dogs can run free. If you haven't been to this part of Tennessee, it might seem a little silly to stop somewhere just a few miles before your final destination for that day. If you could see it, though, you'd understand. Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are primarily tourist spots that sprung up because of the Great Smokies. Gatlinburg used to be the main tourist area, since it's closest to the mountains, but as increasing numbers of people began visiting the area, more and more hotels sprung up in Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. As soon as you enter Sevierville, all you see are hotels, restaurants, miniature golf courses and building after building containing all sorts of attractions for tourists - ferris wheels, go-kart racing, Ripley's Believe It Or Not museums ... Since there are so many things to see and do, with so many roads leading to the various spots, there is one long road connecting the towns and numerous traffic lights, causingwhat seems like a non-stop traffic jam. At least, that is what it has seemed like each time we've been there. Traffic moves so slowly that it can take more than half an hour to go just a few miles.
When we finally got to the pet-friendly hotel where we had made reservations for Saturday, Sunday and Monday, we found that they had a weight limit of not more than 25 pounds for dogs. Essentially, that means you can't have anything bigger than a lap/toy dog. Belle and Beau are nowhere near that, of course. Luckily, there was a hotel right next to that one that accepted bigger dogs, and they had one remaining room for people with pets, so we checked in there, instead. We were on the second floor and the lift terrified Belle, so the dogs and I took the stairs each time they had to go out or we went somewhere. It was only two flights of stairs, so there was no problem doing that several times a day. I was glad it wasn't a bigger hotel and we weren't on the 10th floor or something. Negotiating that many stairs several times a day wouldn't have been quite as easy.
We spent the bulk of Sunday at Cades Cove, and had the most animal encounters we've ever had there, I think. On the way to Cades Cove, we saw a bunch of cars on the side of the road. This, in the Smoky Mountains area, is a sure sign that wildlife has been sighted. Sure enough, as we drove past the parked cars, we saw a bear in the little valley off the road. Bruce turned the car around and found a parking spot, then walked back with his camera to take photos. There were a mother bear and her two cubs foraging for food in that little valley. The bears were there for hours, because when we returned from Cades Cove, crowds were still gathered in that spot. I hope they found enough to eat.
At Cades Cove, we saw plenty of deer, horses (Bruce went right up to some of then and one demanded a lot of attention from him), a few birds here and there and, finally, towards the end of the 11-mile drive, a beautiful Barred Owl. It was a little early for owls to be out, and I don't know who spotted it first, but as usual, the signal that there was something to be seen was a number of cars parked by the side of the road. I looked around to see what the attraction was and saw the owl in a tree about 30 feet from the road. It was huge! And it was the first owl I'd ever seen in the wild, which made it even more special. We stood looking at it for many minutes, and Bruce shot some really good photos of it. I think he has them in his photo album (or soon will, if it isn't in there already). That was the highlight of the day. The dogs got to run around a little and saw some deer, which got Beau all excited (he is very enthusiastic about anything else with four legs).
It rained most of Monday, so after taking the dogs for a walk in the morning, we left them in the car and did a little shopping for Ranee's birthday present. That was one of the good things about travelling in November rather than in the summer - it was cool enough to leave the dogs in the car any time we went somewhere, which was far more enjoyable for them than sitting in a hotel room. At least in the car, they got to look at people. I also got to catch up on my book-reading on Monday, and we watched a movie (DVD) on Bruce's laptop. It was a lazy, relaxing day - just what I needed after months of almost non-stop work.
On Tuesday, we packed up and left for the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) in Kentucky. We didn't realise how far away it was or what a long drive it would be, so we had a leisurely departure, stopping along the way at a department store to get Courtney's birthday present and to buy a couple of new dog beds for the dogs. It was past 11:00 in the morning when we finally, actually began the long drive, and we were only about 30 miles away from the hotel at which we had stayed. After driving for over eight hours (it may have been longer - it's a blur now), we finally got to our destination. We rented a cabin near a lake (that unfortunately was more mud than water around the edges because of the drought we've had in this part of the country over the last few years). The first couple of days, we seemed to be the only people there, so it was paradise for the dogs. They were able to run free and did a lot of exploring, getting oodles of exercise in the process. There was also a playground nearby, so Roshan and Courtney had fun there. Roshan was immensely entertained by the T-ball (tether ball, tied to a pole - it swings around every time it is hit). He laughted and squealed every time Courtney hit it and it went flying around the pole. I love seeing the two of them together.
One of the places we went to while at the LBL was the Elk and Bison Prarie. It's a fenced habitat for bison and elk - http://www.lbl.org/EBPrairieGate.html. Driving through it was a great experience (especially since I got to drive because Bruce was taking photos!), although the dogs (at least Belle) seemed a little intimidated by the huge bison, one of which came within inches of our minivan as it was crossing the road. We got to see almost the whole herd, I think. We even saw a couple of male elk half-heartedly fighting. A man in another car told us that since mating season was over, the males were no longer competing. More than anything, they seemed to be putting on a show.
On Thanksgiving Day, we drove to a state park in Tennessee (just 18 miles away) for Thanksgiving lunch. I was glad Bruce had made reservations, because it's apparently a popular place for a Thanksgiving meal and the building got very crowded. Because we were there early (and even went for a walk before lunch), we didn't have to stand in line to get our food at noon. It was delicious!
Ranee and family left for Louisville after lunch, since Randy had to work the next day, but Bruce, the dogs and I stayed one more day. On our way back to the cabin after lunch, we stopped at the Elk and Bison Prarie again. Bruce's camera had somehow been on the wrong setting the day before, and he wasn't sure if the photos from that trip would be any good, so we went for another photography session. We had arrived, by chance, at just the right time the day before, when all the animals were out eating. This time, we were earlier and didn't see as many the first time around, so we drove around the whole habitat a couple of times more, seeing more bison each time. They and the elk were in different locations this time, and the elk weren't as plentiful, but Bruce still managed to get some good photos. We saw some baby bison that were very cute.
On Friday, we began the long drive home. This time, because we were driving on Friday rather than Sunday, as we had done last year, there was much less traffic on the road so the drive back was a pleasant one. We stopped along the way at a park of some sort for the dogs to have another long run. There was only one other car there, so we let the dogs off their leashes. The other car belonged to a woman with three little dogs, who was there to try and get her dogs a little tired out before her family got together that evening for their Thanksgiving meal. Once she was gone, we had the place to ourselves, so the dogs were able to run free again. They had a thrilling time (except that Belle threw up soon after we were back in the car - either because of all the running around or the water they had been drinking from a creek). She threw up on a towel, though, so no damage was done to the car seat.
So, that was our Thanksgiving adventure in 2008. I'm glad it was so nature-filled.
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