Camping Adventures

You know, life is often an adventure.

Sometimes it's an adventure that you enjoy. You can throw your head back with glee, fill the wind in your hair and raise your arms in the air to reach the feeling of being in what I like to call "safe danger". Meaning, you feel scared, but it's kind of fun. The danger is in reality, an illusion.

Sometimes the adventure comes and it's more like a family of four running wildly down the trail from an evasion of epidemic proportions.

The airports around the country were confiscating water and lipstick from people on airplanes, while we were driving to the Smoky Mountains on a family trip to the woods and encountered a terror of our own.

My family was attacked by hornets. Twice.

Yellow-jackets to be exact.

It is still somewhat traumatic to this mom who watched her children run from their father and I in the attack, so I won't go into details. But the good news is that although the The Mister and The Boy were stung multiple times, and The Girl and I just once each, we didn't have reactions that required the Epy-Pen or the inhaler (even though allergy testing done years ago on The Boy suggested otherwise). I always carry Benadryl pills and ointment with me while hiking and in 11 years of marriage this is the first time we have had to use it.

Oh yeah, and have you ever heard that the Great Smoky Mountains are known for their rain? Well, the rumors are true. It rained so much that our tent leaked. Big time. This was probably due to the fact that the last time we took the tent out it collapsed under 3 inches of snow. It probably needed to be re-seem sealed.

The Great Smoky Mountains are exquisite. We love them. It just seems they do not like us.

Do not get me wrong...There were a few highlights along the way. But this adventure colored the trip more than the green that surrounded us.

Last time we weren't going to let snow bring us off the mountain. This time we shook our fists at those grumpy stinging beasts and swore they wouldn't push us off the mountain. So there are a few pictures of the happy times....and what could be happier than a little post bee sting marshmallow roasting?

After it rained all night (both nights) and into late Saturday morning we finally threw our hands up and yelled "Uncle!". Then we packed it up and left.

We did go to Gatlinburg, even though everything we had heard about Gatlinburg is true. It's crowded, commercial, and not at all a down-home quaint country town. Hey, it's got the Hard Rock Cafe. It's like expecting to see Yellowstone but arriving in Vegas, only not as clean (and that's saying something.) The good news: They don't have hornets and it only rained a little bit while we were in a restaurant eating lunch. So it was redeeming because we took the kids on a ski lift ride to view the very Smoky's we had been living in. I'll post pictures of G-Burg soon.

We are home and it sure feels good. I start work again tomorrow so the posts will most likely come later in the day and probably less frequently! I'll do my best!

Buzzing off for now.