Wednesday September 30
I worked until 4PM. My sisters, Peggy and Shari; their husbands, Gene and Bob; and Shari's children, Bobby & Teejai (pronounced "TJ") after about a day and a half on the road, arrived in my small little Kentucky town about 2PM.
On the way home I picked up the gigantic "Chief" pizza from Firehouse pizza for our dinner. It's a 36 inches in diameter cut into 40 slices. Everyone in the family (at least those who were in Kentucky at the time) were at the house for dinner. My sister in law, Theresa; my son, Michael, and his wife, Heather; the "soon to be bride and groom" Brandi; and James were all there.
The family chowed down on the pizza and most everyone drank coffee. We spent the rest of the night talking and just enjoying each other's company. I showed my sisters my "2005 Pictures of the Year" book and Paula's book of pictures from Michael and Heather's wedding last October. I introduced everyone to Ruben, my new ventriloquist figure. A few of them said he "looked creepy" which means I have to work on giving him a personality that overwhelms his initial impression.
The evening ended with everyone sitting around watching a DVD of video James shot during 2004 & 2005 when our families vacationed together. This would be the only night during my PA families stay in Kentucky that we would all be together but there were a few more fun evenings yet to come.
Thursday October 1
The day began with my sister in law graciously inviting the PA family to her house for a southern breakfast of sausage balls and biscuits with homemade jellies. The highlight of the day was a visit to see James and Brandi's new house. James wanted to show them his homestead and his "family" but the real novelty would be introducing them to his neighbors pet; a lion named "Judah". That's not a typing error; James has a lion living next door to him. His neighbor used to run a rescue for unusual pets and retired circus animals. Judah and his mother, Sheba, are about the only ones left.
Also my family loved James' dogs, Brody the boxer and Bailey the Shih-Tzu puppy. Peggy held Bailey in her arms almost the entire time we were there. She said she was going to take her home with her. James also showed off his Egyptian lizard named "Hitler." No one but my nephew like him though.
During the afternoon the family went back to their hotel to relax for a while and I went into town to do some errands including some grocery shopping. I took my nephew, Bobby with me. In addition to the errands we went to some of our favorite stores including Game Stop and Best Buy. Bobby wanted to buy the latest "Halo" game but didn 't have enough money. We had a good time together and had a long talk about some things going on in his life.
For dinner I made hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. I had them ready by about 6:30 or so. But my family decided they would wait for Paula to come home from work to eat. It's Paula's busy time of the year at the office and she had to work late. She got home a little after 8.
While we were waiting for Paula to come home, Peggy, Shari and I prepared some ingredients to make egg cups. Its a quiche like dish that's okay for weight loss surgery patients to eat. We cut up and sauteed green peppers and onions; cooked turkey bacon and broke it up into bits; and browned a pound of turkey sausage in small bites. We were going to make the egg cups that night and take them with us for Saturday morning breakfast in Tennessee.
On this last night together in Kentucky it was just my sister's and their family, my sister in law, and Paula & me. After dinner my sisters and I sat around singing church songs we remembered singing as we were growing up. Then we watched part of a movie called "Walk Like A Man". It's a 1987 film starring a young Howie Mandel as a boy raised by wolves reunited as a man with his rich dysfunctional family. It's one of my sisters' favorite comedies of all time. Peggy laughed almost the whole time we were watching it. Everyone else got a kick out of it too.
About 10 o'clock or so the family went back to their hotel to pack and prepare to leave for Tennessee in the morning. Paula and I got some packing done ourselves as well before calling it a night.
Friday October 2
This was a travel day for our clan. There was a lot of excitement and some nervousness as we were traveling to Gatlinburg, a place no one in my sister's family had ever been. In addition we were going to be spending 2 1/2 days together in a cabin as a family and attend James & Brandi's wedding.
The day began with my nephew Bobby and I going into town to pick the SUV we had decided to rent for our trip to the Smokie mountains. Bobby drove my Vue to the rental car lot. We picked up a Nissan Xtera, did some last minute shopping at Sam's club and headed home.
After a couple of hours of intense packing and loading all of the things we needed for a 2 day vacation as well as the food and decorations to host a small reception after the wedding we headed out on the road.
We left our small town on Rt 101 about 12:30 on our way to Interstate 40 west of Nashville. We took some back roads to avoid the city's traffic. We were a caravan of 4 vehicles. Paula and I with Theresa in the back seat, led the way in our Xtera, then Michael & Heather in their rented Toyota Rav 4. Followed by Bobby & Shari in their cargo van with Gene & Peggy in their minivan completed our family convoy.
With only a short stop at a Wendy's restaurant for lunch we made good time in our travels. As the lead vehicle it was up to me to get us to the cabin. I had a couple of different sets of directions as well as the help of a GPS navigation system. Luckily after we got off the main road in Pigeon Forge there were signs directing us to the resort.
The last few miles of the trip was on couple of steep winding roads that led us up into the foot hills of the Smokies. The roads were blacktop but had no guardrails alongside them and steep drops just inches to the sides with no shoulder. They were very steep in places and at times included 90 degree turns.
I had been on roads like these before on my previous trips to the area. However I knew that my sisters had not. The first time you drive or ride on mountain roads in the Smokies it's a very nerve racking experience.
As I made my way up to the entrance to the Preserve Resort I knew that back in the other vehicles my sisters were very nervous. This was confirmed by their "OMG" reactions once we finished our climb and were parked in front of the resort office.
Once we checked in and got our cabin assignment we took some time to walk down by the resort pool and look out at the view of the beautiful Smokey Mountains. We knew then that we were in God's country. More about that in a future post. Soon it was time to get to the cabin and unpack everything from our vehicles and get settled into our rooms.
In the interest of making every one's time at the cabin as enjoyable as possible I tried to "assign" the bedrooms as with every one's best interest in mind. When all was said and done our 3 families, James and his 3 groomsmen (who would arrive at the cabin later that night) all had sleeping quarters in 8 different bedrooms over 4 floors.
Once the unpacking and room arrangements were finished it was time to start dinner. I had brought along 4 large frozen pasta dishes to feed the crew. They were still partially frozen and I put them in the oven. Midway through the baking process I cut off the oven without realizing it. This ended up delaying dinner by about 90 minutes. I was upset about it but my family all took it in stride. We didn't start eating until about 9:30. Once dinner was ready though it went well.
After dinner, although I was tired, I had to go to Walmart in Pigeon Forge to get some of the supplies we needed for rest of the weekend and the reception the next day. It was after 10:30 when I left the cabin. I planned on going alone but my family insisted that someone go with me. My niece Teejai was the only one who wanted to go.
I wasn't very sure about going down the mountain and finding my way back as tired as I was in addition to it being dark. We took a GPS unit with us. I took my time going back down the curvy steep roads to the flat land. Once we turned on Rt 321 heading toward Pigeon Forge, my navigator, Teejai, told me that the GPS had "died". It had no more power.
I suddenly became very concerned. I wasn't sure I knew how to get back to the cabin. I prayed to God that he would help me be alert and focused and help me find my way to and from Walmart because of Teejai. Things couldn't have gone smoother.
We found the Walmart and quickly got the things on our list. We headed back to the cabin about 11:30. Luckily there were signs directing us to the resort on the roads where I had to turn. We got back safe and sound shortly after midnight. It all turned out okay and I got to spend some quality time with my niece.
By that time everyone was just sitting around drinking coffee and visiting with each other. Just before that Paula, my sisters, and my sister in law, and daughter in law worked on getting some of the food items ready for the reception the next day. They cut up the beef sticks, rolled the turkey, roast beef and ham and placed them on trays with the cheese slices. Heather cut up the cheese balls into slices. It was a real team effort and just a preview of what was to come the next day.
With everyone tired from the long trip and the excitement of the first day in the cabin it wasn't long after I got back from Pigeon Forge that everyone said their "good nights" and went to bed. The next day was going to be the biggest and most memorable day of the entire vacation. I'll have more about that in tomorrow's post: Part 2.
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