Now You Get A Feel For It

Nice paved windy road just the way I like them.

Then we hit a straight gravel road...

Until we parked at the parking lot.  Mark getting ready for the adventure down the mountain.  Yes, I am calling it a mountain because every step I took I thought I might die and you can't die falling down a hill.  Plus it makes everything more dramatic.  But seriously I was a little concerned about our safety because we are getting up there in years and neither one of us wanted to be the first to fall so we just took our time.  Downhills are tough for Mark and uphills are tough for me. (But that is in a later blog)

We actually waited for all the other people to leave the parking lot and head down the mountain so we could be last just in case we were to embarrass ourselves.

No unauthorized vehicles beyond this point.  And the Park Service is SERIOUS about that.

And we are off.  We are calling it the Downhill 1.1 Mile Challenge.

Another funny thing...there was a 100 Mile Race being run on the same trail.  Those people are CRAZY...running and jumping or longs and rocks like they were mountain goats.

The scenery was breathtaking!  There were little bridges over the dry creekbeds,

...and stairs that went straight down along a huge boulder.

We walked on paths under rock hangovers and prayed nothing would crumble.

There's little Mark and the huge rockface.

A path between two huge rocks.

A swinging bridge.

One last right turn...

...a bear cage shot for Ellis and Alaire...

And we are there!  And we lived to tell about it!

That's Booger greeting all the guests.

So we left the parking lot ar 2:49pm and got to the Charit Creek at 4pm.

Moss showed us to our room which was about three steps from where I planted myself in a rocker on the porch.  Which was about 10 steps from the Dining Room. And 45 steps from the bathroom.  We met our neighbors on the back porch.

One of the smaller vegetable gardens.

 

 We decided to walk around after we unpacked our stuff and look what I found..a painted rock from Fentress County Rocks!

The back of one of the other cabins.

The Lodge on the left, kitchen in the middle and bathrooms on the left.

This is a multi-purpose structure.  It is the Kitchen and  Check-In.

We call this the shade porch.

I took this shot for Michael...it is the Blacksmith Shop.

The sound that this creek makes is so soothing.

We decided that it might be time to fire up the stove in the room.  We got a little one going then both of us decided to get under the covers because it was cold and not quite time for dinner.  Mark ended going to sleep and I just messed with stuff.  I listened to the music coming from the kitchen and the cooks talking and laughing.  The Moss rang the dinner bell.  Which is actually a triangle just like the one that Michael made for me.

Saturday Night Dinner

chicken and dumplings

green bean casserole

carrot souffle

mashed potatoes

cornbread

peach cobbler with whipped cream

sweet tea, lemonade, and water

It was so cold right after dinner we almost ran back to our room and stoked the fire and buried ourselves under our covers.  That was around 7:20PM.  Exactly at 8PM, our fire detector went off.  Blaring for all the world to hear.  We got it calmed down and in about two minutes it started again.  Nothing smelled like smoke but the room was filled with something that looked like smoke.  Audrey came from the kitchen to see what was wrong.  Long story short.  They had just polished the stove and all the polish hadn't been burned off.  So we slept with everything we had that was warm and under our tow covers.  The next day while we were out hiking they would burn the stuff off.  It didn't smell very good either,

By 9PM Mark is sawing logs and I am listening to music on my phone.  Not to worry be brought along a solar battery charger so we could have of our phone for a flashlight and clock.  That is about all they were good for at this point.