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Last Thursday as we headed into Townsend, Aaron spotted a sign on the side of the road. You know the ones - where someone has adopted an area to keep clean. I missed it, but when he told me what it said, I insisted we turn around and go back for a picture.
Then, without even bothering to check, I started hunting for the cache I *knew* was there. And it was. A tiny little micro . . . we signed the log, put it back, and went on our way. What a great omen for our adventures.
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So about a week ago we were over in the Smokies enjoying some down time while my parents house/dog/cat sat for us. We again borrowed their RV for the fun and games. While the time off did not go exactly as planned, we did have lots of fun and I have now seen *five* black bears roaming free in the park (poor Aaron only saw three of them). I don't have great pictures of any due to circumstances beyond my control - however here is one of them (if you click on it, the picture will increase in size).
We were heading out of the Clingmans Dome area when we came to a halt due to quite a few cars in front of us. There had been some construction going on as we came up, however we thought it was further down and it was. The line of cars was because there were three bears on the (for us) right side of the road crossing over to the left side of the road. They each went one at a time and we were not the only ones snapping photos left and right. We were so far back though, the above was the best I could get with our little point and shoot camera. These were the three Aaron also saw.
Prior to that, while "hiking" the AT - more on that later - I was in lead when all of a sudden a black blob bounded across the trail about 50 feet in front of me. We decided it was definitely the culprit of the rather fresh bear droppings we'd seen a few minutes earlier. Then, after lunch, as we were continuing our drive out of the park, I saw several people on the right side of the road in a parking area all staring at the left side of the road. When I glanced that way, there was bear number five sniffing around the tire of a truck.
The park rangers had informed us early in our day that this was the time of year known as the "fall shuffle" and there was a lot of bear activity. Still, I didn't expect to actually see any. Having done so (and not getting too close to any of them) I have decided it was a great trip to the Smokies and don't know if it could have been any better.
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The last several weekends have been spent in the kitchen (pickled green tomatoes, green pepper jelly, corn salsa, pickled okra, and our latest success - an even hotter pepper jelly which ended up orange in color due to mixing jalapenos with serranos). However, it is time to start thinking Halloween beyond our beautiful orange pepper jelly! Especially as I see most of the traffic to this blog lately is focusing on previous Halloween decor posts. While I can't get too far ahead of myself, I will tell you that I'm tired of jack o' lanterns that rot well before October 31st and yet I hate to not put something out much earlier. Thus my goal this year is to make a fun fake jack o' lantern.
The weather is also starting to change here in Tennessee. Now, I'm sure we'll end up with some more 90+ degree days, however maybe I can start to pull out some warmer clothes and I definitely need to get rid of some summer items that went all season without being worn. After all, if I didn't wear it this year, I'm unlikely to wear it next. Plus, I've noticed a few holes in some seams that are easily mended - if I just take the time to mend them. So these are my plans for this weekend.
Don't you find it enjoyable some times to plan nothing exciting . . . just tasks to cross off the to-do list?
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In yesterday's mail, we received something rather interesting - a returned Christmas card that was mailed out on December 14, 2010 and has a yellow "return to sender, attempted - not know, unable to forward" sticker from 09/03/11.
?????
They tried for almost nine months to deliver and are just now returning? Or did it sit in someone's mailbox (this was an apartment address) for nine months and then got returned to the post office as a new resident moved in? Maybe it got stuck in some mail carrier's bag or fell down the side of the vehicle and was just found? Who knows?
I do know the intended recipient of the card has gotten married and since moved from that address so Kim, if you read this, we wished you a Happy Christmas last year and will attempt to do the same this year, hopefully with better luck!
Crazy Christmas Cards indeed!
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This past weekend we headed down south to spend some time with family on Tims Ford Lake. Sunday was lots of fun with a boat ride and my first experience on a Sea-Doo. Rain did cut that short and after plenty of good food there was plenty of good fun with family and friends. Monday morning we woke up to steady rain (and a very sore Tracy from holding on tight as a passenger on the Sea-Doo) and spent most of the day lazing around eating more good food and having more fun just hanging out with family. We were sorry to leave and drive back home, however duty called and we struggled to get out of bed this morning to go to work (especially as I'm still very sore).
I should have worked out tonight to warm up those unused muscles yet with the steady rain all day, I've had problems getting motivated. Tomorrow is supposed to still be on the chilly side for this time of year (we went from 100+ down to 60 something practically overnight) but a much lower chance of rain. Hopefully I will be active tomorrow . . .
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