{Not} Living Vicariously

Murfreesboro Greenway Updated

So several (and I mean SEVERAL) months ago we noticed new signage along the M'boro greenway but couldn't figure out what some of the symbols meant. I could guess that N meant North and S meant South but L? and B? Well we finally found the sign that explains the new symbols and it all makes sense now. Plus, it allows for much more safety as you can tell that they updated the milage indicators to work with GPS coordinates for emergency services. Let me once again mention I *love* the Murfreesboro Greenway!

 

Play Date April 2012

So Aaron took Lindy and I on a big adventure this past weekend. We had been needing some time with no obligations and he created a wonderful surprise. We got up and started off the day at Meridee's Breadbasket over in Franklin for breakfast (after a short walk at Pinkerton's to release some Lindy energy).

 
After a lovely breakfast, we headed down South and went for a hike at Stillhouse Hollow Falls.

Aaron discovered this place by accident while trying to find some place to hike near to our lunch destination. A short hike from the parking lot to the falls, we had to laugh when a family walked by with a GPS. Aaron asked if there were any caches nearby and the answer was "yes" so we knew we had some more fun in store. This cache was placed near an old chimney so we had to have our picture taken by the chimney.

And yes, we did find the cache. We actually found several over the course of the day. After our hike, we headed over to Shaffer Farms Texas BBQ which is a combination custom butcher and restaurant.

While we didn't have our cooler with us (so no stocking up on fresh meat), they do know what a tri-tip is so I find them acceptable as a butcher ;-) and we did purchase several non-perishable items. Then we went in for lunch.

Brisket, ribs, and wings . . . ranch potatoes, white beans, baked beans . . . corn cakes and peppers . . . fresh lemonade . . . even a buttermilk pie for dessert. Our bellies were very happy (as was Lindy's when she got a rib bone)!

After that we just meandered, around the map, turning whichever way we felt, for several hours. Stopped at interesting antique stores, checked out an Amish stand (where we got some lovely peanut brittle), and found several more geocaches. When we finally headed back home, we stopped off in Franklin once more for milkshakes and Lindy was in for her own treat at that point.

All in all, it was a perfect day!

Happy Leap Day

One of our favorite get out and move hobbies is geocaching. I ran into a friend (hi David!) one day, back in 2008 on the greenway while riding my bike. Since he didn't live in the area I asked what he was doing. He told me a little bit about geocaching and I then told Aaron - we were only dating at the time. Aaron apparently was fascinated and did quite a bit more research on handheld GPS units and before I knew it we owned Ziggy. While we are not obsessed with the game (in other words, vast quantities of time go by between our searches) we have introduced several others to the hobby and have set various challenges up for ourselves.

Well, many cachers want to achieve having found a cache on every day of the year. Today being a date that only comes around every four years, many people made it a goal to get out there and find at least ONE cache today. As did we. After work we hit an area near my job site and found the first in a James Bond theme (sound appropriate for me anyone??) so Dr. No has now been found and we can cross February 29th off the list of days remaining to find a cache.

Unfortunately my brother will not be able to cross today off on his statistics. It is snowing and dark where he is today. And my father usually doesn't go unless us kids are around so I doubt he will achieve it today either. But team WagThatTAIL did!

We Saw Rock City

Last Friday, being a bank holiday for Aaron and a vacation day for me, was beautiful so we went to "See Rock City." Having first checked it out online, I was aware that it was pet friendly so Lindy came with us. Driving down 24, the colors around us were absolutely lovely and when we got to Lookout Mountain, we had a winding drive up. We parked the car and headed over to the ticket booth, with our discount coupon from http://www.chattanoogafun.com/. The employees cooed and spoiled Lindy with pets, ear scritches, and biscuit bribes . . . however we finally made it into the park where we could grab a bite to eat. (We were hungry!) Eating outside in the sunshine was great and Lindy was allowed all through the park and in any store which did not serve food.

After lunch we headed through the gates and started on down the path. Not really knowing what to expect, it was an adventure. These gigantic boulders larger than cars have been strewn about and a path has been created through them. In some instances, the path is extremely narrow and in others, there is plenty of room. Being Autumn, many of the plants were dormant which allowed for some fantastic views . . .

Continuing along the way, we made it to the top where you can "See Seven States" although current lore thinks maybe one can't due to air pollution . . .

Continuing along, we stopped for a little fun . . .

saw a snowman . . .

and some deer . . .

before heading on out and finding some fudge (as well as a gnome who now lives in our garden - the guy who worked in the gnome shop would have kept Lindy if at all possible) . . .

Boy were our co-workers happy when we each brought in fudge on Monday (yes, there was still plenty left!)

We definitely want to go back in the Spring to see the plants in bloom as there are more than 400 labeled species. I wouldn't mind going some other times as well to enjoy the lights, the music, and the other activities they offer.

Make sure to read the history of the place as the advertising campaign is a great story!

One last note . . . the woman who took the very first photo up top has worked there for many years and told us a few stories about other pets who have gone through. There have been many dogs over the years, however she has seen two cats on leashes and one bird on a shoulder. The only one she knows of that was not admitted was the gentleman with his pet boa constrictor . . . glad I wasn't there that day!

Attempting the AT

Once again we have tried to hike part of the Appalachian Trail and once again, we weren't very successful. Back in June, we had dogs with us and they aren't allowed on trails inside the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. This time we had other issues. We had a great plan! Friday morning we would have breakfast and then drive over to Clingmans Dome, park there, and hop on the AT for a 5 mile hike over to Silers Bald. We would have lunch there and then hike back, getting to the campgrounds in time for dinner. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that . . .

First we took a wrong turn inside the park and went about 30 minutes out of our way before we figured it out and headed back. Second, it was extremely foggy once we got to the parking lot and up along the road to CD. Third, this was the time of year known as the "fall shuffle" for the bears and several areas were closed due to "aggressive bear activity" - including the shelter/campground at Silers Bald.

 

We did decide to press on though and managed to start along the trail, however we kept seeing bear droppings and some were quite fresh. About 10 minutes into the hike, with me in front, I see a black blob bound across the trail. Um, yeah, that was a bear. After my heart went back where it belonged, we did decide to continue as I think s/he was more scared than we were. However, not much more than 15 minutes after that it started raining. And I'm not talking just a light drizzle, I'm talking torrential downpour to the point we were having trouble seeing 2 feet ahead. 10 minutes into that, we are completely soaked and starting to get miserable.

As we had forgotten to pack the small backpacking stove and were looking at a cold lunch in the open and were not prepared for rain (my socks were soaked and my shoes were squeaking) and we had nothing to prove . . . we decided Mother Nature was telling us that we were not supposed to be out there today. So we turned around. And boy was the hike back even harder as now we were heading uphill and my legs were reminding me that most of my hiking is done on fairly level terrain.

After finishing up back at the car (in which we believe we hiked a total of 1 mile out and 1 mile back . . . sigh), we drove over to Newfound Gap and heated up lunch on the larger camping stove we did remember to pack.

 
A very tasty lunch later, we explored the area where we were and learned a little bit of National Park history.

 

Then we headed back to Townsend and hit up the Old Timers Festival before going to the campground and cooking up a very tasty dinner. Maybe third time will be a charm and we'll make it through part of the AT yet?

Tent Camping

Aaron has been trying to get me out in a tent for some time now. However, as he also wanted to take Lindy with us, my goal was to try an easy overnighter first - close to home - in case I got no sleep and needed to come home to bed. Well, that has not worked out for us. But, last Saturday night, as the dog was home and we were camping, we decided to set up the tent at the KOA in Corbin, KY instead of sleeping in the RV. And you know what? I had a great time. Granted it was much colder both because it was a colder day and because we weren't inside the vehicle . . . but I had enough layers and blankets to stay comfortable.

Last night was going to be a bit cold (lows in the 40s) but good weather. As we had no definite plans, which meant nothing could go wrong, we decided to try an experiment. We lost a tree several months ago and have been meaning to burn out the stump. We made a good start on that last night.

While that was going, we also set up the tent behind the house.

 

Then we hung out by the fire enjoying the evening. Two different neighbor children stopped by to hang out, as well as the grandmother of one of the kids. After a couple of hours enjoying the fire - we decided it was time to think about bed.

We did bring the cat out to investigate the tent, however we knew she would be sleeping inside. She quite enjoyed sniffing around, until a neighbor dog got loose and started patrolling around the tent. So Stoli went back inside and while we were brushing our teeth, Bonnie headed off somewhere herself. Then armed with lots of blankets (hello, lows in the 40s!), some water, a light, pillows, and dog, we headed to bed: in the tent.

It took Lindy a while to find a spot to get comfortable, and she did bark at a few noises in the night, however overall she did quite well at tent camping. Come 6 AM we woke up and headed back inside to feed the fur babies. And I will admit, somewhat guiltily, that we crawled into our bed for another 2 hours of sleep. Our backyard is much less comfortable than the tent pad we slept on up in Corbin, KY. That sand really helped a lot!

We had decided we were interested in a slightly larger tent as this one is not made for two TALL people such as us. After pricing a few, we were going to wait. However, while putting this one away, we did investigate the camping equipment my parents brought from their garage to store in our garage (as they would never use it). Lo and behold, there is a much larger tent among that stuff. I'm guessing it belongs to my brother. However, as long as we are storing it, we just might be borrowing it as well. Thanks Ryan!

Stop the Car - there's a cache nearby

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.

Black bears roaming free

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.

Clingmans Dome on the AT

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, we did not get to hike any of the AT while over in the Smokies. However, it was cool enough early in the morning that we were able to drive to the Clingmans Dome parking lot and leave the dogs in the car while we walked up the (very steep) 1/2 mile paved road to Clingmans Dome Observation Tower. This spot, highest in TN, provides quite a view when the air is clear and we had pretty good viewing.

 
The Appalachian Trail crosses Clingmans Dome and we had hoped to hike some of it from there. While we are not ambitious enough to hike much of it (yet!), it would be fun to do some day hikes along it. However, this is the closest we got this trip.

 

Maybe we will get the opportunity to go back in the Autumn, we have some plans potentially in the works . . .

Garden beds update

The raised beds Aaron built have had some additions to them. We have added (and I use the term "we" loosely, he did most of the work) layers of manure and today we went and bought seeds. Plus he is hoping to build his cold frame in the next couple of days so we can get those seeds planted. We are hoping for lots of squash, tomatoes, okra, basil, oregano, peppers, beans, peas, etc. Plus I'm pestering him for some berries while I wait for our fruit trees to continue to mature. We definitely won't be growing all our own food - but I do hope we get to enjoy lots of produce from our own garden this year!

He is having so much fun with this, and I'm having a great time watching him.