Crowder Mountain-Whew

I've been lazy on this vacation - missed Saturday & Sunday. Saturday was a lazy day - didn't do too much (did get a new pair of sandles - leather - so I won't have another allergic reaction!)

Sunday was church day. First time that Dear Husband and VacationGirl visited the Newton Christian Church. It's a little country church but the people are incredibly friendly! It was a good service. Went to eat after church so didn't get home until 2:00 - then had to turn around and leave again for Sunday night service at 4:30 and didn't get home from that until 9:30. Long Day.

The Sunday night service was a showing of the movie "Passion of the Christ" - directed by Mel Gibson. It is an extremely accurate portrayal of the last days of Jesus. However, I couldn't watch the majority of it. He was beat so badly - very violent movie! And I don't do violence well - I'm a chick-flick kinda gal.

Today, Monday, started out lazy. Two of the dogs ran away so we made the men saddle up and go looking for them. The dogs made it home on their own - about an hour before the men! It was kinda scary cuz they are great dogs and we were afraid that something would happen to them. But all is well in dogland.

Someone had the great idea that we should climb this mountain near Charlotte that has 300 stairs to the top. Hmmmm, VacationGirl things this could rank right up there with her famous tips - don't climb mountains that have 300 stairs. Don't climb anything that has 300 stairs. So we drive out to the mountain - VacationGirl is thinking about reading a book. But, foolishly, she heads up the path to the stairs, thinking that she can wait at the bottom and enjoy the beautiful day.

HA!!!

No one mentioned that there is a 1 mile strenuous trail to even get to the bottom of the 300 stairs. And when trail maps say strenuous, they mean strenuous! It took me an hour to trudge up, up, up the rocky trail. Dear husband stayed with me for awhile but I sent him on ahead with the camera. Someone had to take pictures, and it sure as heck wasn't going to be VacationGirl. About half way up, there was a nice bench. She rested there for a few minutes and then foolishly started walking up, up, up the path again - all the while thinking that the stairs HAVE to be close.

HA!!!

They weren't even close. VacationGirl finally gave up and rested - leaning on a tree. She could have gone on down to the bench but she wanted everyone to see just how far she made it. It may not have been all the way to the top, but it was at least .8 of the trail. You can tell she's not a hiker - she was thinking that coming down would be easier!

HA!!!

Going down the trail was MUCH harder. She thought her toes were going to poke out the front of her gym shoes - because what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down and it was steep.

This vacation seems to have a common thread so far - sore feet! And they are VERY sore! So since VacationGirl can't find an open usb port on this computer, she won't be able to download pictures until Wednesday night - you can see the new baby horse and Crowder's Mountain - the source of my sore feet!

see ya!

Crowder Mountain

Spring Break and Red Feet

Hi Dear Friends and Family,

Well, Spring Break vacation has officially begun. We're in un-sunny NorthCarolina now - for 4 full days - heading home on Wednesday to do un-spring break like things to the house (like clean)!

The trip got off to a good start. VacationGirl and Dear husband picked up the 16-year old from school at 2:10 with the car fully packed and ready to go. Of course, we had to make a last minute swing past the house because the 16-year old forgot his church clothes. No big deal - it's on the way. While he ran to get his clothes, VacationGirl decided to change from sneakers to sandles - a rather benign decision, one would think!

So, the Vacation Family got on the road about 2:30-2:40 along with all of the other happy families traveling to warmer destinations for the week. Traffic was slightly heavy but not horrible. Unfortunately, there were severe thunderstorm warnings out for the whole trip. Could we be lucky? Hey, it's VacationGirl and Family - of course we can't!

We got our first rain - a rather torrential downpour - in Lexington. If it had been night, we would have been treated to a spectacular light show - the lightening was extremely heavy. But as it was, we just got treated to rain so thick and heavy that you could cut it with a knife - all the way from Lexington to the Tennesee/Kentucky border. But then, miraculously, it stopped. Whoo hoo!

We stopped somewhere just after getting on I-40 to get gas and noticed on the TV that they had tornado warnings for the area so we high-tailed it out of Dodge and got on the road. VacationGirl was actually able to get through most of Ashville while it was still dusk - it turned true night just before she made it through - and all with NO rain. This will have to go down in history - VacationGirl ALWAYS gets rain in the mountains on I-40. The Gods must be with her today.

NOT!!!

(As a side note, right about this time, VacationGirl's feet were beginning to bother her a little but she thought nothing of it - figured they were just tired of pushing on the gas pedal!)

We made it to the Triple C Ranch about 10:30 - great timing for us - the earliest we've every gotten in! Almost immediately, we trecked down to the barn to see the new baby horse - 4 days old (pictures to follow in the next post). Lad, Lucy, and Tag were happy to see us. Lad was most happy to see his "boy" (and the boy was MOST happy to see his dog). I think Lucy will be my favorite - she the littlest of the collies and really sweet - we made friends right away.

While we were in the barn, VacationGirl kept feeling like there was something in her shoe - they are sandles, so this was not a totally unexpected feeling. But nothing was there - however, the feeling wouldn't subside. So she and Ramsey niked back up to the house where VacationGirl got out of her shoes, finally. WOW! Everywhere that the sandles touched her feet was bright red and swollen and horribly itchy. Apparently, after three years of wearing the sandles, they decided to create a wonderful allergic reaction. It hurt to walk, it hurt to itch, it hurt to even lay them down on the bed - she had to hang them over the side. But fortunately, Ramsey saved the day with some cortesone cream - VacationGirl woke up in the morning with new feet (actually, just her old ones back to normal).

Don't know what the day holds yet - we slept in - haven't even had a shower yet. It is rainy but at least we're on vacation. Let the fun begin!