Your friendly guide to the unknowns of Gatlinburg

Getting away for a few days is exactly what we needed. We had awesome weather, flowing traffic (except for that one little blip), and plenty of food.

Thanks to Mr Lemon's dad having a timeshare slot available, we stayed in a great resort just outside of Gatlinburg. Any time I'd been there before I always stayed a pretty decent drive up a mountain, and Mr Lemon had always stayed in a hotel in Pigeon Forge, so this was a fabulous compromise. The townhouse even had an identical bowl that I own. Just a touch of home, you know.

And before I get into the good times, Monday night was the hardest for me. It was the first time I'd been away from Zesty overnight, and I will not deny that I was almost in tears. It took us awhile to sleep, I guess because I'm used to rocking him to sleep. The auntie he stayed with said Monday night was his hardest night too. We must have had simultaneous separation anxiety or something.

We treated ourselves to a steak dinner at Cherokee Grill on Monday. And by steak, I mean STEEEEEAAAAAK. That cow was not slaughtered in vain. By the end of that meal we were cutting our steaks into smaller and smaller bites to make it last longer.

We asked our server for directions to the bowling alley Mr Lemon had found online, but he only knew of the one in the community center in Gatlinburg. "See here, you go past the Food City, and go up the hill.

("Up a hill?" "That's right, up a hill.")

"Turn left when you see the dump trucks on the right, and you'll be headed right to the community center."

Somehow we found the right dump truck landmark Tuesday afternoon, and Mr Lemon beat the socks off of me. We also did some ping pong, and even though I lost then too, I gave him a good run for his $.25.

That's right. We could "borrow" the paddles, but had to fork out $.25 to "borrow" the ball.

The best part of that event was when the community center old guys were buffing the lanes, and they let the buffer go too far. They had to dig out the buffer from the end of the lane. I blame them for my lack of concentration.

Tuesday evening we attended the Black Bear Jamboree. Wow, that was a great show. We pre-bought our tickets, and had front row seats. That being interpreted means we saw entirely too much of the underside of the performer's costumes.

Ahem.

We drove back Wednesday under protest, but had a good trip home. On the way down, we saw a sign for the Camp Wildcat Civil War battlefield, and we decided to try and see it on the way home.

The second sentence of the website quotes "The site is undeveloped and remote."

That's putting it mildly. We got to the single lane gravel road and saw a sign indicating we still had 2.25 miles to go. Uh-uh. We retreated. The South will only rise again if we have a truck the next time we try it.

And - before I forget - Zesty was well spoiled by his aunties from church. He didn't want to come home with us when we picked him up yesterday.

Also, in my last closing as the musicians come, Mr Lemon and I celebrated our second Date-i-versary yesterday! Two years of dating each other and we still haven't run out of things to talk about. I loves you Babe!