Trip Pictures Part 1

A rare shot. I guess when you turn 13 you don't want your picture taken! I had to get this one quick in the car.
Here was Alec at the skatepark in Carrollton, Ga. - 13 miles from my brother's house. The fact that there was a skatepark out here in country-bumpkin land was impressive to me. Also, the fact that Alec said it was one of the best ones he had been to was even more impressive.


A jump....


Whoa...dude

Rainouts suck.

Trip Pictures - Part 2

We did make the game at 1pm the following day.






Some of the views from our seat. Not bad. The park was half empty.







Most of the half full stadium had Cubs fans. All of these people behind us were Cubs fans. We were so in the majority!

Trip Pictures - Part 3

Here is one of the wacky roads we traveled on as we traveled to Gatlinburg. This is the Scenic Skyway in North Carolina as viewed from Google Earth (not my camera!). This is just a small sample of what I had to deal with. The straight line distance in this photo from left to right is about a mile and a half. However, the total distance driven is about 4 miles! And every turn is either up hill or down hill. The map shows this as a relatively straight line. Multiply this by a factor of 20 for the total trip in Tennessee and NC. Yeah, it took a while. Never totally believe what you see on a map!

Trip Pictures - Part 4

Here we are at Rainbow Falls. A very cool place!
I don't think you can see it too well here but, almost like last year, we turned the corner on the path and came up close to a deer. It stayed ahead of us (maybe 10 feet or so) but never panicked and kept walking ahead of us. By the time I got the camera out this was the best shot I had.


There were a lot of newts. Alec was happy and looked for many.

Newts?
We didn't get all the way to the top of Mt. LeConte but made it to this ridge that had some amazing views. The path is to the left. It was a cool clearing of bushes that you just come up to after being in a tree environment.

Trip Pictures - Part 5

Another great shot on the mountain ridge. I was at this spot 14 years ago but it was foggy then.
Now here was something peculiar. The picture isn't that great but on the way down the trail I almost stepped on this mouse-like critter. It never moved away! At first I only saw this vibrating, fuzzy thing in the middle of the trail. It was just this "mouse" eating or gnawing something. The weird part was that it was gnawing real slow - not fast like you would expect from a rodent. After a couple minutes it just casually moved on its way!


A narrow bridge over one of the creeks.

Even at the falls he didn't want his picture taken.

Trip Pictures - Part 6

A rock-guitar pick! Tried it at home folks and it works!

"Rock" on...
Love the falls. Last shot on the way down to the car to go home.
No trip to the southlands is complete with an obligatory stop to Waffle House! This was our last chance on the last day (in Kentucky).

What? Already?

IS it Thursday?? Already??? Wow. Since I got back I feel like I hit the ground running hard. I still have stuff for today. There is just so much to talk about and so little time to actually sit and type. I mean, when I do end up at home on downtime I just don't feel like typing stuff. I do enough during the day! How is it with you? I'm wondering if I lost that rhythm I was talking about a few weeks ago. Going on the trip and shutting everything down was a good thing; it is now an effort to find that tempo to doing things again. I have no doubt I will find it; it is just that it can feel a little frustrating at times. I still want to upload some of the pictures from the trip. Maybe tonight.

Kids are back in school. Katrina back now as a junior and Alec in 8th grade. What? Already???

Day 6 - Home

The final leg of the journey home was somewhat uneventful - which was good since it was mostly driving! We did stop at one Starbucks in Indiana! Also, no trip to the South is complete without a stop to Waffle House. This morning we finally did. It must have seemed weird to the locals when I had to take a picture outside with Alec. We just don't get them up in "yankee-land". I am sure it could equate to some out-of-towners getting excited about posing at a White Castles up here! We got in at around 5pm. It was awesome to see everyone again. Alec headed right out to be with his friends. I was a little tired out after 7 hours driving. It probably, then, wasn't a good idea to open my Outlook inbox: somewhere around 50 messages came in! However, a large percentage were via Facebook. Man, I never thought I had so many friends! I even had one where I had to confirm I was married to Mary! Another large percentage involved me being cc:'d something that really didn't need my input. It really makes you realize what you end up reading every day.

I have a number of pictures but they might not get posted up for a few days. A lot going on the next couple days.

Day 5 - Hiking and Driving

When you are on a 6 hour hike there are many things you talk about. Sometimes it gets deep; sometimes it is stuff like: name your favorite ____. One of the things I came up with was listing each of the states, outside of Illinois, we drove through and asking what is the first thing you think of when you hear about this state. So, what is the first thing you think of? My answers are at the bottom of the Day 4 post:

Kentucky
Tennessee
Alabama
Georgia
North Carolina
Ohio
Indiana

What a great day. We ended up hiking the Rainbow Falls Trails up to what is called the Rocky Spur ridge. It wasn't all the way up to the top of Mt. LeConte but it was close. Time and conditioning played a part although Alec was interested in getting back on our way home. I think a little homesickness is settling in! I had hiked this trail up with by brother in-law, Dave, about 14 years ago. At that time, we went all the way to the top (4000 ft. climb) where there is a lodge.

The hike up was awesome and tiring. The falls were great. There were a number of people there on our way up so we didn't stay at the falls too long. We kept going for quite some time. After the falls, as expected, we encountered no one except one group of four on the way up. The top of our trip, at the ridge offered an incredible view! When I was last there 14 years ago, it was foggy and we couldn't see much (although it did feel surreal at that time because you couldn't see beyond the drop). Along the way up we encountered many Newts (which occupied Alec's attention!), a strange mouse that I almost stepped on in the middle of the trail (very strange, he just sat there gnawing or eating slowly - not what you would expect from this kind of creature - he then quickly went on his way), and a deer on the path. The way down was quicker - although we did spend more time at the falls - no one was there. The time at the falls was very relaxing and tranquil. It took some time to get down. It is funny when you go down how many times you are asked by people going up, "how much further to the falls?". We counted 3 groups out of 4. We did the same going up.

Well, it was time to start the journey home. We did stop at a place called Duff's Smorgasbord in Pigeon Forge. It was actually a great place with great food - except for the entertainment which was a lady singing to tracks that her husband was programming and running - very slow, sleepy gospel songs - Alec wanted to get away from that sooner than later. We also had a waitress who came up to us and guessed, correctly, that Alec was a skater kid based on his looks and wardrobe! Her kid (about the same age) dressed the same way. We had much to share!

So I am now in a Comfort Inn in Lexington, Kentucky typing these last two days. I had no internet access at the Econo Lodge in Gatlinburg. In fact, phone service was erratic at best! It looks like the US won silver and gold in women's gymnastics and the Cubs swept the Braves!

A good day.

Day 4 - A Game, A Duck, A Turtle, and Some Driving Fun

Wednesday morning the plan was made: we would head to the 1:00 game, leave from there to Gatlinburg and that would be it for the day.

Uh....right

We left Gary's house ok and had breakfast at IHOP. Good stuff there - even the coffee. Gary couldn't make it because of his work. I tell you what, things just are just different here. Restaurants open and close at a whim. Maybe they have breakfast, maybe they won't. We were looking for a local home cookin' place but there was no luck. That is the country for you!

How about that game! A 10-2 killing of the Braves! For the 1pm game I don't think I was far off in thinking that there might have been more Cubs fans there than Braves fans. We totally didn't feel out of place in a stadium that was not that full (it makes me wonder how full it would have been had it not been a Cubs team they were playing!). Alec and I had a good time there.

After leaving the stadium I was shocked and surprised at how easy it was to leave Atlanta! Getting out of the stadium area was a breeze (we parked at the Holiday Inn across the street for only $10 - compare that to our Chicago stadiums!): we left during their rush hour at around 4:45pm (remember this time). I got out of town with very little traffic. To this point things were going really good! Gary had told us of a couple ways to get to Gatlinburg that had some scenic routes. He also thought it would be about 3 hours to get there. He was a bit off. Of course some of it was my fault as I will explain. Heading towards our destination (and after looking at the map), I thought that it would be neat to take a scenic route that would take us up through eastern Tennessee; we would then cross into North Carolina via this scenic skyway that would connect us back to the expressway to Cherokee, NC (which was just across the park from Gatlinburg). On the map it looked simple enough. In reality it was BRUTAL! If I wanted to take my time through this route it might have been enjoyable. The route was very scenic in some beautiful country. However, we were heading for Gatlinburg and just needed to get there. The Tennessee route, Rt. 68, ended up being nothing but a nonstop, up/down winding road through the mountains - for about 30-40 miles. Wow, a tough drive if you weren't expecting it! And of course it would take twice as long as I thought it would. But, the fun part is we when through two consecutive towns: Ducktown and Turtletown. I kid you not! Look it up!

But wait, there's more!

We then had to go on the scenic skyway. That one was even worse than the one before! By this time it was starting to get dark. In fact, about halfway through the 40 mile drive, it did get dark. It was funny that once I thought we were through, we ended up going through about 5-10 miles of extreme, 45 deg. turns up and down the mountains. Alec was getting a bit woozy - so was I! And of course, this route took twice as long as we thought it would! One cool note: would you believe that in the middle of that nowhere I was able to listen to game 2 of the Cubs/Braves game - it was Pat and Dave on WGN! I actually got a good signal out there!

But wait, there's more!

I still had to get to Cherokee and then still through the Smokies in the dark! We eventually ended up on a major highway to Cherokee. We were tired and hungry. I figured that since Cherokee was a gambling town, there would be places to eat open. Wrong! Almost everything (except the casinos) was closed! Except the drive-thru Wendy's. Ok ladies and gentlemen of the internet, sometimes when things get desperate a man will do desperate things. I actually ordered something at Wendy's! Yes, and I ate it (Chicken sandwich w/fries - I did get the bottled water though).

But wait, there's more!

Now we had to drive through the Smokies at night. Know what? This part of the trip was actually pretty cool! After dealing with all that winding road crap, this one was a breeze. Not to mention, it did look cool: a partly cloudy night with a little fog and a bright moon. When we got to the top at Newfound Gap, we got out at the parking area to look over the country with that type of setting. It was amazing. If we weren't so tired I wouldn't have minded hanging out there longer than we did. The view at night was awesome (thanks to the bright moon)! I did see a fox scurry past us on the road. In the end, we made it to the Econo Lodge in Gatlinburg at 11:15 pm and turned in. The room was a pretty nice room. Tomorrow we hike. All in all, despite the challenges, it was a good day. More importantly, Alec and I shared it together. We have another thing to talk about!

My answers from the post above:

Kentucky: horses (sorry, Colonel Sanders)
Tennessee: Mountain Dew (their ad when I was a kid had this hillbilly yell "yahoo! it's Mountain Dew!" it just stuck)
Alabama: Sweet Home Alabama (duh!)
Georgia: peaches
North Carolina: Andy Griffith
Ohio: Cleveland
Indiana: nothing. absolutely nothing.

Day 3 - There is Comedy in Here Somewhere

Man, what a day. Not the kind you basically would plan. The morning/early afternoon was a downtime that we expected. One thing I did was take Alec out to a skatepark in nearby Carollton. We spent some time there and he enjoyed it. He said it was better than any of the parks back home. I will take his word for it since I won't even get on one of them.

We left for the game at 3pm and here is where the fun started. We drove out to the train station and took that in to the park. We got there early so we decided to walk around a bit. We visited Underground Atlanta and I noticed things changed a bit. Gone are the bums outside. Also gone were the street entertainers that I really enjoyed. I especially missed the guy who did some great card tricks the last couple times I was there. We did have dinner at an Irish establishment and that, my friends, is where the rain started. It never got super hard but stayed consistent. We hoped that the game would still go on - so did the numerous Cubs fans that were around (and we were numerous!). We walked to the field with umbrellas in hand. It wasn't looking good. Our seats were under the upper deck and that was a bonus at the time but you could tell (and the radar confirmed) that the rain wasn't going to end soon. Sure enough, at 7pm/gametime, they made the announcement. What a crappy feeling. You could see it from many of the other people too. Rainouts just plain stink. The game is rescheduled for tomorrow at 1pm (there is a second game at 7pm). Our tickets are good for the 1pm game. We will go but our plans have to be altered a bit. We were hoping to get to Gatlinburg and get a hike in during the day. What will happen now is we go to the game, leave when it is over (maybe 3:30 - 4; just in time for Atlanta rush hour) and head straight for Gatlinburg where we will check in. Thursday will be our only hike day - we will see from there.

Taking the train home we ended up on the wrong one and at a different place. We had to buy a ticket again to get back on (I got a few $1 coins in change - I didn't know those were still around). We then took the rainy ride back to Gary's house. Alec and I decided, as a consolation, to go see a movie. So we headed to Carollton (right near where the skate park was) to see the Dark Knight again ($17 - ouch!). On my way to the movie I did notice I was low on gas. However, after being in the town earlier that day I knew there were several gas stations nearby so it would be no problem to fill up after the movie (we were running late). Well, things are different down here in the country because ALL the gas stations were closed! So I had to make a run for it back to the house which was near the interstate (and open gas stations). So I was driving for about 12 miles down a winding, dark country road in a rainstorm, low on gas, with cell phone service barely operable. I called my sister in-law, Deena (who was up) to let her know the situation: if she didn't hear back from us by 1am, to get a gas can and look for us. Yeah, that is what it came down to! Fortunately, we made it and here I am typing before I turn in. It would have been bitterly funny if we ran out of gas near a mansion with a light on with it raining and did "The Time Warp"....

What am I saying? Good night.

Day 2 - Heading to Georgia

So the trip from Paducah to Temple, Ga was pretty good. It was nice weather. The only major problem was that we couldn't find a Starbucks in Paducah! What is up with that! I think that it is funny when you go to their website and they show the only one being in the local hospital! What a deal: consume your caffeine, get your heart racing, have the heart attack then walk to the emergency room. Well, you gotta like that. At least you are covered.

We took a side way that got us through NE Alabama which was very scenic. However, Georgia has some funny street names. I took note of a few. I couldn't get a picture because it we were cruising on the highway. So, here are some that I caught:

Booze Mountain Road
Booger Lane
Hog Liver Rd. (near my brother's house)

I guess that I will have to get a tally of goofy road names out here! We made it to my brother Gary's house ok. We hung out for the evening. They are calling for rain tomorrow night at the game. I sure hope we don't get rained out. That would really stink!

Road Trip - Day 1

Today Alec and I start out on our annual road trip. We will be heading to Atlanta to see the Cubs play the Braves on Tuesday night. During that time we will be staying at my brother Gary's house who lives a little west of Atlanta. He is also coming to the game. After that we will be heading out to the Smokies to do a couple of day hikes. One of the hikes is to a place called the Chimney Tops. It is not long (4mi round-trip) but is supposed to be grueling the last mile up. But they say the views are incredible. We also want to check out a waterfall or two depending on time. Then head home a different way via Knoxville/Cincinnati/Indianapolis by Friday. Tonight we have stopped in Paducah at a Baymont Inn. We didn't get terribly far because we started a little late: around 4pm. The trip itself was fairly uneventful; although we did stop for dinner at this retro Dennys in Tuscola. That was different although, believe it or not, we were actually there before! In fact, we stayed at the local Holiday Inn! That is because, back when Mary worked for Clayton Environmental she spent some time out there at a jobsite. I brought the kids and we hung out for a day.

Of course the morning was VERY eventful! We all earned our stripes at the service this morning! It turned out that we had no teaching pastor! Yep, found that out at about 9:15am. Some strange miscommunications led to that moment. We had to think and move quick. Videocast option was looked at but didn't work. Our new Community Pastor, Dennis Taylor, did a great job filling in and basically winging a message! That combined with my first time on sound, issues with keyboard equipment, overseeing the School for the Arts signups, etc. made for a fun morning! The entire team did great in adjusting and making for what turned out to be a phenomenal time. It just goes to show that no matter how much we want to screw it up, God still will do amazing things. Everytime!

By the way, two things to note from this evening. Cubs win 6-2 and I was able to listen to it all the way down - except for a spot around the 5th inning where WGN got a little bit fuzzy. I listened to the St. Louis broadcast for that inning. Funny how you hear a different perspective from the enemy. I heard them dissing Wrigley Field; yeah they were doing that (of course the radio announcer was John Rooney who used to cover the White Sox). Boo to them. Plus, did anyone catch that amazing relay swimming race at the Olympics? I saw it while starting this blog. I am not too much into this stuff but that was really awesome how the USA won. They beat the French who were guaranteeing a win. Why do the French do stuff like that?

Tomorrow we are off to Atlanta. I'll cover things when I can.

Au Revoir Bret

Bret Favre has left the Packers. Is it because the Cubs have my attention that this news is not that big to me? Is it because the Bears stink no matter who quarterback's the Packers that this news is not that big to me? Is it because the Bears stink no matter who quarterback's the Bears that this news is not that big to me? I suppose it should be big news but it just isn't to me. I mean, after the Cubs win the (&!@%$# (NO! I just can't say it yet!), it won't matter. The world as we know it will end then, Jesus will have arrived (maybe the 7 years of tribulation was really the 100 years of futility), and all will be fine. Yeah that's it. So Bret left...who cares? Not me!

How "alternative" is Alternative?

What is alternative music nowadays? I can't seem to figure it out anymore. It seems to have morphed into mainstream pop and metal. Of course, that kind of contradicts the "alternative" label then, doesn't it? I first fell into the scene back in the mid 80's somewhere. It was cool and refreshing from the boring metal that was going on (that was turning into those comical hair bands!). Yeah, boring - at least for guitar. Same fast riffs just done in different ways. Alternative music at that time was inventive and creative. Bands like Missing Persons, The Cure, The Smiths, etc. really had refreshing sounds to me that I really latched on to. The "alternative" radio station back then was WXRT. They still call themselves the "original" alternative music station. They are correct to a degree: outside of college radio you really couldn't find much of that stuff on the airwaves back then. If there was an 'XRT night at a club somewhere, we were there.

But then 'XRT fell into a funk. It started playing more classic rock like the Who and such. It stayed a lot with the bands that made the station popular - even though those bands were past their prime. Not that it was bad but it became less interesting. They still played some new stuff but it became less and less. That was around the early 90's when Q101 changed to becoming the new alternative music station. Yeah, it was awesome! Grunge was hitting the scene and I was really digging a lot of that stuff. Problem was, alternative was changing. It was becoming more mainstream and pop with no real new style to replace it. So, naturally, Q101 moved towards the nu-metal types and it really sounded like a metal station for a while. The last couple years they moved from that but now I think that they have become what WXRT became: more classic alternative. Now they don't play the Who or anything like that but whenever I turn that station on, I don't hear nearly as much new stuff as I used to.

I don't think it is any of the station's fault...at least to a degree. It just seems to me that alternative music isn't really alternative anymore in this day and age. It is kind of a joke when you listen to some of the internet radio stations playing "alternative". It is all based on their perspective of what it is. I mean, "adult alternative"! What is that - really? It's just pop music without the Madonnas and Britneys of the world on it. And even then, it isn't all true (I remember when Madonna was borderline alternative when she arrived on the scene!).

Oh there are a lot of places to look for new music. The internet has made that beyond easy. I just don't think alternative music really exists anymore. That's just the way of things.

Now give me my Rush music. There is some great stuff to behold!

"Awesome" Water

I thought that for today's post I would gross you out a bit. Sound good? At home we use a reverse-osmosis water treatment system for our drinking water. Typically it has filters that should be changed roughly every six months. If you let it go too long it gets clogged up and the faucet slows down.

I get a kick out of people who use Romeoville water that think (and many are convinced) it is of good quality (except for those Radon letters we get every once in a while). I keep trying to tell them that they are being deceived and that the water isn't all that great. Of course neither is Chicago water for that matter but I'll save that conversation for another day. Well, it took less than four months between filter changes that the water started slowing down through the faucet. I have noticed that in the past year or so it has been taking less time to clog the filters. Last week I had to change them again. If you know anything about this system it has a pre and post filter. The pre-filter is usually the nasty looking one. So ladies and gentlemen, after four months of using the "great" Romeoville water, I replaced the filters. The two pictures show the new one (bright shiny white) and the one that I just removed (the ugly black/brown gunky one). Yesiree, this is what y'all are putting into yerselves folks. Isn't it awesome? You can pretty much duplicate this in most towns around. And most filter systems don't remove much of this stuff (like those little Brita things). They say that Romeoville water is among the most expensive in the state. Heh.....

Enjoy the picture show: