Part 2...The Great Smoky Mountains

This is continued from the last post.....
On Saturday morning, we checked out of the motel and headed back into the mountains. on the way there, we passed through Gatlinburg. it is a "dollyhouse" kind of town nestled at the foot of the mountains, in the valley. the place bustles with tourists all day long. flowers are planted in baskets that hang from the streetlights and the railings on the sidewalk. We entered the park shortly after because we were supposed to go and check into the campsite.
The river ran alongside the road for most of the time and we saw people bathing in there. It's Little Pigeon River. nan and I wanted to go in but then we were distracted by a sign that said "Horseback Riding." Ami, Nan, nor I had ever ridden a horse except at little fairs when we were younger so we were game. Turned out that there was a ride being offered through the mountains at a rate of $20/hr. Kinda felt bad about burdening the horse but it was one awesome ride! My horse was tame and he trotted for most of the way. Nan's horse, on the other hand, was galloping when he was not supposed to. Several times, it looked as if she was about to fall off. We all agreed though, that it was a lot of fun and worth the money.
after the ride, we drove to the campsite and paid our money to stay for the night. Came up to $20 for all three of us. We drove by the site, looked at it and then headed into town to have Chinese again. Tofu was really good there too=0)
We went hiking to Laurel Falls after. It was about a 45minute walk on a path with signs stating..."Falling Deaths Have Occurred, Please watch children closely." there was a precipice off to one side and the mountain on the other. When we first started the walk, we heard growls coming from the precipice side of the walk. Was a little frightening. Ami made a walking stick/weapon/bear fighting stick from a thin branch of a tree alongside the trail.....According to him, all he needed to do was poke the bear if he saw one. Thankfully, we did not.
The waterfall was beautiful and it was more than we expected. Nan, Ami and I climed up the rocks. There were people drinking water there. The water was freezing cold. i filled a bottle but didn't drink....being a microbiology major and all...=0(...... the waterfall is broken into two sections. One part came down from higher than where we were standing then the other part went down into the precipice. We climbed down into the precipice part and stood at the very bottom of the falls. a little while after, i saw nan climbing up the second, more steeper part and everyone was looking at her and then me as if to ask, "is she crazy?" I thought so myself! she was rock climbing at a 90 degree angle and my heart was in my hand. Once again, i had to say some prayers that she was safe...yeah, i did a lot of praying on this trip!
After, we went back to the campsite. It was about 8:00pm when we got back and we had an hour left of daylight to set up the tent. We set up the tent in less than 15 minutes. our campsite was the last in the row and a little creek separated us from our neighbors. there was the woods behind us and to the other side. it was pretty much about following what the picture looked like. nan and ami did most of the work...and nan, of course pounded her finger with a piece of firewood. by the way, we did not bring a hammer and the neighbors offered to lend us theirs. we refused that because we were almost done at the time. we had firewood but no lighter fluid. I remembered that Ami had his tire shining stuff in the trunk and we sprayed that all over a piece of wood and lit the fire. Well it did say "flammable." We had no food but we just wanted to see the fire and it does keep away mosquitoes after all. ami burned everything that was in sight...including some of the maps, soda cans, bags, bottles....everything! i do not understand the connection between boys and fires yet. by the way, there were restrooms and running water but no showers.
I had to sleep hearing nan and ami complain how hard the floor was and how thin the sleeping bags were. during the night, we heard shots being fired and flares being sent off. i guess it was to scare off animals. we slept soundly, lulled to sleep by the sound of the creek. for me, i slept well all three nights but nan and ami said that they had the best sleep that night except that they complained that their backs hurt the next morning. I felt great! it was cold the next morning and we had burnt all the wood the night before save for one piece...ami's bear fighting weapon. we sprayed the tire shiner all over the wood but the matches were cold. our neighbor brought over lighter fluid, a striker and he even sent his kid over with firewood. he said to ami, "i know how girls are in the mornings!" the people were friendly everywhere.
We left a little before 9am and stopped at the river. nan got in and said it was freezing. i went in after. it was sunday morning after all and i needed to pay my respects to the sun. i did what my dad used to refer to as a "cowboy"....it's a bath where you begin soaping your skin before the water even touches it so by the time you hit the water, you wash the soap off and you take a few "ducks" and head back out. Believe me, it was ice cold water and i felt it through my bones. managed to wake up right away though...and so did nan...who even carried soap!!!!!!!! was surprised she didn't bring shampoo and conditioner as well.....
by the way, the phone died during the night and i was very well aware that my mom would have been freaking out by midday if she hadn't heard from us. We drove through the mountains exactly the same way we came but this time, we stopped to take pictures. it was so beautiful! I loved it! Ami had left the car in neutral while coming down the hills. We figured that "lower gears" meant neutral. Several people later told us how dangerous that was to do...At the time, it did not seem so. anyway, we returned to the same scary WalMart on the hill and bought a phone charger for the car and was able to call my mom who told me that she had called almost 50 times for the morning and was on the verge of panic mode. i could almost hear her "silent" prayers when she answered the phone. she asked to speak to nan too to make sure everything was alright and she had vin call ami's house to find out if ami had called there.
That day happened to be the finale of the world cup. it is a little bit ironic how i watched it all through and managed to miss the final. I had vin call me every few minutes to fill me in on the scores. he was a good reporter. Was not biased at all...even when Zidane head butted the Italian guy. I was happy that Italy won though. It took us almost 6 hours to get out of Georgia and then 5 hours to get home after we entered florida. In Georgia, we saw and accident that caused the opposite lane to have standstill traffic for almost 10 miles. People actually came out of their cars and put chairs out on the road and waited! In all, we got home at 2:30am on monday morning. When i was falling asleep, i heard when vin opened the door of my room to check that nan and i were home. a few hours after, i heard my dad open the door to check on us and ask if i needed to work. my mom had opened the door silently but didn't say anything before she left for work. i didn't know when she came at the door. she even cleaned our room for us...and made up the bed! they are all so adorable.
in all, my trip was super cool. i loved it and i want to go back already. i am a city girl but i like these little breaks in the country. the peacefulness is welcome. next time, vin has to go with us. if he was there, he would have been in the little creek right next to our campspot.....regardless of how shallow the water was.