Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

Are those welcoming Rain Clouds???

Bye-Bye Atlanta !!

6:30am leaving our city Atlanta, to Prince "...I wanna be your lover..." We love ATL... it's where we had our first date. We are a little tired but don't want the vacation to come to an end. Think we'll hang a right to New Orleans . See you Sunday!

She's about too Tired for Anything...

Well, we have decided to skip Savannah and are back in Atlanta, heading home tomorrow. Tired. Pronounced: T-I-E-D. Tied.

Good Morning, Ashville!

Finally, we start to slow down and slept in a little this morning, (8:30...). We are going downtown Asheville to see some shops. It's a cool little downtown. Most of the shops are more locally owned and art-centered than mass media, materialistic "stuff". And the restaurants are largely organic and locally owned. In fact, we read last night that a cooperative of organic farmers are planning to farm specifically for the local organic restaurants needs. Now THAT'S cool green community!

Heading South on a beautiful morning

I'm sorry, we don't have White Chicken, we only have Rotissarie-style Chicken...

The Bilmore Estate tour today was phenomenal! Just to imagine the lifestyle of these people is mind blowing! The space and detail and opulance is just breathtaking! Then, we go take a break to eat lunch at the Stables Cafe (in the old stables...surprise) and we order a sample platter to split. It comes with ribs, pulled pork and rotissarie chicken, (remember, we are on a southern-cooking-died-and-gone-to-heaven-hell-of-a-nightmare-for-2-on-a-low-carb-diet vacation)... Anyway, trying to be the non-humans that we are (inside joke), we ask for a piece of white meat chicken when the plate comes with a leg/thigh combo. Our waitress looks blankly at us, at the chicken, and then back at us and truly says: " we don't have white chicken, we only serve Rotissarie-style chicken." At once, we realize the poor woman just doesn't have a clue. But I got a little testy after she repeated it and I asked, "Don't they cook the WHOLE chicken, Rotissarie-style or not ?!?

Um...It's Raining again...

It's Wednesday, it's raining and my early arthritis is starting to kill me in my hands...not sure if its the rain or all the silly text-typing I'm doing for this blog! Do i sound like I'm getting blog remorse? If our oars hold up, we're planning on doing the Bilmore Estate tour today and will stay in Asheville tonight. After driving through The Great Smokey Mountains Park (a name and space well worth all that typing) we stopped in Cherokee one more time for me to get some Cherokee roasted and brewed coffee...a real cool space...a place I'd like to own myself...ok, more later on...

beautiful...

A Top of ole' Smokey...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TAMMY!

Yesterday ended up to be so much fun, dispite the rain! We had a lot of fun while competing throwong basketballs in the arcade and tring to keep up the movements on one of those crazy dance machines! Hilarious!! I think the attendant couldn't figure us out! It did seem to be the sister family gathering place of Pigeon Forge...in fact, the cashier said to us, " Hadn't I seen y'all in here before? I KNOW y'all have been in here..." LOL! Anyway, we're cruising the artisans and craftsmen stuff today and just spent a good bit of time withal dulcimer player and builder...very cool stuff. I love that kind of music...ok...Ta Ta

WHEW !

Gimme a gimme a RedNeck Girl!

Well, nevermind...

So we re walking a covered outdoor mall in Pigeon Forge so that at least we can feel the cold and get some exercise! It's so cool how our life is changing! Wanting the exercise instead of the entertainment or the sugar and fat! Tammy's quote of the day, though, was hilarious. We shared an omlette for breakfast and felt like a soy latte for me and a soy hot chocolate for her from Starbucks wouldn't be too terrible...well half way through our drinks, THEN we decide to check the nutritional contents pamphlet: 58 carbs for her! "rain and 58 carbs, you better be GLAD it's not my birthday!" Actually, we're really having a great time, regardless of the rain. Ta Ta...

Monday morning....NO RAIN!!

We're OFF to climb the mountains, the wonderful mountains of the smokies!

A very wet welcome.

Well we made it through Cherokee, NC and through the smokey mountains park seeing snow in the woods and along the sides of the park road but arrived at check in in Gatlinburg with a solid rain. As you can see Tammy is pouting (as am I). Its supposed to rain tomorrow too, so we'll have to get creative, BUT the good thing is that it's not supposed rain Tuesday, Tam's birthday, whew!

Heading up the mountains

Cheers!

Mmm mmm ... it'll make you slap your grandma!

Just finished a late lunch at an old Atlanta establishment, Mary Mac's Tea Room. Oh My Goodness ! You haven't eaten until you've been to Mary Mac's... BUT, we were VERY good. Changing our lifestyle like we have is so important to us it isn't worth it to either of us to put poisonous sugar in our bodies just for our betraying tastebuds! We bought the cookbook so i'll cook some heaven for you all someday soon, even tho you gain weight just LOOKING at the cover! Good thing we walked allover the hills of downtown ATL.

SHE CRIED !

In my family, if someone was getting a special gift the passing grade was always tears. "did she cry, did she cry ?" If so, it was a good gift! Well, for all of you that helped, Tammy LOVED the wedding DVDs!!! She was VERY surprised and she CRIED... Tough girl cried. Now we're going to the jewelry store where we bought our wedding rings to get them cleaned. Silly but a little romantic thing we like to each year.

Great First Day!

Well, we've had a long firt day...starting at 4:00am. Lunch with my aunt (my mother's sister) and uncle was very nice. Tam was very gracious to sit there while we went down a lot of memory lanes. In someways, it's a small window of opportunity to feel close to mom, but as Tammy so astutely (sp?) observed, she is much different. Tam was hilarious during the 45 drive to meet them....crabbin up and down about spending our vacation time with people I was willing to divert ( she actually encouraged me to meet them, LOL)! Can't blame her she only once or twice. THEN, we checked in, toured around gay midtown ate dinner and went shopping a bit and returned to the hotel early for laps in the pool, hot tub and movies in bed. More later...nite-nite, Ta Ta!

testing

Testing, testing 1 2 3... We are on our way. Been on the road average an horn now. Listening to NPR. i've been trying to get Tam to listen to - in her words - "nerdy NPR" for years, now! Anyway, this is a test to see if i can actually posy automatically fro email like the site says I can. Next stop: Atlanta to have lunch with my aunt.