Not exactly what we planned........

So much happened over the holiday weekend, it seems impossible to chronicle it all. I'll just hit some of the best points and move on. ;-)

Austin had a baseball game Saturday afternoon. A double header. Unscheduled. Out of town. (grrrr!) Race and Jack went with Austin to the game. Savannah and I stayed behind and prepared to camp. After the game Race took everyone to see Star Wars, (which, incidentally, we all loved). The next morning, we were up, packed, and heading to the mountains. And.......I guess....... so was everyone else! Our never fail, "spot that no one knows about" was empty. But just down river there was a "village" of bikers who had set up camp about a week ago and had no plans of leaving anytime soon. I have never seen so much stuff! They were revving their bike engines, and blaring loud music, the likes of which I could not identify. (It has always been my experience that "good" bikers listen to Southern Rock........I'm not sure what these, um, tunes were.) Well, needless to say, the thought of camping next to a bunch of men with pony tails was not appealing to anyone. We moved on. All the way up the mountain......nothing. And to admit defeat and try to get into an overcrowded campground? No Way!

So. We put the Suburban into 4-wheel drive and headed up, up, up the "dirt path that no one knows about". Fleeing civilization. When the road has an old painted sign that reads, "ONLY 4-WHEEL DRIVES BEYOND THIS POINT", you should take that very seriously. THIS was a little scary. The lost car parts strewn in various spots did NOT help. The road was completely washed out in several places, and the river flows across the road in one area. Steep mountain on one side, long, long drop on the other. Believe it or not we actually met two cars coming down!!! YIKES! Really tight squeeze! After about 4 miles, we arrived at the top, and where the appalachian trail crosses. No luck on decent camp sites by the river. We got out, and ate lunch.The temperature was 10 degrees cooler up here. We decided that we would hike to the falls. It is about a 2 mile hike. The mountains are truly gorgeous this time of the year, with the mountain laurel and the wild rhododendrons blooming everywhere. And of course the falls are always breath taking.

We decided that on our way back down out of the mountains we would scout for camp sites once more, in case some folks had left. Still no luck.

So. Race decides that we can camp on our own property and by our own creek. We live on 12 wooded acres surrounded by 100 wooded acres, and there is a big creek that winds its way across the back of our part, becoming the property line. We get home and Race takes everyone down to the place that he was thinking of. It was about a 1/2 mile from our house. When we reached the site, Race got everyone working, and within 30 minutes, we had cleared the site, built a fire ring, got the tents up, and had all of the dead wood stacked and ready to burn. It was AWESOME!! And it was OURS!!! We had a blast. The kids played in the creek all evening. Race taught the kids how to use a compass, and then they played a skills game (w/ the compass) using index cards that he tacked on trees. They saw three snakes, (one in a tree!). It was completely still and quiet, except for the sound of the water rushing over the rocks( well, and the kids). At nightfall, the owls started in, and they were right on top of us! While we were in our tents we saw raccoon and deer, all not quite sure what all this stuff was in their space. And I can tell you that a bed of soft pine needles, beats a rock any day!

On Monday night, Race took us all to see our local minor league baseball team play a game. When we got home, we all dropped exhausted into our beds. Great weekend.