Camping

Max, Mia and I left for Helen, Georgia and the Unicoi State Park on Wednesday afternoon. My plan was to go into work in the morning and pick the kids up after lunch hoping they would nap. I did go to work and I did pick up the kids, they didn't do much napping though. Before we got to Cincinnati Max complained that this trip was taking too long!

I had taken the van in for an oil change and to check the breaks the day before. We were on the road for about 20 minutes when an idiot light came on. I couldn't even guess what it meant and had to pull over to look in the manual. It was the check tire pressure light. Easier said then done. I had to drive all over the place to even find a tire gauge and then discovered that the tire pressure was only in the 38 range. Not sure why the dumb thing was complaining but I let out some air and it made it happy for a few more hours before it came back on. I finally had to get the pressure down to around 33 before the light would stop.

We stopped at the Holiday Inn in Knoxville, TN and the kids loved it. It was a big one with a conference center and much room for running, which they did for the next 2 hours. We then went to our room and watched So You Think You Can Dance all in one bed together. Mia fell asleep with the TV on and Max decided he wanted to go to his own bed and sleep after the show.

We got up and ate breakfast at McD's per Max's request and then got on the road around 8am. We arrived at Unicoi around noon. Mia was not thrilled with the new surroundings and all the new people. At that time there was a total of 20 family members milling about. She took a couple of days to warm up, but then discovered that they all had food and where willing to share. Her kind of people.

Max went fishing for the first time and caught a little bluegill. He was very pleased with himself. One of the things he has been fretting over is whether or not there is water with fish in it here in Ohio. He and Mia also went to the Babyland General Hospital, the original hand-stitched cabbage patch kids were started here and continue to be made. It's located in what use to be a real baby hospital and originally all the cabbage patch kids were given names that the real babies born there had. Max liked it so much he want back again with the older kids. Mia marched into the gift store and announced, "My baby" so Aunt Vicki bought it for her. Spoiled kid.

Max also went on a 3 mile hike and kept up with his Uncle Steve. Nobody can keep up with Steve and everyone was amazed. He loved the hike and I see more of this in his future. He also went tubing down the Chattahoochee River with me and after his initial nervousness wore off, had a great time.

We did have one incident. Max had tried to climb up the back of the pickup truck and the tailgate came down throwing him to the ground and striking his head on a stone. It was a bloody mess. Fortunately, it was a small puncture and didn't require stitches.

Max loved his older cousins to the point of worship. Wherever they went, he wanted to go too. He kept up with them and even helped them build a dam. When it was time to go, he was sad. He wanted to know why I was putting up stuff because, "we live here now".

Mia was content to just hang out for the most part and eat. She was having a good time but was ready to go home. When we got in late last night she just grinned and grinned while Beth hugged her. It was a long time to be away from Mimi.

I had some excitement on the way home. The Garmin suggested a route that I wasn't familiar with and I thought I would give it a try. It wasn't until it was way too late that I realized where it sent me, The Tail of the Dragon. This is a famous stretch of 11 miles with 318 curves in it, popular with motorcyclists and performance sport car drivers. Those folks looked like they were having a good time. I was in a mini-van and absolutely miserable. I don't get motion sickness and I was driving, but I still felt like I was going to barf everywhere. That was the longest 11 miles EVER. Now, I can refer to myself as a Dragon Slayer which almost makes up for it. I kinda wish that I would've bought one of the T-Shirts that had the map on it. Check out the map here.