Can you say Oops!

Well, so much for the new picture taking job. After two days out and hard at it, I realized this is a lot more work than I'm getting paid for. So, I quit! Hated that. I really wanted to do that job, but it just seems like a joke telling someone to do all that work for such a small amount of money. I know there are people out there who will do it and be glad to do it. But not me. I'm way too old for that much work. And I do like a desk job.

We were in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg over the weekend. The East Tennessee Historical Preservation organization had a conference on the same. It was very interesting. It was held at Arrowmont, an arts and crafts school right in the middle of Gatlinburg. On Saturday, we had a field trip out to Elkmont in the Smoky Mountain National Park. It is an interesting area where well-to-do people in Knoxville had cottages where they spent the summer. A couple of the larger building have been preserved as close as possible to the original.

It appears the cottages were painted some bright colors, reminiscent of beach cottages. And trying to preserve them as they were, one of the buildings that has been restored is painted pink with blue shutters. On most of the buildings that haven't been restored it is possible to tell what color they were. If you're ever in the area, you should at least drive through the community. These restored buildings are available to rent for day events, such as reunions, weddings, parties, etc. You have to be out by 9 p.m.

Cabin in Elkmont

On Sunday morning when we were leaving, Johns car was making a horrible noise when he turned the steering wheel. OMG, what were we to do? We called a couple people we know who are auto savvy and got the advice to put in some power steering fluid. Who knew!!! It did it. Seems when it is a little low on fluid and it gets cold, air bubbles appear and I guess that's what happened. so now we have to make sure it not leaking.

But the trip home was beautiful. We thought most of the trees would be bare, but there were lots of beautiful leaves still showing. We drove through Townsend, which is a beautiful area. It was all beautiful, except the Pigeon Forge traffic. I've lived in Atlanta, Fort Worth, Tallahassee and this traffic was worse than anywhere I've ever been. And it wasn't at any particular time. All day Saturday was unbelievable.

And of course it was good to get home. And today it is winter...rainy and cold.

Coming down the mountain from Sewanee 1

Coming down the mountain from Sewanee 2

(taken through the windshield)