Tennebelievin'

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I went down to Jake's hometown of Oak Ridge, Tennessee with Lana and Jake. I wasn't thrilled to do a lot of driving, but was excited to be down there. We left Friday night and drove straight through the night, 12 hours to our destination.

Saturday morning after two hours of sleep, we ate a big breakfast unlike any I've had for months (bacon, eggs, juice, toast, the works) and headed off to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I've been to ten national parks now and have only once been disappointed. Stupid Badlands. Over the course of the day the three of us biked the 11-mile Cade's Cove loop, jogged 2.5 miles out to Abrams falls, hiked another 6.5 miles back from Abrams falls and up to Chimney rocks, and did some small rocking climbing at the Abrams falls waterfall and on top of Chimney Rock. So, yes, I was sort of on top of Old Smoky. But I didn't really think about it until now. It was a long, busy day, but well worth it. Our drive back to Oak Ridge was supposed to be along a scenic stretch of highway, but we weren't able to get out to it because of construction, so we headed home.

Sunday, we played two disc golf courses in Knoxville. The first I was excited for because of some reviews I had read online. The first hole was great, which required at least a 200 foot drive to clear a lake with trees to negotiate on both sides of the lake. The second through eighteenth holes were kind of a disappointment. I had high hopes, especially after hole one, but there wasn't a lot of difficulty to a lot of the holes. That, and I couldn't putt well. The second course we played was more fun, but I wasn't too keen on any more disc golf by that point. I had fun playing, but used to course to throw rollers, hammers, etc. I think I had two drives over 500 feet, but both were downhill.

Monday, we went rafting on the Ocoee River (pronounced Oh-coh-ee). The 5-mile section of river we rafted on had rapids ranging from Class II to Class IV. The Class IV rapids were fun, but I wish there had been more. The rating scale goes up to Class VI. It was a great first-time rafting experience and definitely a highlight of the trip.

I also got to visit the Sunsphere, of Simpsons fame. Unfortunately, there was no wig shop in the top of the Sunsphere.

I've been thinking about a lot of vacations I'd like to do lately and here's some of the places I'd like to go:

-Make a trip out to Boston/Philadelphia/NYC area. I'd like to see all the Colonial America sites in Boston and Philadelphia. I'd like to stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, too.

-Hawaii. I'd like to visit the two national parks in Hawaii, as well as other places.

-Alaska. The whole state is a wildlife refuge. I'd like to climb part of Mount McKinley. It would be worth travelling above the Artic Circle, too.

-Northern Minnesota. Voyageurs national park/Boundary Waters/Grand Isle National Park are all in this area. It would be fun to portage a canoe around, go camping, fishing, eating fish, swatting mosquitoes, etc.

-Everglades/Key West area. More national park fun.

-Jerusalem. Yep.

-Hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It starts on the US/Mexico border and doesn't stop until the US/Canada border. Travels through Sequoia/Kings Canyon/Lassen Volcano/Cascades/Crater Lake/Yosemite/other national parks and through Lake Tahoe, near Mount Hood in Oregon, near Death Valley, near the Redwood Forests, near Mount St. Helen's. It would be a dream to spend March through September or so hiking this trail.

Later.