Camping In Style plus A Blast From The Past

Just returned from a long weekend at Smokemont. It's a great place to camp. When I get out and breathe that fresh air, I immediately become so relaxed and I have such a calm feeling from my head to my toes. We had a great time. We walked every day, we ate lots of good food, we talked and laughed alot, and we slept like bears in hibernation.

We've been going to Smokemont, off and on, for around 30 years. The place just has those special memories that you never want to forget. Great friends were made here - lifetime friends. We took all our children . . . after they were potty trained. That was a rule. We tent-camped for the most part until we got our first camper. Then we progressed to a larger, nicer camper. We sold it when Mark was in college. Now we're back to tent camping. We had a wonderful time. Below are some pictures of our fun weekend.

The White Temple
The King's have this awesome tent/awning. It was great. Tom said it looked like a white temple.

A real stove plus 2 dozen red roses!

The King's also have a stove (retrieved from an old camper). We had pancakes and maple syrup with caramelized pecans on Fri. We had eggs/grits/bacon/sausage/country ham/apple butter/peach marmalade (thanks, Billie) and red-eye gravy for breakfast on Sat. Man, oh, man! Our meals were so much better than the Dillard House or Cracker Barrel!!!! The roses were a gift to me from my husband for our anniversary on 9/10/08.

Pregnant Ab, lounging around the camp fire.

The King's also had a cot (I think we'll invite them to go with us every time!!). They brought it for me to lay down in around the fire b/c my back hurt and sitting in folding chairs only lasted for so long. Well, as you can see, I was not the only one to enjoy the comfortable cot!

Chad and Michelle could not go b/c they now have season tickets to S.C. games and this was the big Georgia game (sorry that they lost). Mark & Andrea & Aubrie stayed at home. We missed them terribly. We have enjoyed a couple of campouts at Smokemont as an entire family. Making more memories!

Now for some more nostalgia. I found some pictures from 1984 when we camped at Smokemont as a church group. Honestly, the only thing that has changed at Smokemont since we first camped there is (at the group sight) that the big circle of seats surrounding campfire is no longer there. I call it the Ring of Fire. I miss that Ring of Fire. We don't camp in the group camping area any more, but I still miss seeing it. Many times there were so many soaking shoes, jeans, socks, etc. hanging on chairs and rocks around the fire. The children/teens seemed to immediately go to the river just beyond the Ring of Fire and, of course, they always "fell in". HaHa. We all knew they jumped in on purpose even though the water was freezing. Here are a couple of pictures from 1984.

The Ring of Fire

Tom Taylor, Mary Nelson and Doug Hogg (husband of peach marmalade Billie) are enjoying the fire. I'm not sure why everyone else has their back turned away from the camera.

This picture is special for many reasons: (1) Just look at the beauty of the autumn leaves! (2) The guys putting up the tents remind me of the difficult job those men had to put up many, many tents before the bus load of adults, teens and children arrived that night. (3) See the blue truck and the camper in the background? That camper was our very first camper. We were so happy to own it. See Old Blue? Tom had that truck for 20 years. I saw that very same truck just yesterday. Ernie Hinson bought it from him and it is still running!!!! Just like Ernie, that truck takes a licking and keeps on ticking!

I do love Smokemont. I love being with family and friends. I can't wait to take Aubrie and Cadence with us one day, plus all my other grandchildren that I don't know about yet!