sliding rock

Monday was the day our family fragmented again. The Georges family had to leave after breakfast to return to Roswell in order to make it to their appointment with the teachers at their school. Evelyn distributed the T-shirts she had bought for the family picture. Mine was too small, even though it was labeled as large. I just wore mine from the Cherokee museum. We were able to get a neighbor to take the pictures and then they left. Since they had bought a new van and had kept their old one, the Beelis were left with one to accommodate their family for the remainder of their visit here and their return to Georgia. We all went to the lake to walk around and view the beauty of the fall change of colors. We didn’t finish until after 1 and returned for lunch. We decided to call Queen’s Farm to see if the kids could ride and made an appointment for 3 o’clock, causing a flurry of activity because it was already 2:30. Pieder stayed here for a nap while the rest went to the farm. Emily and the four kids took the hour ride and then I led a horse around the yard with Stephen on its back for his ride since he is only three and couldn’t ride by himself. We came home and got dressed to go to dinner at the Bear’s Den in Maggie Valley but it was closed even though I had called and received a recorded message that they opened at 3 on Monday’s. We went to another restaurant we knew and Pieder bought us dinner. We had intended to use a coupon I had bought on line to use at the Bear’s Den, so the dinner was somewhat more expensive than we had originally planned. We returned home and prepared a picnic for tomorrow’s long anticipated trip to sliding rock and the Cradle of Forestry. We pray that tomorrow will be even more beautiful and warmer than today was.
We got up “early” and had breakfast while finishing the packing of our picnic. We were able to leave around 11 headed for our two destinations. We arrived at the Cradle of Forestry around noon. We learned that Tuesdays are free admission days and we went happily in to the building. What an impressive place that is. It was interesting to learn that our entire forestry system was born in the Vanderbilt family, who brought an educated trained forester from Germany to plan the system and train the future foresters. There were many well planned displays and some very enjoyable and challenging scavenger hunts for the kids. We finally decided to have our picnic on those grounds at 2:30. We went from there to sliding rock. All of the Beelis (except the 3 year old) made at least two trips down the rock into the 40 degree water. Noah actually made 8 or more trips down. There was hardly anyone there. In fact there was only one other man seen sliding down the rock. Of course everyone was cold and wet but still interested in continuing to Looking Glass Falls and returning to the Forestry site to walk one of the trails. We returned home driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, admiring the wonderful colors and even many Monarch butterflies migrating to the Yucatan Peninsula. We had potato soup for dinner and watched the movie Eight Below that I had taped earlier.
Only Noah was up before 9. We enjoyed breakfast together and he helped us with the clean up. The last of the family got up around 10. They had planned to leave around noon so as to get to Roswell in time to take the Georges out to dinner. The kids all pitched in to help with the cleaning and packing. They finally were ready to leave around noon without lunch. We sent them with fruit and some water. We finished cleaning until 1 when we began the great leftover cleanup. I had hoped for a call from the RV repair place saying they could come today to fix the front jack but got none. They had promised to call back earlier in the morning. We began finding some of the many things they had left here and prepared a box to mail to them in Lancaster. Evelyn had to lie down for a while to rest. She has worked herself very hard this past 6 days. I took the trash to the dump area. After she got up, we went to the lake to walk and do computer work. I was looking for a product on line and forgot to publish this blog. We had to come home for dinner before choir. Afterward we came back, and I went to our neighbors, the Rogers, to see if they would go to a trout dinner this Saturday. Things don’t look promising but we will wait a few days to see what happens. We came home to get ready for tomorrow. I go to work, and Evelyn goes to LWML to deliver the devotion. She worked it over tonight.
We got up and Evelyn took me to work. I had quite a bit of cleaning to do but had plenty of time to do it. The workers were glad to see me back. Evelyn went on to the LWML meeting where she led the entire lesson since the scheduled presenter failed to show up. She did such a good job that the women wanted her to finish the lesson. She said maybe next year because we won’t be here for the next meeting in November. I made several telephone calls and arranged to get the jack on the motor home fixed this afternoon. I returned the call from Dr. McLelland about my blood test results. I wonder what he learned about my cholesterol level. I also called the nursery that was supposed to replace the tree they planted last year. I had to threaten them with calling a lawyer. Perhaps they will come this next week. We made plans to go to lunch tomorrow with our neighbors because I won a $10 gift certificate for a neat little restaurant downtown. I also took my paycheck that came Tuesday and think I was shorted some hours. I will have to go to have them check my hours tomorrow. We came home after work and the men came to fix the jack. After they left, I pulled the slides in and found that the living room slide awning is malfunctioning again. Also the refrigeration is malfunctioning too--on both gas and electric. We took the coach to the repair shop to have them check the problems and store the coach for the next month until we go to Texas. We came home for dinner and watched some of Deliverance, a movie from the 70s.