troublesome Halloween

Tuesday we finished loading the car and left around 8:30 for the post office and Taco Bell. I noticed we had forgotten to pack a travel pillow. Little did I know that was a sign from God that we should return home to get it. We didn’t. We had decided to drive through the Smokey Mountain National Park instead of the Interstate. We did, but I couldn’t stay awake, so Evelyn drove and I slept through most of the scenery I wanted to see. Just as we entered the park, I noticed that we didn’t have our camera. Remember the pillow decision? It was already too late to return, so I was to say the least. We went through Pigeon Forge, and I debated whether we should knock around there for a few days instead of the planned days in Nashville. We went on--not a tragic one but mistake number 2. We connected with the Interstate and traveled on to Knoxville. We got off to gas up and as we reentered the highway, our atlas and my Thrivent calendar slid out the rear window. We could not safely stop so on we went. Disaster 3. We had a good trip to Nashville, stopping at a Red Lobster for lunch. Normally we eat from the cooler at noon, but were hungry for fish. We arrived at the Countryside Lodge around 4 (we had crossed into the central time zone). We were able to get the desk clerk to accept the coupon from the Interstate magazine from the highway even though it was not yet valid. We paid for two nights. We ate warmed leftovers from the cooler and took a walk around the area to check it out. We needed some exercise after riding all day. When we returned, I fired up the computer to blog and discovered that I had forgotten the power cord. Disaster 4. This was the most devastating because I need it to use during the winter months to write sermons. Naturally I had some trouble sleeping but decided to call our neighbor Jim and ask him to overnight it to us