We fiddled around so long getting to IN, we decided to stay at a hotel rather than crashing in on the family in the middle of the night. Hotel hunting was the name of the game. We were unaware that the Derby was on, so hotels were booked up for miles. We ended up staying at a hotel only 30 min.from our destination. No biggie though. First day at the cousins, Randy hooked up Charlie the Belgian horse to a cart and gave the girls a ride. That evening was a cook out and bonfire with extended family. The kids played in the creek, and just had a blast. Meanwhile...
I offered to help Randy mow part of the pasture his cows and mini-horse,Chloe, are on. He has one of those giant mowers professional lawn care companies use. So I had a crash course and was left to just have at it! Down right crazy, I was all over the place steering wise for a while, and the ground was not level. There was a rather intimidating hill and my mom said she was afraid I was going to flip and wreck. It was so crazy I was laughing at my poor performance and did a yell over that hill...while my mouth was open...a bug flew right in! That was so gross! I was hacking,sputtering, and of course, laughing at the whole predicament....my family said I was a mowing mad woman and quite entertaining while they were around the bonfire. A good lesson all in all...keep your mouth closed while mowing!
The rest of our stay involved 4 wheeler rides and playing in the creek almost every day. Parks, rivers, stables, were all visited, including an extended cousin who has exotic animals: zonkeys, a donkey, peacocks, something like a buffalo maybe? Another family party and then we were off to northern Chicago to visit friends for a few days. We were privileged to see Lake Michigan in all its blue/green- cold- fresh water glory. Wish I'd have had my bathing suit. The girls got in and assured me through chattering teeth that the water was great! Vacation rolling wonderfully along....wrapping up to come!
-Kate

We did Dollywood a bit, meaning we didn't bother to do more than one actual grown up ride- the giant water wheel whatsit (we rode it twice) and the carousel. That was oodles of fun, Hoppy rode on a rooster, Lizzy on a cat with a fish in its mouth and Elena on a horse (big surprise there). We also did the steam train which was really cool. Loved the chugging noise and the whistle. The guy shoveling the coal was amazing, does it all day and was not a young man. That's a guy for ya!

We listened to a show, the cousins on the back porch and checked out a few tchatchkie stores, bought a couple things. Nan got us a really nice wooden sign for our farm at a discount cause she used the back of a demo one. It's really nice. After we wore ourselves out at Dollywood, we returned to the hotel to get out of our damp clothes and head over to Dixie Stampede. It's always a fantastic show. Although, they serve you a ridiculous amount of food, Hoppy was like "Ahhh! They keep feeding me! How do I get them to stop!" she began to really dread the waitress, just for fear of more food. hah!  Mom took the girls to the hotel pool when we got back, heated indoor pool...nice!

The next day we went to Parrot Mountain....and they weren't kidding. This man bought 20 acres or so on the side of a mountain, I was in low gear all the way up cringing at the thought of the way down. The parking lot was wicked steep and just getting Nan to the check in gate we thought we'd have to leave her there, until they called over a young man who took us around in a golf cart for an extra $15. It was worth it, Nan got to see most of the birds. They all have their own special perches or cages. We were told that they know which perch is theirs and if you try to put them on the wrong one, you are told in no uncertain terms just how wrong you are. Several of the birds can talk and one bird has the intelligence of a 3rd grader. Wow! Absolutely gorgeous birds and very well taken care of, the whole place was swarming with gardeners and the cages were pristine, no smell! and they had enough birds to generate a smell, believe you me! It's basically a haven for exotic birds that people buy and can't keep or have abandoned. It's a bit pricey, but the $ goes to the birds care and it's worth a look.

After Parrot Mountain we took a short drive over to the Bush Bean Welcome Center. No, the dog did not sell us the secret family recipe. We saw two films on the family business and they were really cool. There was a scale that you could stand on and it would calculate your weight in beans! . Of course we all did that....but I ain't tellin' . It was fun and we were sure glad TomTom took us by seldom trod roads to Dollywood or we'd have missed all the fun. After that we headed to IN to our cousins place. And if you think it's all relaxin' in the country, than you don't know our cousins! More on that later!

Hope you're all having a great week. We've just seen so much more of God's beautiful earth and His remarkable creations...He is worthy to be praised.

Blessings,

Kate

I don't know if I've ever mentioned that my GPS (a TomTom) is rather dramatic. If it loses signal while you're following its directions it will demand you make an immediate left as soon as signal is restored, regardless of whether you're supposed to or not. It often chooses routes based on it's own personal tastes.

This trip has been no exception. We programmed it for Dollywood and it was set to fastest route which usually means it will take main roads and interstates...but not today. Tom tom took our white canoe over many waters....it put us on the craziest back road tour we've had yet. Past the Bush bean packing facility, on a roller coaster ride of ups downs and sharp turns. I'm glad none of us got car sick. We ended up on Parrot Mountain, which we are so checking into tomorrow. Nan was getting a little worried, having been to Dollywood before, she knew that we should be on main roads. After a bit, our curvy road got so hilly, one of the hill tops was so steep you couldn't see the road, the drop on the other side was so sharp and sudden...that was a "yahoo" moment, when you have no choice but to take the plunge!

When the road we were on seemed unending, we started to get the giggles....what if the Dollywood we were going to was "Dolly Wood" home of the Cupie. I could totally see some entreprenurial hill billy rigging that up in their back yard. By the way, did you know there is a town in the mountains of Tennessee that is the "Entrprenurial Capitol"? That surprised us too. As I was saying, we got the giggles so bad, nan was afraid I wouldn't be able to see to drive. I did though. We found civilization and a gas station where we looked up on a paper map where TomTom had taken us....and you know what? The road we were on looked just like intestines on that map. We were driving on Tennessees intestines...

Will the fun never end?!
That's all for now, I'm beat.
-Kate