Wifey shoots picture of Luke and Nate during hike last year |
Tomorrow beings a week mostly away from civilization.
We will be entering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a seven-day visit staying at Elkmont Campground, a place of which we are very familiar.
We have visited this campground at least once a year for more than 30 years.
Our trek will keep us away from internet connections, except when perhaps one time during the week we will go down into Gatlinburg and visit a coffee shop for our fix of a latte and wifi.
Favorite Gatlinburg wifi spot |
Our two sons and their families will be joining us for a weekend stay. One group will be camping, the other camping in the cool confines of a Gatlinburg motel.
To each his own.
Wifey and I are looking forward to the get-together. Three years ago we had a large group of the extended family variety and had around 25 gathered for the July 4 week.
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A note of a different sort:
My neighbor across the street came over the other day and told me two of my babies were hanging out in his yard.
The babies were of the raccoon variety. We gathered the two traps that I had and played hide and seek with them.
They were stationed under his outside elevated air conditioner unit. We sat the trap up at one end and prodded them with a stick. One of them managed to enter a trap. The other took off in a different direction and headed to the semi-enclosed patio.
He got under another elevated air conditioning unit. We set the other trap, attempting to cut off all avenues of escape, and routed him toward the trap.
Such luck. That's where he headed and our second one was securely in hand.
I packed them into my van and made the trip to the local national seashore park and turned them loose.
Hopefully, that's the last of the raccoon incident. Over the course of two months we managed to capture and relocate three adult raccoons and two juveniles.
I hope upon returning from this vacation that I don't find any more surprises.
Next blog: July 12, 2011 (two weeks away).