Weekend in Tennessee

I had been looking forward to this weekend for weeks.  I LOVE going home to my parents' house.  I LOVE where I grew up.  But things didn't work out as planned.  

We left on Friday morning and made the five hour trip up there just fine.  We walked down to the pond, had a good supper of fresh-out-of-the-garden vegetables, listened to the cicadas in the trees, and watched the lightning bugs come out.  

  Two of our grown sons and one daughter-in-law went too.  There weren't enough beds to go around, so Darcie and Tyler ended up on the floor on a blow-up mattress with a hole.  By morning it was flat, and Tyler had a backache all weekend.  Then Darcie started throwing up.  People began squabbling over various and sundry things.  

To cool off, my husband and I drove down to the Appalachia powerhouse on the Hiawassee River.  We went over eleven miles down a gravel road to get there.  The scenery was beautiful!  I wish I could bottle up the mountain smells and bring them home to Georgia.  We later floated down that river beginning at the powerhouse and ending up in Reliance, TN.  Actually, I was the transportation.  So while my husband, our son Dylan, and his bride Leigh Anne floated down the river, I meandered along the river taking photos of the  mountain scenery, old barns and houses, and horses I ran into along the way.  I had two hours before having to pick them up.  I tried my hand at watercoloring the river and mountains from the top of an overlook, but it started drizzling and my paints began to run.   I took a photo from there, so maybe I'll finish the painting when I get my photos developed.  Or not.....

I brought home some potatoes, okra, and green beans from Mama and Daddy's garden.  I can't wait to fry up some okra tomorrow night.  I'll make a pone of cornbread to go with it too.  Slice a big, red tomato and boil some ears of corn.  Ooh wee!  At's good eatin'.  There's my Tennessee accent coming out! 

Anyway, we're home now and glad and sorry to be.  I could stay up there for weeks, but we have our life here.  I wish the two could be combined.  I love them both.