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My kids mother had the kids for Thanksgiving this year, and my family doesnt do a lot cause my father runs a cotton gin which is full blast right now so I decided to head out of town for a few days.

My gf and I left tuesday, and went to Sweetwater Tn to The Lost Sea, its a large cave that you walk down into. Originally they mined saltpeter from it for gun powder during the civil war. There was once a bar in it called the Cavern Tavern during prohibition. They said they had live bands and everything in there, the only problem is that while down there the drinks didnt really take affect on folks til they tryed to leave and it was a very steep climb so people would fall back down thru the entrance. At the bottom is a 800 foot long lake, they have a glass bottomed boat and they stocked trout in there years ago to see if they would find a way out. Kind of neat if your into that kind of stuff.

The next day we went thru Townsend Tn into the back side of the Smokey Mountain National Forest, most people enter thru Pigeon Forge and its bumper to bumper, so I went thru the back door. While in the park I got pictures of 2 black bears. One was a cub and I was tempted to mess with him but Ang talked me out of it. The other was pretty damn big, I was about 60 ft from him getting pictures when a ranger came out and told me to get back to my vehicle. We also went thru a meadow and there were deer grazing with a huge buck wandering 20-30 ft from people. In my area its deer season, I guess they are protected there.

We then wound up in Gatlinburg TN, found a killer Hotel with a creek side balcony, fireplace, hottub, within walking distance of the main drag. We wandered around shops and went dancing that night, saw a pretty good cover band called Brewsters Millions.

Thanksgiving we went up to Ober Gatlinburg which is a ski lodge deal. We got up there and hadnt decided where to eat Thanksgiving at and they had this huge buffet deal going on, so we sat in this huge window overlooking the mountains and had our meal. While we were sitting there it started snowing like crazy. Was perfect timing, perfect meal and perfect companion.

At night we hit all the hot spots we could find. We went into this Karoake bar and there was a groupd of people we know from home, they are all pretty good singers. I was just going to sit back and listen and my friends kept shouting Get Bubba Up! Get Bubba Up! The dj finally said come on up here Bubba, so I did. Most of the people were doing country and he said man we need some rock. I said just pick something screaming. He threw on Black Dog by Zep, man I nailed it! These folks were freaking out. The DJ said he was trying to stump me with that song, I just told him that I had always wanted to sing it and never had before. He was freaking.

Anyway here are some photos, I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Im thankful for all my friends here and their familys!

Thats the kind of stuff Jeanette and I like to do man.
Glad you had a good trip.
Send me some of that moonshine dude.

I need to get a still goin'.

Looks like you had a truly great time, JW!

I need a road trip!

Great pics, man, & yeah, it prolly IS a good idea you didn't mess with the bear cub! I've never seen a bear in the wild, though they're arounb here. I'm still lookin' though! Friend of mine gets pics of one on his deck every year. Eeeeek!

Good thing you didn't mess with the bear. Especially if its mother was anywhere near. They can be pretty ugly if they get mad. Even deer can hurt you if they think they are being threatened. With or without antlers...

Good pics, just the kind of thing I like to do too. Planning to go check out the petrified forest outside Vicksburg sometime soon, and of course I'm always out birdwatching...but I like any kind of state/national parks, historical sites and such. Touring the battleground in Vicksburg again might be a good road trip this winter too.

Carlsbad Caverns was one possibility on our way to Vegas this spring, we decided against it because it was too far out of the way, but seriously considered it. Did go to the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, a dinosaur museum and a couple of canyons outside vegas. I enjoyed those more than the infamous Las Vegas Strip...

Nice Pics JW.
I thought at first that bear was one in a Zoo somewhere hahaha.
Glad that you folks had a good time there, looks like you did.

Thanks guys it was a good trip.

Friday night we got back and later went out to this disco place we go to dance for a few hours. Ang had on this thick turtle neck sweater and I had on that grey turtle neck. After an hour or so we both had gotten hot, cause when we dance we realy really dance. So she says Im going to take my top off, Im like what? But she had one of those wife beater shirts on under there. Then she grabs my vest off and pulls my shirt off, of course thats about the time the bouncer walks by! I threw on the vest and he was cool. I look around and all these people half our age are just staring at us, so what did we do, went right back to dancing. You just cant worry about what people are thinking. I never understood people going in bars and just siting there, especially a dance bar, but some of them never moved from the same seat the whole time we were there, who knows maybe they were jsut watching us to see what we would do next. One young looking guy comes up to me when we were leaving and says, "When I grow up I want to be just like you!", all I could reply to him was just dont ever grow up then.

Bill, I may head to Vegas for New Years instead of Nawlins, might check out some of those things you talked about.

Ive got a lot of wildlife shots myself and a lot of agricultural pictures, maybe sometime I will post a few here.

You guys have a Great Day! Keep Rockin!

Real nice of you to share thanx JW.

Great pics, J.W!

I was just wondering,
Did they give out any free samples at that moonshine still?

HJ

naw, howlin, but I brought my own!

Vegas for New Years? Hell, every year I try to get out of here on New Years. What freaking madhouse.

If it were up to me, this is where I'd be on New Years:

http://www.mammothmountain.com/

I get enough of the city life as it is.

Went there for my 30th Birthday. We rented a full condo that sleeps 6 for $80 a day.

Damn man, just checked the pricing for New Years lodging. Cheapest place was $260 a day. Ooof..

Shredd,

When I raced motocross I raced there 6-7 yrs ago. They turn the slopes into a dirt bike track. The altitude really messed up the bike jetting, you had to lean those babys out to keep em happy, but you lost a lot of power. Plus the longer races the altitude wore you out a lot faster.

Vegas was just a thought cause I can get such cheap flights from here, hell I may just stay home this year.

Something will pop up. I played music the last 3 New Years and was in Fla racing motorcycles the 5 yrs before that, and then the 3 or 4 years before that I was playing music so Im ready to just do something different, unless someone wants to pay our band some real money.

Looked over those good pictures again John.


My that squirrel has big nuts !!

Thats funny George, that squirrel was stripping the outer coating of that hickory nut. He did it so fast I almost didnt catch that shot. I was driving around this roadway in a place called Cades Cove and I shot that from my truck window, I just thought it was interesting with the shadow contrast. I mean come on, folks on here dont want a bunch of boobie pictures! They want wildlife!

Man I feel like I missed out last week as I've been sick as hell with chem Pneumonia for the last 2 weeks and barely able to type well now. But it makes me feel a lot better seeing my freinds having as much fun. I think I'll head up to White county in a couple of weeks and see some dear old friends and do a little spelunking myself.

Working for another day in Paradise !!!