Weekend Away

Steve and I took a little trip by ourselves up to Cloudland Canyon State Park. It was such a nice break! Andy nailed down things at home with the help of siblings and his girlfriend, Kristi Bartholomew, whose sister we just happened to meet in the park gift shop (Lord - was that a sign?)

On Friday we hiked from the cabin around the rim and then down to see the two waterfalls. We saw what we thought were eagles soaring on the thermal currents -- we were disappointed to find out they were black vultures. They sure had an elegant appearance in the air. The waterfalls were pretty, but I complained that if I was going to hike my legs off to see a waterfall, I deserved to get close enough to it to feel the cool mist. Because of the dry years we have had lately, the falls are not as big as they used to be. Oh well.

Steve pointed out to me as we hiked from one waterfall to the other, that there was a parking lot above. (In other words, we hiked about an hour longer than we had to) That's my husband!
After we had seen both waterfalls, Steve hoofed it back to the cabin (no sweat!) to get the corvette, while I climbed a few stairs at a time, dripping sweat, taking time to lean over the rails or sit on a step now and then, feeling my pulse pound in my head and chest, knowing I couldn't stay where I was, I had to keep climbing up those hundreds of stairs. I finally reached the top, feeling nauseated and having some slight chills -- wierd feeling --- I sat down on a picnic table and prayed that Steve would find me, as we hadn't established an exact meeting place. About 5 minutes later he pulled into the parking lot (he had been praying too).

On Saturday, I wasn't in the mood to sweat, so we played disc golf. Too bad, by the time we played 14 holes (we cheated and skipped a few) I was all sweaty and we had found the poison ivy afew times too. After washing up really well, we rested a bit, then drove up to Ruby Falls in Tennessee. Two hundred sixty feet down in an elevator, then a half hour trek into the cave, to see the waterfall for about four minutes under multicolored lights. When the lights go down, you know your turn is up and it's time to walk the trek back out. It was cool to see.

Sunday morning we drove to church in a heavy rain. It was a building in Flintstone, Georgia, part of the Knoxville, Tennessee mission. We enjoyed the small town folk and their testimonies. After church we went on home to Marietta, to find the house still standing, and everyone happy and well.