Old Friends Arrive Next Door!

Sunday, let's see...  oh yeah, I had to work.  The frozen lemonade stand is not my favorite stand to work, but it was slow to start, then stayed fairly busy all day.  It was nice weather, and I served a few interesting guests.  But I won't go there...

Our manager, Tom, came over and handed me a ticket for a free BBQ lunch.  Gary has been wanting to try their ribs (at $18 for about 6 little ribs, even though we get it half price, still too much for that many ribs), so now was my chance to bring home some BBQ.  But by the time I got my lunch period, the ribs were gone.  I had some chicken, ate a little of it, and wrapped it up to take home.  The next thing was to find out if I could work another day except Mondays.  Talked to the boss, and he agreed it was OK.  So now I can work 2 days in the office.  I'm waiting until the CG owner meets our friend, Ron, so that she will change her order than NO MAN will ever work in the office.  He is so sweet, I know she'd love for him to work there.   Walked out of the park at 8 pm, jumped in the Jeep, home in 15 minutes and in the shower and jammies 10 minutes later.  Ahhhhh.

Monday arrived and I had a cleaning frenzy.  Inside the coach hadn't been really, thoroughly cleaned in a couple of months, so I cleaned every surface.  Nice.  I called Donna and Ron who were arriving from Illinois today to see what their ETA was.  Holy cow, it was in about an hour!  It was a record shopping trip for dinner ingredients, and I still made it back before their arrival.  Finally they arrived in their Excel fifthwheel, and there were hugs all around.  They were guinea pigs for a new recipe of Enchiladas that was so-so.  But we did eat outside and introduced them to some of our friends in the CG.  Having driven 600 miles from Sunday night, it was all we could do to talk until 9 pm, and then we both retired for a day of fun on Tuesday.

Gary had a bad night, so we actually slept in until 9:30.  Donna and Ron were up and hungry, so we headed out (after doubling back because Ron forgot his wallet).  By the time we got on the road, it was around noon, so forget breakfast - let's go for a hamburger at Five Guys!  Yummy. Here we are with our dear friends. 

After lunch we wanted to see who was going to be playing at the Memories Theater so that we could plan an evening of 'stars'.  After that we drove over to a unique store named Ten Thousand Villages that provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts.  We both fell in love with grass boxes with coconut fibre tops.  Beautiful and functional.  They would make good gifts along with the cinnamon bark jars with carved lids.  We will definitely be visiting that store again!

The boys wandered over to Workshop Tools and we were pleased to see they had a new shipment of our rare earth magnets in.  Scooped up a couple of those.  And 2 foot square ShamWow towels were $1.99 - great for wiping down the kayak after a trip.  Gary had also misplaced his readers, and found a new pair here for $2.00. 

That was fun, but the most fun was the craft store near the Old Mill.  Remember I wanted to find something new to do for our gate guarding trip?  Well, just like looking for a house, and walking in and knowing "This is IT", that's what happened when we walked into this store and I saw something called Punch Embroidery.   A sales lady patiently showed us how it was done, her very first attempt, the needle used and how it was threaded and some pre-packaged patterns.  Well, I loved it.  I will be doing some research on that in the near future!

Gary was ready to head home, so we did a little puttering and met up for drinks on the veranda.  Donna and Ron have another friend in town, so planned to have dinner and a show with them.  Meanwhile, we chatted with our neighbor, Rodney for a while, then had a little dinner.  Gary was getting another fever, so downed a couple Tylenol and returned to bed. 

I did some more research, and now I am going to cuddle with my hubby.  He's a little scared of the dark, so we may be up a little late.  But the sun will come up tomorrow.

Thanks again for all your support.  You're wonderful.

Doctor's Opinion

We had a little rest this morning before heading to the cancer center for bloodwork and a visit with the Dr.  Bloodwork was good, Doctor's reaction to Gary's face was not.  I whipped out my notes and printouts, and asked my questions.  In the end, we agreed to continue the Gemzar for a few more weeks, but he can recommend Gary for a clinical trial or refer him to Duke, Vanderbilt or M.D. Anderson if he feels it necessary.

Nurse Cindy hooked him up adding a little demerol for pain, and he was feeling good in about 1 minute.  Gemzar is a fast drip and we were ready to leave in an hour.

We are keeping all our fingers and toes crossed.

We came home to rest; well Gary rested, I worked on the computer a little more.  There's a wealth of information out there.

Next spring, for example, we are seriously thinking about Gate Guarding in Texas.  Gate Guarding is an independent contractor job for couples  Researching blogs and forums yields more information than a straight search for gate guarding.  Gary was worried about the safety of being isolated anywhere near the border of Texas for weeks, but after reading various posts, we realized it couldn't be a very dangerous job.  A Level II Security Officer Exam (which does not require you to carry a weapon), background check, fingerprints, passport pictures (for your license) and a fee are all that are required with your application.  The pay is substantial which is the main draw for a job that requires a 24/7 committment logging in every vehicle wishng to pass through the gate to the work site.  Almost everyone says it is remote, and you better have hobbies to amuse yourself, or it could be quite boring.  Gary's bringing his telescope and guitar; I'm bringing my eBook and something new to learn. 

Thank you all for your continued support for Gary.  He appreciates hearing from you all soooo much.  We will not give up no matter what.  He won't allow a photo of him anywhere, so you'll have to use your imagination.  But he is hanging in there with a positive attitude.  Best thing to do, right?

Anyhow, I worked at the CG office today.  Billy, the CG Manager, asked me if I could pleeeze work another day because two more spaces are opening up.  I said I'd have to think about it.  It would mean moving my days around at Dollywood, so I'll have to see if I can arrange that. 

Hope you are all safe and far away from the hurricane, Irene.  Isn't it great we have wheels?

Yes, We're Still Here

I have to catch you up to today, so we'll start with Saturday which I spent in the CG office from 8:45 till 7pm.  Not much else do I remember from that day.

Sunday was a work day, but it was the beginning of Bluegrass and BBQ at Dollywood. They have been setting up buildings and huge gas cookers all around Market Square.  The water was emptied from the Friendship Fountain and a stage and tent were erected over it.  There are several bands every day performing bluegrass and the aroma from the BBQ wafts everywhere except where I work.  I hear the same old music everyday, but tomorrow I will be working "Vending".  I've never done that before, so I'm interested to see what that's all about.  Gary's face and eyes are really very bad, so he's taken a little break from work until he can see better and his face heals.  Everyone at Dollywood wishes him well.    

Attendance is down at DW because of summer vacations ending and kids and teachers returning to school.  This is expected, but still it is a shock to us workers who are used to running during our hours at work.  September will be another slow month, but October will be really busy as the leaf-lookers begin to arrive.

Monday was another work day for me and I was at my favorite spot at Barnstormer MiniMelts.  It was really slow all day, and I got to go home early.  But on my way home I stopped at Walmart to pick up some medications his Dr. ordered.  Poor, pitiful guy.  He took his pain medication and another dose of steroids to help him feel better.  He tells everyone that from the chin down he feels fine, which is true, but he also says it looks like he fell on a land mine face first.  Some people may agree.  But he's still my favorite, handsome guy of all time.

Tuesday was haircut day for me, and I had my usual razor cut, but made the back a little shorter.  Oooh, that feels cooool.  The pain medication made Gary feel much, much better, and he was raring to do something when I got home.  Just nothing public.  Well, alrighty then!

I quickly thought of the Cherokee Orchard Trail loop road that begins and ends in Gatlinburg, meandering through the Smokies.  It was a spectacular day, 88 and sunny, so we stopped at Burger King for a picnic lunch and headed into the National Park.  Just before we got too far, Gary stopped at a pulloff near the Little Pigeon River and we found a huge rock hangover - perfect for a picnic.  Here we are on the edge.

After we fed the fish most of our buns (they didn't like fries), we put the top down on the Jeep and drove off into the coolness of the trees. 

Making a left at the Aquarium onto Cherokee Orchard Trail, we passed through some condos and small homes, and then entered through the gate into the Park.  Almost immediately we came upon the Noah Ogle Place and decided to investigate.  A decendant of one of the first family to settle, Noah and his bride, Cindy started a 400 acre farm in 1879.  We followed the 1.2 mile nature trail through the woods which was at one time pastures, cornfields and playground for their 8 children. 

A lot of the path meandered along the river with many miniature waterfalls, shadows

and even an old tub mill

A tree growing around a few boulders and

some fungus amongus.

 

We came out by the homestead and took some 'artistic' pictures:

Gary leaning on a very large rock

Room with a view

Three doorways

The old Bud Ogle place

It was interesting to imagine how it was in the 1800s, and how very difficult it was to remove all the rocks, boulders and trees for pasture and garden land.  It must have been backbreaking work all the time.  How different things are now.

 We continued on our drive on the one way road and pulled off at the Rainbow Falls Trailhead among lots of other cars.  A family of three with all their gear on started up this trail.  Gary and I followed and all of a sudden I looked down and saw this:

A Timber Rattlesnake 5 feet in front of me.  I let out a little scream and backed away.  He rattled his way along and other people came over to investigate.  He crawled right across the trail and into the grass around a tree, apparently very curious about trying to climb up it.  By then we had a little crowd.  Gary took a short video, but I can't get it to load.

After that little episode, we got back into the Jeep and continued up and up turning the corner to this beautiful view. 

Beautiful, huh?  Some friends were having a picnic on the side of the parking spot with their table all set up.  It sure smelled good, whatever they were cooking.  That made Gary hungry again, so we continued our drive home.

For dinner we made pizzas; Gary's was a meat lovers and mine was a veggie.  We used Naan with garlic and green herbs for our dough which was delicious!  We just threw on the ingredients and baked it in our toaster oven for 14 minutes.  Yummy!

Wednesday I went to work at Sausage, Gary stayed home.  I'm moving fast now... and Thursday he felt well enough to play golf.  (go figure)  Off he went at 7 am and I researched various cancer treatments and trials through the NIH and Cancer Centers.  It was an intensive education in a short time and I have plenty of questions to ask the Dr. tomorrow.  The good news is if we have to move for treatment elsewhere, it's not big deal, except that I might have to drive.  Yikes.  I hope we can get his eyes at least good enough to drive the coach.  I'll keep you updated.