Our Walks & Drives

Spotted Mandarin blooms aka Fairy Bells 

Our Walks & Drives

  Lately we've been sticking around home more and getting out for short walks and drives.

Kenny's back is recovering and he is building up his strength.  We're busy trying to show Gabriel the beauty of the world. We're also trying to help him come to tolerate longer travel

in the confines of a vehicle.   He has his Nanny's disposition. Springs in his butt and can't sit still.   He comes by it honest. I do not like car trips.  Hyper hypo!

    I can't write up individual trip reports for things that may last 30 minutes or so.

I figured I'd roll them into one and make an entry to include these mini trips in my blog.

While they are short they are usually lovely and some are funny.

Cades Cove to Rich Mountain 

Today we drove to Cades Cove, did not go fully around the loop, but turned off onto Rich Mountain Road.  We came out in Townsend.  We pretty much had it to ourselves! 

 A glimpse of Little River on the way.

Above a pair of yellow lady slippers we ran across in out travels.

 Above and below... we were heading to Cades Cove to drive out Rich Mountain Road. We saw this bear up walking on a stone wall. By the time we pulled alongside it.. he had jumped down and was shuffling along browsing.  It was a nice fat bear!

Below is a view of Dry Valley viewed from Rich Mountain Road.  

  

 Large clusters of Mountain bellwort see along Rich Mountain Road

We found a profusion of Sweet White trillium blooming on the slopes along Rich Mtn Road.

 Canada violet

 Large flowered bellwort

Catesbys trillium blooming beside a stream

 We picked enough morels to fry up a mess this year!

 Huge patch of dwarf crested iris along the sides of Rich Mtn. Road

 Gabe got a kick out of getting to sit on Papaw's lap and "drive" for a little bit.

 Gabriel out for a leg stretching break from the car seat with us.

Pretty stream on Rich Mountain

 Another pretty stream with a small cascade. We got out and walked up here.

 Yellow trillium

 Fire pink 

 I stopped near this meadow in Dry Valley. There is a spot where these yellow trilliums, blue phlox, and two shades of dwarf larkspur all bloom together!  

Mayapple blossom in Dry Valley

Schoolhouse Gap Evening Stroller Disaster! 

 We took Gabriel and the stroller and decided to take an evening walk on Schoolhouse Gap Trail.  We have one of those nice big wheeled strollers for rough terrain.  Kenny pushed Gabe and I took photos.   Every little bit I'd hear Gabriel holler out.  He was angry. Now he's ok. Now he's angry again.  I got closer to see what the deal was?  Every time they hit a bump.. which was often... it made Gabe hit his head on the side of the stroller. He was pissed off.
We kept the walk short on account of his aggravation level. We made it to the top of the hill and turned around to head back. I was pushing now and trying to be more careful.

 Gabe and Papaw. He is not impressed so far.

 Stream beside Schoolhouse Gap Trail

 Maiden hair ferns on the banks. 

Stream lined with ferns and mountain laurel. The photo shows how misty the evening was getting.   Thunder started to rumble so we knew we'd best hurry up.  Now Gabriel was hacked off again at the bumping his head and rattling him around in that stroller.  This was a bad idea.    We made it back to the jeep just in time!  We put Gabriel in the vehicle before the rain began pouring down.  Kenny and I were trying our best to get that stroller collapsed and back in the jeep.  It was not collapsing. We had forgotten how to make it fold up.  It is awful being old and dumb about baby stuff.  We have forgotten everything we ever knew about raising kids and the paraphernalia it takes to wrangle them.   Kenny was really getting ticked off. We are getting drenched to the skin trying to figure this out.  Finally he gave up in frustration and got in the jeep.  I took over and tried a different attack.  It folded right up.  If I had to collapse that stroller right this minute... (It was six weeks ago that I last folded it up) I couldn't remember how to do it if my life depended upon it!  Once we got in the car we burst out laughing at ourselves.  This is why you have kids when you are YOUNG!    Poor Gabriel.   We won't be repeating that stunt anyways soon.