Boy Scout Camping Trip and VA Creeper Bike Trail

Jason, Andrew and Ethan headed up to Abington, VA last weekend for a Boy Scout camping trip and VA Creeper bike trail. We have been hearing about this trail for years and have only heard great things from everyone. I'd give it a 5 out of 5 stars for how well this place is viewed. The boys rode the 17 mile bike ride (mostly downhill or flat) with all 17 scouts and dads or moms with them.

Here's some info from their website. "The Virginia Creeper Trail is possibly the easiest, prettiest mountain bike ride you will ever encounter. The Va Creeper Trail, which is actually the "retired" railway corridor of the Virginia - Carolina Railroad, has become one of the most popular bicycling trail destinations in the eastern United States. With its gently descending grade and well-groomed surface, lending itself perfectly to downhill adventures, the Virginia Creeper Trail is an attractive mountain-bike ride for cyclists of diverse abilities."

Hannah, Caleb and I stayed home due to lack of readiness. Hannah just wouldn't be ready to ride that long way since her training wheels are off now and she just hasn't mastered the riding yet. We also stayed back to be able to celebrate Hannah's birthday with her on Sunday just the way she wanted. I'll post more about that later. The boys came home exhausted after camping and bike riding but would like to return one day they all said.

Smoky Mountain Trip

Sunday afternoon, we took a trip to the Smoky Mountains to see the gorgeous fall colors. We decided to forgo the Cades Cove Loop with the other millions of visitors and hit the equally gorgeous place, Foothills Parkway. The Foothills Parkway is a road up over a mountain that overlooks the Smokies on one side and the city of Maryville (just south of Knoxville) on the other. We were all split on which side was better. Some of us loved the mountain view and others loved seeing the lakes and small city neighborhoods far below us.

We hiked a half mile up to a tower called Look Rock to see the views. It was quite high. To my surprise, Hannah was scared of the height and Ethan wasn't. Ethan boldly stated that he had gotten over his fear of heights through Cub Scouts. Two separate times, Ethan has been forced to face this fear. He went to an indoor rock climbing event and also a rode a zipline with his Scout pack and he thinks that cured him. It did seem to help him so I guess it's time we send Hannah on a zipline and climbing a rock wall.

The fall leaves are in peak color right now. It was beautiful! I'm so thankful we have this in our "backyard". After the hike and tour, we completed the night by stopping for pizza. That was a big hit with the kids too.

6 Flags

Every year, 6 Flags offers a reading program for school kids. They give away 1 free ticket per student who reads 6 hours. 6 Hours! That's nothing! So we tried it this year and got 4 tickets, one for the teacher (me). The tickets were only good from May until August 7, so we headed down to Atlanta on the 6th. Cutting it short, weren't we?

Friends from church graciously gave us their Hampton Hotel points and we got a free room for the night. We sure needed it too. I haven't felt this tired in years. Walking for 9 straight hours sure wore us out. We had a ball. Rode a few roller coasters, played a lot in the water park, ate junk galore and made a ton of memories.

Park Day in January?

We played at the park on Saturday, January 28! We should be inside by a fire watching the snow fall. But here in East Tennessee we enjoyed a beautiful sunny day with a high of 61. Sunday's fore casted high was 63. At this rate, I'll have pictures of my spring flowers in no time. The boys played without their jackets at the park and could have played in short sleeve shirts. We saw many people out in shorts and a little girl in a halter top even though it looked like she dressed herself. Here are some pictures of us at The Cove Park in Farragut. The highlight for the boys was feeding the ducks. Ethan was having such a good time that he cried most of the way home until he fell asleep in his carseat.

Our Saturday Adventure

Today we decided to head up to the mountains and tour the loop at Cades Cove. The Cove is an 11-mile loop between two mountain ridges in the lower portion of the Great Smoky Mtns. On an average day, it takes a few hours to tour the loop, but weekends can be crazy with traffic.
Wildlife abounds here! Deer, coyotes, bears, turkeys, squirrels--you name it. Some domestic animals are also present. We have seen as many as 150+ deer on previous trips. During autumn, the 'rut' begins and buck deer can be seen in mass--some VERY big.

On this outing we saw approximately 15 bucks, one of those was feeding next to the road. As you can imagine, traffic comes to a halt and L O N G lines form. I wasn't able to get a picture of this one because a park ranger was at the 'hold up' waving people through. But, I did capture this one even though he was far off. The boys love going to the mountains. Their favorite thing to do is throw rocks in to the streams. It entertains them for hours. Hopefully Hannah will enjoy going as much as they do some day. She just wanted to eat and sleep in Mommy's arms today. Hope you enjoy the pictures and had a great Saturday too.
Jason and Shelley