Where do I begin? On Thursday morning, I woke up in a complete panic because we were supposed to pick Mom up by 6:30 AM, and it was already 6:00 AM. Jay was a trooper that morning minus his grumpy attitude. He loaded the car and walked the dogs in the pouring rain while I got a shower. We rushed to Mom's house, picked her up, unloaded the dogs for Dad, and were on our way to Chesterfield. We arrived in Chesterfield a little behind schedule, which probably put Ma-Ma in a tizzy. Oh well, what were we to do???

After loading her van with all of our luggage, snacks, and most importantly, the box fan, we had lift off ... our destination was PIGEON FORGE, TENNESSEE. I'm sure mine and Jay's driving nearly gave Ma-Ma a heart attack because we're not ones to abide by the speed limit. We laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more. Our entire weekend was filled with happiness ... we definitely made memories that will last a lifetime. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Dinner at OUTBACK -- we had a really horrible waitress that insisted on telling us how easily she gets sidetracked. That was her excuse for taking 10 minutes to bring Ma-Ma a drink after bringing her the wrong soda the first time. She insisted on calling us baby, honey, sugar, and so on ... so when Ma-Ma would see her coming our way, she would say "Oh no, here she comes again"

2. The weather was as hot in Pigeon Forge as it was when we left the beach. The temperatures soared to 90 degrees during the day and dropped down to 68 degrees at night. Poor Mom only packed long-sleeve items thinking that the mountains were going to be cooler ... she ended up buying some short-sleeve shirts on the clearance rack in Cracker Barrel. We love any excuse to SHOP!

3. We ate, and ate, and ate some more. My diet was non-existent on this trip ... I knew I was in trouble when we picked up my Grandmother and she had made a homemade pound cake to take on the trip with us.

4. SHOPPING -- in respect to shopping, Pigeon Forge is pretty much just like the beach without the water. They had tons and tons of outlet stores. Jay is shopped out until next year because we ran him in the ground by going shopping from sun up to sun down.

5. We ran into technical difficulties with my Grandmother's electric wheelchair lift on her van. The lift got stuck midway between outside and inside the van. Mom and Jay detected the problem --- a frayed wire was causing the misconnection. I guess Jay's wire splicing skills go back to his days of rims and radios. He took some electrical tape and hooked everything up to make it work until we got home. WAY TO GO, BABY!!!

6. Dollywood was nice scenery. I could have stayed for hours just watching the people. Jay and I rode a few roller coasters and watched a few shows with Mom and Ma-Ma. The fall decorations were breathtaking, and their funnel cakes were scrumptious.

7. Cottage #7 was wonderful. It was definitely like being at home with all the amenities you could ask for. The rental company was a little farther up the mountain, and when I called for directions, all the girl kept saying was turn right onto Wears Valley Road and it's 4.9 miles. She kept repeating 4.9 miles over and over so we all had a good laugh on that one. Whenever one of us would ask where something was, everyone would reply with 4.9 miles.

8. We went to the Miracle Theater, which is a musical recreation of the life of Christ. It was absolutely touching. The costumes were exquisite, they had live animals such as horses, camels, sheeps, and donkeys in the performance, and the cast were extremely talented. I would recommend this show to anyone visiting Pigeon Forge. It was well worth the money.

I can't even begin to share all of our trip with you, but I hope you've enjoyed hearing about our adventure. I also pray that we'll have many more trips like this one with my Grandmother.