ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Some of the best times in our lives have been on vacation with my parents. It's really a riot traveling with them. We would all load into the car head out on road trips that lasted four to five days with more unforgettable "Shanagans" taking place than you could possible shake a stick at !! We discovered it's best to make sure your belly button is securely bound and you have an ice pack handy when the action hits. Mom is going to keep you "howlin'" with her stunts and daddy always kept my jaws hanging down with some of the things he could do.
Mom and Dad have always love the Grand Old Oprey, had always watched it on TV so we purchased tickets and headed to Nashville with them one weekend. After checking into a suite at the Marriott, which we were sharing, we headed out to fill our grumbling stomachs but I think Dad was miserably afraid we were going to be late. Once there and seated, they were in Hog Heaven !! Mom was totally oblivious to anyone around, she got to see her favorite singers and Daddy was just like a kid again. Lordy! Mercy! He got to see "Little Jimmy Dickens" that night. Thrill of his life. Gracious !! I do love my parents because Country music is not my bag of tea. It's kindly been a joke with my brother about Peg going to the "Grand Ole Oprey"! Jesse didn't know what a thrill it was for me to see our parents enjoying life so much. They had given so much of themselves and never expected anything in return so this was such fun being able to do something to make them happy. Even listening to the music was made bearable by their joy. Jesse has finally found the "button of happiness" I had that night....he carried them to see a Bill Gather Concert, he didn't realized they floated home ahead of the vehicle when they got to see these "unreachable" things at this time of their lives.
One of the most memorable trips was to the Smoky Mountains. Our reservations were for a Friday afternoon in the peak season of October. Every room is "always" filled, No Vacancy! Believe Me! NO VACANY!! My "darlin' " decided to go a day early!! He was sure there would be no problem getting a room on a Thursday Night. We should have known from word "go" things were not that simple. Now remember, I'm riding (so are my folks), he's paying, and he wants to go early, and we are going early. So we load in and take off. Things were just moving along too smoothly, no traffic jams in Nashville but Knoxville, Tn. made up for all the progress we had made up to that point. A traffic jam like I had never been in! Two hours yet, of sitting on our donkies and coolin' our heels waiting to get through that construction site!! Let's just say we wondered if we should start walking the rest of the way. After forty-five minutes Dad did get out of the car and "start" walking up the road. Now!! That did make me just a mite on the nervous side! Not to mention we were thirsty, looking for a "pit" stop and sitting there scratching our mad spots!! When people get into these situations you find that you can roll your windows down and get acquainted with the people in the other cars....exactly what my mom and dad did !! Everybody in a mile of our car knew that "The Kids" were carry them to the Mountains and most people told us how sweet we were as they passed by when the traffic started moving. I was sitting there basking in the praise, when I glanced down at my watch and every nerve in my body sounded an alarm. The Time!! We were not going to make it there early enough to secure a room for the night!!
Looking at my husband I said, "I guess you know we are not going to find a room." I had just stuck the knife in and given it a twist.
"You're the most negative person. Why don't you just relax," he replied, "Since we're so close I thought we would just carry your folks through Cades Cove!"
RELAX!! He wanted me to relax!! Not only did he want me to relax, he had decided we were going through Cades Cove. No room secured for the night and a wife that was beginning to get hysterically funny, (Bad sign, Bad Sign!!).
I couldn't help but get in the swing of the mood since Dad and mom so wanted to see the "Shields" Cabin and the gravestones of the "Shields" in the Cove. They were so cute, who would have thought anyone could be so excited over a log cabin and graves!.
We made pictures, rambled the graveyard, spotted a bear that I didn't care about introducing myself to. Two hours later we were making our way out of a congested, hot, barren Cades Cove onto the main road when my husband turned toward me and quietly says, "I guess you know we aren't going to be able to make it back to Pigeon Force or Gatlinburg before dark."
Talk about Panic! Wilford does not see well enough at night to drive and here we are up on the Blue Ridge where only Mountain Goats should be wondering around at night. I happen to know for a fact, the cattle up in that area have two legs shorter on one side. That came straight from a neighbor that was raised in that country. Of Course, the shorter legs depends on which way the cows are facing. In other words, it's steep, the roads are winding, it's getting dark and still no place to lay our weary heads! Dad voiced his complete faith in Wilford's ability to find a place to spend the night and Mom was an absolute "gigglebox", which meant she was like me, panicked.
Darkness fell, Wilford had stopped at three places that rented "Cabins"? No Vacancy! I was actually sitting in the car asking the Lord for it not to be a vacancy. After three stops the next row of cabins we came to, Wilford whipped the car in, jumped out moving toward the office of the rentals while I sat there deciding I best start asking the Lord for a place to spend the night.
Wilford came out of their office, looked at me and jiggled a key; we had a place, a place to rest our tired bodies and aching heads. Feeling that our backsides had hit every rut in the road for the last twelve hours we levered our bodies out of the car, grabbed enough luggage for the night and headed to the cabin. Dad and Wilford went ahead and Mom and I brought up the rear. Stepping through the door I said, "You got to be kidding me!"
I, vaguely, remember hearing something about "You think you can do better?"
One vast sweep of the room revealed a large "L" shaped room with an iron bed to the left as we came through the door. A laminated table with chrome legs sat in the middle of the breakfast nook, the faucet dripped in the kitchen sink and when I turned around to find the other bed, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. A "Trundle" bed! A trundle bed was pushed up against the opposite wall from the iron bed! Talk about hysterical, I laughed until I was gasping for breath, tears rolling down my face....
That’s the point I had reach while Mom and Dad assured me that everything was fine and Wilford telling me he would take the lower pull out slot on the trundle bed, when I heard myself telling him, "Not on your sweet life buster, I can roll off that lower part but I might not ever get out of that sway back "jenny" of a mattress on top." Mom cracked up, dad got tickled and Wilford’s face went through several obvious feelings of emotions. It was settled we had to stay. We settled in as much as possible and daddy being tired wanted to go to bed early which meant we "all" went to bed early.
Mom and dad got settled into bed with mom worrying about my back, I had gotten in that lower slot they called a bed with Wilford’s bottom bumping my hip from the swag of the mattress above when I looked up and spotted a picture on the wall. Heaven help me, that’s all it took. It was a paint by number picture of an ole Rooster all "rared" back to crow; that did it!! I was off and running. I honestly tried to hold the sound in, I did, Really!! It just wouldn’t stay there and it got louder and louder. Between gasping for breath, the tears totally clouding my eyes, I finally croaked out, "Look at the Picture!" . Mom took one look and was off on a "cackling" trip. Daddy finally announced that was enough that we needed to get some rest. After all it was ten o'clock, their time. An hour ahead of our time !!
That just showed me God had a sense of humor. Beginning Art Students always paint that particular "Rooster" for some reason. I had seen some of the most comical looking roosters in classes and here was that same "rooster" adorning our wall. I couldn't get away from it !! It was just more than my poor nerves and mind would take. It was my "release" from the jangle mess we had gotten into.
All finally settled down and got quiet; Mom and Dad were asleep and I vaguely remember telling Wilford I couldn’t believe I was in "that" cabin in the middle of nowhere, in a trundle bed at nine o’clock at night trying to go to sleep.
As with every episode in ones life there is always something to be thankful for. When Wilford went to check out the next morning, the 'couple' three doors down from us was trying to explain to the owner they had carried in three pounds of "Fudge" the previous night and the ants ate their "Fudge". Can you imagine the size those ants were after eating three pound of chocolate fudge! Talk about a happy army of ants !!
Mom and I stepped outside to the most glorious day. The sky clear, the sun shinning though the leaves leaving them translucent. It left no doubt that God was in his heaven. We piled into the car and headed out to find breakfast, then to check into our motel rooms. We found a place to eat and with full tummies we had some time to kill so we decided to carry mom and dad through to Gatlingburg on a road that we knew would be breathtaking. The "awwwww’s" and "Ohhhhhs", expressions of "Look Dood!" "Ohhh! Look over here Ozell!", kept me busy twisting my neck to look at them.Just seeing the pure delight they felt in seeing the splendor of God’s nature could never be measured in any amount of money. It was "Peak" season for the leaves and we were enjoying the true beauty of the fall.
We took them to see a musical the first night. It was just down their alley since it was a Comedy Routine with country Music and gospel groups. Their main character was called "High Pocket". "High Pockets" could definitely bend you over for a good belly laugh. Mom just couldn’t stand not having a picture of him. Naturally, I was targeted to take his picture. Since my husband was on the inside he didn't want to do it. I tried to conjure him into doing it but being a shy, "don’t want any attention" guy he balked. That left me. I always seem to have plenty of starch, so I took my trusty camera in hand, crawled none too gracefully over Mom and Dad's legs and got into the aisle, raised my camera to my eye, ready to snap the picture when I heard "High Pockets" say, "Ya got yore Fanger over that hole". Not paying any attention to it, I reckon he thought I was deaf and hollered a little louder, , "Hey lady, Ya got yore Fanger over that hole on your cameree" !. That was when I realized I was his target. I was tickled and couldn’t get my face straight. He began again to tell me "I had my fanger"....., not being a shy petunia I hollered back, "No, I don’t". It became a battle of wits with us ! No !! I wasn’t a plant and you know something, he was right. I must have had my "fanger" over that "hole" on my camera because we didn't have a picture when the film was developed. The show was good, the music good, mom loved the group that did the "clogging". I thought she was going to get up and join them. Dad laughed more than I had seen him do in years and the highlite of the show was when "Elvira" came on. Heavens forbid !! Elvira was a man dressed up like a woman with the biggest ole red lip and "whatelse" you ever saw. Guess whose lap she/he sat in. Oh! She strutted right toward my daddy and draped her/himself over dad, tickled him under the chin and started caressing his beautiful white hair. Daddy took it real well but I was an absolute basket case. We were off running again with laughter when I heard a delicate "snort" and a "heehaw", then kindly an "agh, agh, aghhhh"sound. I turned to see my mom bent over, she had totally lost it.
Needless, to say it was never a dull moment. Wilford and Dad seem to have the "dropsey " when they got near chairs. They finally parked it on the balcony overlooking the main drag and Mom and I shopped to our hearts content. I found myself talking to complete strangers several times when I would looked back over my shoulder only to find mom had totally disappear. Everyone up there though her name was "Hey Mom" since I ran around bellowing it out so much. You'd think someone dabbed her with "White Out" because she was always disappearing when we were shopping.
Dad discovered he loved the mountains. Since I’m his daughter and I have his genes, he has to love them, just give me the mountains any ole day. My Mom just loves to go, period. What a ball we've had. All we have to say to them is, "Would you like to go…. " and mom has her suitcase out just packing like crazy. We’ve taken several trips together and each one gets a bit funnier than the last.
I’m so glad we had the chance to discover Mom and Dad as friends. Sure makes ones life more pleasant. Since these trips were taken my dad has become unable to travel long distances and that really hurts, but he has taken many a trip in his big ole recliner from his memories of all the trips we made together.
