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So where were we in our trip? That’s right. Broken down a little bit past Nashville.
Simon was asleep when we first broke down and the other kids were watching a movie on my computer, so for about an hour we sat while Taido tried to diagnose the van via the iPhone.
At one point, Taido was actually on the ground banging the underside of the van with a large stick, all while on the phone. After a while it became apparent that we were going to have to get a tow truck and call my uncle and beg him to come and get us and our stranded pop up camper from the side of the highway. The kids and I actually got to ride in a police car who showed up to help us. (You can’t buy those kind of memories, honey!) He took us to a McDonald’s with a playland and I have never in my life been so grateful for a fast food joint. Where else on earth can they watch you and your children crawl out of a police car, drenched in sweat, loaded down with everything you can carry and they will still let you sit down in their very air conditioned environment and stay for as long as you like when all you order is three drinks and a couple of waters? Yes, supersize my water please. I might be here a while.
We camped out while Taido waited on the tow truck. Then soon came my uncle to take us back to his house in Nashville (Thank you so much!), where I was able to come up with my top reason for being grateful that our car broke down on the side of the road. Shower…several hours earlier than anticipated. Oh yes hot water. Remember how I love it.
After we bathed and ate pizza, we talked about how to spend our extra time in Nashville. My uncle suggested that I hit Trader Joe’s the following morning. Ben blurted out, Oh she already has like three cartloads in the van from Trader Joe’s!
Things were looking up the next morning. Or maybe we were just a little more settled with the setback and ready to be excited about Nashville, a spot I have most definitely added to the list of places in which I would like to live one day. When we talked to the shop, they said they could in fact fix the fuel pump in the van (shout out to John Foster for the telephone diagnosis!) sometime that day, so we could get home that night. So while the van was being fixed, we headed to Centennial Park at my cousin’s suggestion. We had already been to Bicentennial Park in Nashville the previous weekend, so we got to experience two great Nashville highlights coming and going.
It’s quite pretty.
The Parthenon in Nashville is an exact 1/3 replica of the one in Greece.
It was a super hot day, but we enjoyed walking all around the park anyway. Lots to see.
Simon enjoyed the playground. He is wearing a bathing suit because it is the only item of clothing he had left that was still moderately clean.
My cousin took this picture of us. Everyone was whiny and soooo hot and sweaty at this point. So we left the park and went to Maggie Moo’s to have ice cream for lunch!
The van was ready late that afternoon, so after my cousin drove us back to the shop and we parted with a large sum of money to pick it up, we were on the road again. We made it all the way home this time. Taido says the van is driving better than it has in years. Who knows how many more trips that baby has in its future?
We recently returned from a rainy week in the Smoky Mountains with my entire family. The last time we all camped together was five years ago in Colorado. Since everyone remembers that week as being very cold, we decided to meet somewhere a little warmer. And a little closer! We have been planning this trip for a long time. We were all excited about all 9 cousins being together in the great outdoors. We even borrowed a second pop up camper to accommodate everyone. (Shout out to the Waldens!!)
We gathered in Nashville on Sunday, an adventure all unto itself as my sister and her husband endured a breakdown delay in Minnesota. We piled into our cars and left on Monday afternoon for Elkmont Campground. Several hours later we pulled into our reserved campsites and proceeded to sit in our cars waiting for the rain to let up so we could set up camp. This began a bit of a theme for our week of camping in the Smokies. We would wait for the rain to let up to cook dinner, and sometimes it would. Many times it did not so we went ahead and cooked in the rain. I would wait for the rain to let up before I would get out of bed. Sometimes it wouldn’t so I would just stay in bed.
Often in the afternoon the weather would clear up long enough for us to do a hike or even go swimming. But we spent a lot of time either huddled under our tarp or driving somewhere to get out of the rain, a solution that met with varying degrees of success. The kids still had a wonderful time. They don’t seem to mind being wet nearly as much as adults. The three middle cousins…Ben, Wilson and Emily did not bother to try to stay out of the rain at all. Ben was so wet that his skin began to sort of seem soggy all over.
On Friday morning, the sky seemed to completely fall out of the sky. It was like the rain clouds were laughing at us for calling all that other weather we had experienced rain. RAIN! I’LL SHOW YOU RAIN! It poured relentlessly all morning. Finally, all the rest of my family decided to break down their camps in the rain, pack it in drenched and go spend their last night together at my aunt and uncle’s house in Nashville.
All of us were laughing hysterically as we ran around in the downpour pulling up stakes and taking down wet clothes, because Robert, my sister’s husband, was wearing his seven year old’s pink raincoat. He had forgotten to bring a coat and so he had grabbed hers in desperation to get some sort of relief from the rain. The sleeves came about three fourths of the way down his arms and the end of the jacket hung well above his waste. At this point we had put all the smaller kids in the vehicles while we tore around gathering everything.
Our family went into town with them and ate lunch. I’m pretty sure everyone ordered soup. Our shoes squeaked as we walked in to Atlanta Bread Company in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The scene was downright comical. After we said goodbye to them, we returned to our camp where the sun had come out. We set up our chairs, hung our laundry back up and decided to enjoy being just the six of us. The days we have been all together this summer have been few and far between.
The contrast between last summer of Chino togetherness and this summer when at least one of us has been gone every week has left me a little befuddled. Even with the rain, I was glad to have everyone back under our little shelter. That these moments are fewer and that my older ones no longer long for them make me cling tighter to them. Even the fighting and splashing during dish duty made me smile in my heart.
The next morning we packed up to move to another campground in the park called Look Rock. We were ready to see Elkmont and its puddles in our rear view mirror.
We set up camp and hung the wet clothes and towels (again) before heading out to hike to Look Rock. It was a beautiful afternoon. You could see for miles on all sides of the tower.
Taido keeps saying that this is the last summer for Simon in the backpack. I’ll be kind of sad when we finally retire it for good.
I’m not sure our little napper is ready to hike the trail on his own though.
The next day we went to see a very small campground that we all hope to come back and stay in again someday. It only has about 15 sites and is right on the river, tucked far back into the woods. It was so beautiful that we spent a little time hiking the area.
My mom braided all the girls’ hair in Nashville on Monday. Mary Polly did not take her braids out until the following Monday. Pretty impressive braiding Grandjules! Here’s a shot of them on Sunday while she is pointing to a sign indicating that one of the campsites in Abrams Creek was closed due to Aggressive Bear Activity. Taido is reading the backcountry info. You can almost see the Smoky Mountain Backpacking Adventure coming into shape in his mind. Not. scared. of. bears.
We hiked all through the lush, quiet campground, which also serves as a trail head for backcountry campers. It was a muggy, hot day, so we didn’t hike too far up the trail. We saw two groups of backpackers heading in with their gear.
Here’s a campsite by the river.
It started raining soon after we were back at our van. I was so glad not to be those poor wet backpackers! We made our way back to our campsite for our last night in the Smokies. On Monday morning we packed it in and though I was a little sad about our family time coming to an end, I have to say that I was grateful we weren’t heading to another campground. Or another country. Nope. We were headed home.
Only we didn’t quite make it.
Most of the Chino summer adventures have been happening far away from the Chino House. In June, Cole went to discipleship camp with Taido and 80 other middle school students. Mary Polly went to Chicago with my mom to visit my sister and her family. Then she was home for one day before leaving to go on the College Backpacking Trip with Taido. Soon after Mary Polly arrived home from her mountain adventure, Cole flew out to spend a week with my sister’s family at Castaway Club, a Young Life camp in Minnesota where my brother-in-law was speaking for the month. Meanwhile, Ben headed to Kentucky with Taido on the high school mission trip.
We were finally all reunited in the Smoky Mountains for our first extended family camping trip in five years. Seventeen of us huddled in the rain under my daddy’s “magic tarp.” Whitney is currently posting pictures of this rainy adventure, so I’ll share the treasures Taido brought home from Mary Polly’s first backpacking adventure.
My daddy has been leading backpacking trips for longer than I’ve been alive. Of course, Taido is equally passionate about the mountains, which has always made for a strong bond between the two of them. Cole got to go on this trip several years ago and I was nervous about whether or not he would be up to the task. Carrying your gear uphill every day for a week can be pretty rigorous. He had a great week with his dad and Grandpapa though, so I was very excited for Mary Polly to get to have her turn.
Still I was anxious for her, especially for “peak day,” the day the campers wake up before dark to climb to the top of a fourteen thousand foot mountain. It’s a huge accomplishment in my book, and I will never forget the first time I stood on top of my first “fourteener.” I was 15.
Mary Polly will be 10 next week, and the first time we got to talk to my dad he said she was climbing like a mountain goat. I love these pictures where she seems like she is right at home on the trail.
She looks a little tired in the next one. She is actually on the top of Mount Blanca. Woohoo!
This next one is a shot of the view from the camp at which they spent most of their time. Looking at these pictures makes me wish I had gone.
The tent in the background is the little two-man tent Taido bought for he and Mary Polly to sleep in on the trip. That man never misses an opportunity to acquire a new piece of gear!
Of course there are always a few overachievers who have to grab a second peak. Mary Polly skipped out on the second peak day, while Taido, Daddy and a few others climbed Little Bear.
This climb is looking a little more technical to me.
From the top of Little Bear, you can see the camp by the lake. So far away…
My husband and my daddy! I love these men!
The climbers who wanted more! All these guys climbed Little Bear.
Above is the view of Blanca from Little Bear. This picture of Mary Polly and her daddy makes me feel like this is a memory she will treasure forever and ever. I’m so grateful that she got to be a part of such a significant experience.
There were just a few brave gals on the trip. I was thankful for each one of them!
Little Bear under a rainbow.
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