"Everybody got everything?"
"Yes." "Yup."
... Secretly? Nope. I apparently forgot the pen and paper to keep a PROPER journal. OH WELL!
Hello everyone, and welcome to what is probably the fourth installment of Kikori's Vacation Journal Files, consistent titles be damned. Once again the location of the year is
Gatlinburg, a mountain resort city nestled right in the Smoky Mountains (Appalachians) roughly four hours from home and two from North Carolina. Every summer you can expect the weather to be: High in the mid nineties with a 60% chance of scattered showers, lightning possible but unlikely, with high humidity.
A.K.A. It was hot, wet, rainy, and practically sunny the entire time because of the random nature of the clouds up there. :p FUN!
Vacation Dates: Friday, July 13 - Tuesday, July 17. A somewhat short trip. See, we originally intended for the ENTIRE family--me, parents, two brothers, four kids--to go into the same building we were at last year. But oldest brother's construction got very busy, and middle brother had both a new job and eye surgery to contend with. So it was just the three of us between myself, Mom, and Dad. With the shrinking of parties came a shrinking of times. Them's the breaks.
Friday, July 13
DepartureTechnically, the 13th starts at Midnight. See, at Midnight, I was trying to finalize three things. Telling everyone where I was going, packing my bag with clothes, and working on
this post (which took ~2 days to do, given my lack of free time during the week). The big part about Midnight was getting my stuff packed. Turns out, I was the only one smart enough to pack up
before going to bed.
Working on my sleep schedule to go to bed and wake up a bit earlier at a time now, I didn't have TOO hard a time getting up. Grab a set of clothes set atop my bag, set said bag and what pairs of footwear would be worn out near the exit doorway, and... wait. And wait. And watch Mom and Dad still working to get themselves set up.
Mom: "Wait, you packed already?"
Me: "Yup."
Dad: "Huh. So you're waiting on us."
*Gives a very shocked look to Mom*Apparently they expected me to not actually have anything done upon waking up. Am I really that unreliable? :p
Loading up was smooth, driving out was thankfully pretty dry, and we were thankful to all that is holy we were headed East, not West, because of the sheer length of two traffic jams along the road. We're talking probably a clear mile of congestion total, moving at avoid-a-pile-of-wreckage speed.
Breakfast Lunch Brunch at Waffle House was... well, brunch at Waffle House. The tea, always hit or miss, was on the 'miss' side by a long shot. Though nothing beats the tea from ~8 years ago that was so overpowering, it had to be poured down a drain for fear some wild animal would find it on the ground and lick it up. ;D
To everyone's surprise, despite immense storm damage to the mountains recently, the quickest route into the city was open. Quick work on the part of whoever removes trees from the roads and trails. That made the drive down to our ever-faithful
Rockytop Village Inn particularly easy. For once, we did not have our usual pick of the back row abodes. We were placed middle row facing the pool, thankfully close to the ramp leading to our level. First note about the room was it was a bit more spacious than I remembered them being. Second was the beds were... particularly firm and bouncy, while the pillows felt like rocks. Take some foam, dice it up poorly, stuff it into a pillowcase, and you have what we were lying on. Some kind of foam cubes in a case that you could
sort of knead into a head shape, but... yeah, it wasn't all that comfy.
It took a bit for everyone to settle in, but once again, our oldest and bestest pastime became the goal. Putt-putt at
Fort Fun, down the hill and around the corner. Despite knowing we would only get four days to play, it was worth buying ten day passes. Fresh out of a rain before arrival, the course was pretty much soaked through, the second wettest we'd ever seen it. Despite that, after getting our practice in on the
Old Mountain Trail Course, our scores were some of the lowest we'd ever had for the
Old Town Square Course.
(Author's comment: By some stroke of odd luck, we always arrived at the place in such a way that people were fresh into the Town Square [trick shot] course rather than the Mountain Trail [advanced shot] course, so we had the same order of courses every time we played. So consider all visits to the place as having that order of gameplay.)[/b] For whatever reason, dad decided to have a little fun and invoke a Mulligan rule. Two total to use as desired across both courses, to get back into the groove if we end up doing something stupid on an otherwise easy / fun hole. It helped just a tad. :p
Pre-supper destinations included a golf game and visit to a building where Moonshine was explained. Legal whiskey creation and distribution in the Smoky Mountains. Who knew? The place had a very... uncomfortable mist about it that I eventually got used to, but it was annoying more than anything. Smelly process. Supper was a fairly good example of what a (Texas) Roadhouse named place can offer. Good food all around, quick and happy service, lots of peanuts despite a few that were utterly empty shells [i]before they were broken. Despite the oddity with the peanut buckets, good trip to there. Across the street was a building that apparently the family tried to visit in the past as a restaurant, but a lack of visible doors (even when searched from all four sides) kept them from ever exploring. The place was converted into an outdoors shop that mom apparently wanted to visit... with none of us realizing it was ten minutes before the closing time. Them's the breaks.
We explored, we walked, we people-watched a bit, and we found out that night that hard mattress + hard pillow + outdated toilet making sounds every few minutes + loud AC = a terrible combo to sleep by.
Saturday, July 14
The Calf-KillerTime for a new trail. If I recall correctly, the 4.1 mile to
Little River that, according to the sign, would be closed during the weekdays for storm damage work. WELP. TWO DAYS LATER, we're clear.
A few notes about the trail.
- 2.0 miles to a junction to where we started, the Appalachian Trail, to the Little River, and to Laurel Falls
- 2.1 miles from said junction to the next junction at the river
- This trail was freakin' steep. ;_;
- Flowers were uncommon to spot but had quite the variety.
- The damage was still visible, but the trail was mostly clear.
- Best note of all, it seemed like the entire ecosystem changed every... oh, 1.5 miles? You'd go from a spot that looked like a steep, wet uphill with low-roof, thin trees and many dead leaves to a drier area with a lot of grass, high trees, thicker trees, sunlight hitting it, etc. We passed through at least three completely different kinds of terrain while on the trail, let alone the one surrounding the river.
- Our wildlife spotting was limited to our wildlife swatting. Bugs abound.
- The best view of the river, probably... 0.2 miles before the junction further down the trail was still not that impressive. The landscape was more worth it than the river itself.
It was one of the more unique hiking experiences in that the trip had more reward than the ending, but no complaints--the entire thing was unique and fun. However, to go from daily life to hiking ~8 miles total in strenuous terrain just like that... the parents were hurting once we got back to the motel. I was alright at the time, but the effects would be felt for the rest of the trip. After such a hot, sweat-filled hike, a dip in the pool sounded pleasant. After eating enough to stave off the need for supper, a change of clothes and gathering of towels marked the march to some surprisingly cold pool water. (Under the sun as long as it was and not warm? Shocking.) It was a refreshing dip that lasted until the rain started. And then someone opened the floodgates, because you couldn't see across the street anymore due to the strength of the downpour. Well, that marked the end of that, but in a shockingly fun way.
Shower, another change of clothes, and destination set:
<Name Forgotten>. Quite expensive, but quite worth the price tag. Their ribs were indeed immensely flavorful, and one of the rare places that does not simply serve ribs with a sheet of BBQ sauce on top. Thank goodness. With what was one of the best new meals discovered in the city fresh in the bellies, up the hill and across the street we went once more to find the outdoors store actually open for more than half an hour this time. The selection was nice, the decorations were unique (including a life-sized bear wearing a bear-sized backpack, an old fashioned bridge hanging by rope that connected parts of the store, and a climbing wall), the items were shockingly NOT overpriced to all hell, and the selection was equally surprisingly as practical as they were cheap. Good store to consider in the future if we've gotta stock up on something new while there. Golf was in the dark, surprisingly fun despite wetness plus lack of lighting in some places.
With fresh, softer pillows gathered and muscles screaming for rest, sleep was far more possible. Though it seems Mom couldn't get herself comfortable on the bed due to how sore her legs were--she had to take the floor, making a bed out of spare blankets.
Sunday, July 15
Takin' it easyMom and Dad wanted to do something a lot less strenuous, so they decided to fish. Me? I tried to sleep. And sleep some more. Snack a little, rest, snooze, and doze off. Yay for uneventful mornings--it made catching up on sleep all the easier.
The plan for the day, thankfully, didn't involve abusing our sore legs. Much like
Cades Cove from last year, we picked a somewhat shorter and closer nature trail to try to find a few animals on. Unfortunately... well, we found more idiotic people than animals. Between people stopping in the middle of the road for nothing, cars parked in the middle of the road with owners elsewhere, cars parked in the middle of the road with drivers inside thinking they're out of the way for people to pass, people walking in the middle of the road, some people nearly getting run over, impatient people nearly causing wrecks, and more cars driving so slow that drifting downhill while riding in the brakes is the only option? It was shocking that we even saw one deer running uphill. That, sadly, was that. The trip back was a bit confusing considering where we ended up, but went smoothly enough despite the rain.
Golf was pre-supper this time, and despite the shower, was drier as a whole than our previous games. It definitely made playing a little more unique. :p Supper couldn't come quick enough, and nobody knew what they wanted. So in between mom's visits around the town to random stores (including a Life is Good shop, a candle store, a store that sold random household decorations / colorful clothing options, and a sock store), we debated. Pizza Hut sounded quick and easy. So Pizza Hut it was. I should have taken Dad's advice when he tested the pepperoni and not eaten all of it I did. Apparently it tasted "funky". I didn't care, I was starving. I cared a while later, though, when my stomach ached for the rest of the night. Details withheld, of course, but it was enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to make it up to Clingman's Dome for the sunset. Le sigh.
The good news was, the ache passed JUST IN TIME to see the sunset from the hotel's view, and gave me free time to test four things in the arcade.
1.) The dual-paddle air hockey game was still present.
2.) Hammer swinging was still fun. 895 was my high for two swings (and for the entire trip), where 908 was my high from last year. In all fairness, though, because of what is apparently a rapid breaking of the cord attaching hammer to game, they had to shorten it and secure it fully. So I was minus some distance.
3.) The two shooters we normally played, Area 51 and Maximum Crisis, were indeed gone.
4.) The only decent co-op shooters left to play, then, were a Terminator game and Time Crisis 4. Here are my reviews.
TerminatorAuto-firing, highlights what's about to hit you in red, and actually has a decent story to accompany. The only problems I'd give this game are that your powerups go away between levels, you are very intentionally given impossible to solo situations sometimes (I can understand needing money, but let the skilled shooters be skillful!), and the clip you have to push to reload is faulty.
I preferred it over Time Crisis, to be honest. Knowing what's aiming at you and what's a decoration is handy, especially when the environment is as metallic as it is and the enemies are equally coated in it.
Time Crisis 4Traditional pull the trigger shooting style mixed with a unique cover system. You have to hide behind doors, walls, etc. and step on a pedal to pop out and shoot. It makes it easy to dodge what other games consider impossible to avoid projectiles (including grenades, missiles, and thrown weapons), as well as getting your bearings on what enemies are where. However, anyone used to shooting off the screen to reload will quickly find themselves consuming their limited ammo special weapons. Unlimited clips of 9 handgun bullets, but everything else, be careful with.
Sadly, the game tries to be
too innovative sometimes for as faulty of systems as arcade guns can be. It assuredly happens that any handgun-style controller will end up being twisted out of proper accuracy, and this becomes a fatal flaw in some parts of the game. Example: You have to survive 30 seconds while watching two directions. Point the gun left or right of the screen to switch? Left works. Right doesn't.
So yeah, I knew what Dad and I would replace our old shooters with. With time to spare! Picked up a drink, sat on the wall awaiting their return, and even got to try (and fail) to pet a black cat that was out in the parking lot. The photos taken were supposedly subpar but looked pretty damn good on the camera's display, in my opinion. They have yet to be uploaded, but expect them sometime soon!
Monday, July 16
Last day already?Felt odd to be there only a couple full days, have done so much, and still have so much more to do within 24 hours. FIRST ON THE AGENDA: Nature trail. Thankfully not another leg breaker, this one was supposedly a fairly short trip off the beaten path and leading to a rather large waterfall. The trip would take us into North Carolina territory where, on the way, we encountered two Turkeys, two Hawks, two Elk, and two wrong turns.
The path was, again, very steep. Unlike the Little River before it, the environment stayed mostly the same. After all, we were hiking basically adjacent to a river the entire time. However, the fun part started when we went off the regular path and onto a spur trail behind the sign. Getting down halfway to the falls was... somewhat difficult, even for me, given the slickness of the terrain and lack of width in the path. What was less than fun was not having a clear way to get to the falls. See, we had two paths to take, neither of them easily visible without scouting ahead. The first, towards the middle of the side road, took you to the top of the falls, featuring a couple short bursts of very slick sections that thankfully had roots and tree limbs to hold onto. The second, unfortunately, could only be reached by sliding down a rock and onto very thin dry spots. Think slick rocks leading down about five feet at a time for a very steep hill. I could make it with a little more effort than I thought it would take, but due to my parents being unable to hear me calling back up to them, couldn't find out if the bottom of that 'stairway' was indeed the path to the bottom of the falls. We suspected it was in the end, but nobody but me could make it down. Needless to say, not a safe venture. We did end up stopping at the top of the falls and trying for a decent set of photos and a view from there, at least.
With a lot more hard work than we anticipated, the trip was done. Next stop, a drive through a ghost town called Maggie Valley, an area in North Carolina that supposedly had been called a good idea for a vacation spot.
...
Long story short, ghost town. The only commercial restaurant there is a Subway.
Dad: "You know it's bad when a place like this doesn't even have a McDonald's."
Needless to say, ain't no vacation gonna be centered around Maggie Valley. :p
The trip back to Gatlinburg passed us through a lot of pretty views and overlooks. Some of them had decent enough views that I got to try taking photos (two of which were spur of the moment, while the vehicle was moving). More on that later, though I'm proud of a couple of them. The length of driving needed to get around got us back a little on the late side, but a lot was seen for the time. Just seeing two Elk in the area was shocking enough, given how uncommonly they come out. Supper was on everyone's minds, and the trip was one of the shortest we had to make for a meal. Directly at the bottom of the hill and across the street from our motel lies
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. of Gatlinburg. I kid you not, they made a restaurant to reflect the theme of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. from the movie Forrest Gump. The inside was littered with paraphernalia from the movie. "Stop Forrest Stop" and "Run Forrest Run" signs as markers for if the waiters should stop for you or not, specialty drinks on ping pong paddle shaped signs connected to an actual ping pong paddle, you name it.
Shockingly, the food was pretty damn good. It was the first time I ever tried Mahi Mahi (the best of both worlds between fish and chicken, in my opinion), the first time I had grilled shrimp in a long time, and the fries were surprisingly as good as you can get for french fries. Not soggy, not salted down, decently filling, not oily... They did pretty much everything right. If you don't mind being a bit over-saturated with Gump stuff, give it a shot if you ever find it. It's far more than a novelty / quick laugh.
The sun wasn't quite setting, so we were able to have one final putt-putt set of games under the sunlight. We decided to go all out and play all three courses--two outdoor, and one indoor
Black Light course. We had always been under the assumption that the Black Light course cost extra, given the prices listed. NOPE. It only costs if you somehow need lessons. So, happily surprised, we each got ourselves a token to enter the building and found it quite unique. The entire course was, needless to say, lit by black lights. This made us glow in some shocking places, and the course as colorful as could be. Sadly, it did
not highlight any hills for us, so there was absolutely zero way to go by any experience for the course. So it was definitely new and fun... until passing the scorecard around and going out of turn order meant our scores got jumbled. All I know is Dad won, but nobody knows by how much.
After a very fun round of whacking glowing balls around, the sun was setting and the arcade was calling. I got my info yesterday. It was time to do something with it. At $1.00 per 'life', Dad and I burned through the first mission with just $10, surprisingly good for first timers. Sadly, no high score feature left me with nothing to compare our doings to. OH WELL. Having gone through with pewpew'ing machines, air hockey called. Both of us rusty but him with experience as well as having a score to settle with me beating him last year, we duked it out to a Dad-6 Me-5 score before the air shut off on us. Game no over. D:
Mom got to play me, easy win for me, and the two were pretty much done. Dad decided to pool our singles to let the games resume for me, which meant a little bit more shooting around and an exchange of hammer swinging. Three fun facts about that.
- I can not swing one handed easily. My grip on that slick handle doesn't allow it.
- I can swing left handed pretty darn well.
- My dad is still a lot stronger. 915 high.
I got whomped, but it was fun. And left us with, combining tickets between the day before and day of swinging, exactly 100 tickets to buy the kids little gifts with. Woo. :3
Tuesday, July 17
Departure again.11:00 deadline was met by 10:00. It was uneventful as could be. We dressed, we packed, we loaded again, we paid, we drove. Brunch at Waffle House was slow but fairly tasty with still subpar tea, two quilt shops were quite neat and colorful, Interstate traffic was terrible as usual, and Oscar was meowing up a storm once we got home. Back to the norm. :p
