A Great Gray Weekend

As evidenced by these photos it was a great gray weekend here in the southland. Also really, really wet, and I'm not just talking river water. It poured buckets, which put a damper on our plans to attend the Vols Orange and White game. Still, when life gives you rain make a rainbow. Something like that, right? 

Hubs and I trekked over the mountain to Tennessee to spend a couple of days with his brother and sister-in-law in their new lake home. My in-laws also live nearby and hub's sister and her family were in town for spring break,  so a mini family gathering occurred. 

My nephews had a couple of friends with them for the week and tubing was high on their wish list. We weren't sure the weather would hold, but it did so there was some fun tubing on the water Friday.  Hubs got to ski which pretty much makes his life complete, so he was a happy camper.

Here he is giving the teenage boys a heart attack-

photo cred-my sister in law

It's not just me y'all. 

My sister-in-law took this picture as he came flying straight at the dock we were standing on. He likes to ski towards the dock then drop the rope last minute so you might think he's going to plow into the dock, but he doesn't. 

We've been married more than thirty years, so I know. If I say he won't hit, he won't hit. 

Now that's not saying he's never come a bit too close to a dock, or a sailboat, or a cow, but that was long ago and far away.

I've stood on more than a few boat docks and watched him flying towards me (beaming of course because he loves it!), then dramatically slowing as soon as the rope drops. The teenagers on the boat hadn't done any skiing with him before this weekend, so they were sweating just a little. They'll learn-ha! 

In other boat news...here I am with my mother-in-law-

She wanted a boat ride and my brother-in-law was happy to oblige. Can you tell she loved it?

You know that boy on the ski up there?
Well he is his mother's son.

We headed home after church on Sunday (in the pouring rain), and opted to take the road through Gatlinburg instead of the Interstate. We wanted to see the landscape post fire, and y'all it's so sad to think of the destruction and loss of life that happened here. Chimney Tops is one of the prettiest places in the Smokies and the black swath that cuts across the mountains stands like a scar on this beautiful piece of land.

We crossed on into NC and my brother-in-law had given me the basic route we'd need to take. I did not want to take a wrong turn and end up on the Dragon (a crazy zig zag road through the mountains motorcyclists love and people who live on Dramamine fear). Anyway,  I guess I was either sleeping or talking (my two favorite car pastimes), we missed a turn, and next thing you know we're rolling along on the The Mountain Waters Scenic Byway.

Not sure how we landed there, but my goodness it was gorgeous!!
Also pouring rain but we stopped several times anyway. You just had to, it was that pretty.

We came around a curve and suddenly found ourselves on what I'm pretty sure is a road quite similar to the Dragon-incredible height with a teeny tiny minuscule little guard rail running beside the road to keep you from tumbling into the gorge and roaring falls below.

The first falls we saw were enormous, but since we weren't prepared for the overlook no picture. At that point we were trying to figure out how we got here and where were we anyway??? There was no backing up on the mountain, but the monstrous falls were absolutely breathtaking as we went by. We quickly realized we were on the road to Highlands, so I googled Cullasaja Gorge and falls when we got home. I read they're about 200 feet in height, but hard to see up close because of the blind highway curves and sheer rock cliffs. 

Yup.
That pretty much sums it up.

We were ready when the next one came up beside us, and we pulled over for a quick picture. This one is called Dry Falls-

Hmmm...these dry falls were a-rushin'! There was a really cool series of walkways and bridges down to the falls and it looked like you could walk behind them or close to it. We did not because did I mention it was raining? And cold? But we put it on our list to do on a return visit when we have the right footware and sunshine. 

A few winding curvy snaky twisting miles further down the road and we came to these-

Bridal Veil Falls. I think there's actually a series called Bridal Veil Falls, because I've read about hikes in there. We're adding that to our list of to-dos too.

Hike more waterfalls.
See them all.

I'm glad we went the wrong way home.
Sometimes back roads know best.
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