what I did last weekend because I hadn’t done it in so long? (Sarcasm alert!) I
drove a couple thousand more miles down the east coast. I brought Mom and Elizabeth along for the ride. Elizabeth
sat in the backseat and was as snug as a bug in a very tight rug.
first day of the drive was uneventful. The second day we took a small detour so
we could drive through the Smokey Mountains. We passed this building on the way to the visitor center. It’s not every day you see a building that fell from the sky.
Elizabeth
wanted to go in “to use the bathroom” (she really just wanted to see the inside),
but we said she couldn’t just waltz into a museum and ask to use the restroom. Besides,
using a restroom in an upside down building sounds slightly precarious to me.
Smokey Mountains were really beautiful. We stopped at each and every scenic
overlook to take pictures.
point I felt the need to turn into a radio so I started serenading Mom and
Elizabeth. What I meant to sing was On Top of Old Smokey. (COULD THERE BE A MORE
APPROPRIATE TIME TO SING THAT SONG?) What I did sing was On Top of Spaghetti. My
internal radio must have been set on the wrong station.
The
ranger at the visitor center told us that the best way to see the mountains and
get back on the highway was to drive 9 miles on a particular road then take a
left. Between my spectacular singing and the beautiful views, the miles got
away from us. After almost an hour I said that surely we had traveled 9 miles so I didn’t understand why we hadn’t seen the left yet. That seemed like a
potential problem. We
stopped at a gas station to replenish our snack supply and see if anyone could
tell us where we were. Mom asked a woman
for help and was told to go out to the gas pumps and yell for Bill. I
stayed inside to pay for my snacks but pushed Elizabeth out the door behind Mom. I wanted someone there to protect her in
case things with Bill got sketchy. Also,
there was the possibility that it might be awkward to be with Mom as she
walked up to random people and asked if their name was Bill. Bill turned out to be a
very helpful man. He informed us that we were on a Cherokee reservation and nowhere near the left we
needed. We wanted to be in the upper left corner of the map, but we were in the
lower right. Please keep in mind that I was in not in charge of the map during
this trip. I was simply the chauffeur/personal radio/buyer of potato chips. For once we didn’t get lost because of my lack of directional skilz. Not to throw Mom under the bus, but she was
in charge of the map.
As we left the gas station, Mom said Bill couldn’t believe she didn’t know where the local casino was. “It’s not like you visit casinos in Tennessee
every day,” I said. That’s when Mom revealed that we were no longer in
Tennessee. We were in North Carolina.
drove off the road.
That’s
how we found ourselves driving four hours on the same exact highway that
we had already driven on earlier that afternoon.
Two good things came out of our lengthy detour. One, Mom was able to fulfill her dream of seeing the Smokey Mountains. Two, we got so far off track that we were able to convince Elizabeth that we were in Texas.
Haha this is awesome! Nothing better than roadtrips with family. 🙂
OH MY GOSH you got way off track! At least you had fun! I love the Texas story! My mom always tells the story of how when she and my aunts were younger they drove from Philadelphia to the Jersey shore. Which is approximately a 90 minute drive. East. They called my Poppop in a panic several hours after their departure because they saw signs for OHIO.
Listen. I can't even laugh at them because I can sympathize with a mistaken cardinal direction. It happens to the best of us! 🙂
OMG SARAH. Love how you let your mom take the blame on this one (martyr). Kinda like how I let my phone take the blame that one time we got lost in West Virginia at dusk on a 16-hour roadtrip with two kids. I'm not sure if we should ever attempt a road trip together because Lord only knows how long it might take us to get there. (HEAVEN HELP US if we get to talkin' about something good and forget where we're going in the first place.)
Oh no!!! That makes for a good story, though.
My grandmother went to Gatlinburg a few months ago and she and some friends drove over to the Cherokee reservation to eat. It must be the same reservation you ended up at!
Sarah, you are HILARIOUS and I'm so glad I found your blog and I love you!!!!!!
Gwen <3
Ummm…HELLO! You shoulda called me. I was minutes away. 🙂