At this point I had already decided that bath time would no longer be part of the equation for his bedtime routine for the rest of the trip. He wasn't getting dirty so he didn't really need it, and plus we found out it's very difficult to do without his little bath tub. One person (Katie) would have to hold him which is no easy feat since at this point in time he was very squirmy. He likes to rock his head back too and kick his legs in order to get out of your grasp since he wants to be independent and on his own. The second person (me) is meanwhile trying to soap him up and wash him off as quickly and thoroughly as possible which is also challenging with him moving around like that. And I don't even want to get into the shampooing his hair (what little of it he has) part. An easy solution would have been the kitchen sink, but it was divided into two separate sinks so not really a good match. Chris did at one point offer to get into his bathing suit and go from there, but that never happened sadly because I'm sure it would have made for great pictures.
As the night wore on, Chris eventually discovered that Katie was the UCF Knights good luck charm. Many football fans are extremely superstitious. Chris may is not in the extreme, but he did notice that whenever Katie was in the room semi-watching the game we wound up improving and doing much better. He recruited her to watch the final hour of the game, leaving me temporarily without a Bananagrams partner. Chris was very happy when UCF finally beat the Louisville Cardinals 38 to 35. It was a very close game to say the least. And I was happy to get my partner in crime back.
Before my parents and Trip got back, Katie and I thought it would be a little fun to play a prank on him. Trip loves Halloween, and even more he loves scaring people. I have been the victim of many of his pranks (i.e. taping scary photos to birthday gifts, bedroom ceiling, shower, freezer, banging on outside windows at night, etc.) and thought he would enjoy a little fun/payback. We stuffed some of the clothes he had packed with pillows and blankets and added boots for feet a hat for the head, etc. When we were finished we had a very realistic dummy that looked like a person in a dimly lit room. We opened up the curtains of their balcony and turned on the outside light to give it a more spooky effect. We had the dummy facing outside and from the back it looked like someone sitting in a chair looking out at the dark mountains. We decorated the room with several of the creepy baby photos placed around the house, and of course used the foggy windows and mirror to write REDRUM in reference to his favorite movie.
The best part was his reaction. At this point it was 12:30 when they got home and everyone was tired. It got really quiet when he opened the door upstairs, and then later we all heard laughing. He took pictures and said it scared him for a moment (he thought it was Chris at first). That's what I love about my brother, he appreciates a good attempt at a prank, joke, or scare because he's still a big kid at heart.
The next morning everyone was still very tired so we got a slow start heading out for our next adventure, not leaving until 1:30pm. We had planned on doing a mini-road trip our first stop being the Fontana Dam roughly 32 miles west of where we were staying, then northeast to Clingmans Dome, and then back full circle to Bryson City with a potential stop beforehand in Cherokee for dinner. The Fontana Dam was a very cool place to visit and one that I had never been to before (at least to my recollection). It is a hydroelectric dam on the Little Tennessee River constructed in the early 1940's to accommodate the drastically increasing electricity demands in Tennessee Valley during World War II. Just to give you an idea of the size of this structure, it is 480 feet high and 2,365 feet long. And the Appalachian Trail crosses over the top of the dam.
They also had a very cool Visitor Observatory on site which featured giant interactive maps that showed in great detail North Carolina, Tennessee, and the Smoky Mountains. In fact, Chris and Trip had a great time perusing over the maps and planning out an adventurous and scenic route to Clingmans Dome. They mentioned something about a road called Dragon's Tail and how it had 318 curves, but at this point the ladies in the group including Katie and myself were not paying attention. We, after all, were just along for the ride.
Trip and Chris both swear up and down that what happened was by accident. Let me give you a little setup here. We were traveling in one vehicle to save gas (our Pathfinder) and by we I mean all of us. Six people plus a baby. Which was a very comfy fit to say the least. And somehow Katie who gets carsick was in the very back 3rd row seat. The road that they decided to choose was the Tail of the Dragon. They said they didn't realize it was that road when looking at google maps because you had to zoom way in to see the different curves and even then it didn't look that bad. It was also labeled as Tapoco Road. And, fun fact, there was no real way off of it once you got on. To give you an idea of what we were dealing with here is a link to a youtube video that shows the craziness of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16YnmJN0fc.
We were pretty much the only family vehicle on this thing. There were tons of motorcyclists and other trill seekers flying down it passing us (my mom was freaking out by this), and lots of cameramen filming us go by on the side of the road. I wonder if we made any of the websites. We were all very relieved three hours later when we had completed the 11 mile stretch, and were even happier when we stopped at a gas station to get out of the vehicle. Katie was awesome and brought tons of snacks and bananas which is supposedly good for car sickness. I think everyone was queasy at this point. We continued our long drive to Clingmans Dome arriving there around 5:40pm just 20 minutes before closing. It was very crowded and the temperature was roughly 40 degrees with 20 mile per hour winds. Trip, my mom, Katie and Chris wound up doing the walk up the paved road to the observation tower while my dad and I stayed behind with Nicholas in the car. I didn't have my jacket, and didn't have clothing warm enough for Nicholas not realizing how late in the day it would be. A funny side story is that after the others had left to do their hike, Nicholas chose this time to go to the bathroom. No. 2 of course. And there were no changing tables just porter potties. So I changed him on the Pathfinder seat with the door partially open and those lovely 20 mile per hour winds. He was very angry with me and let everybody know it! Poor guy. In the meantime, the hiking group was having some fun of their own. I guess the initial plan was to run up to the top, but that didn't work out so well with the cold air, winds, and lack of oxygen. By the time they got to the observation tower, the fog had descended and there was no point in going up any further because they couldn't see anything very clearly. Chris did take some awesome shots with his camera phone on the way up though.
As we were leaving it was very crowded and I am so thankful that we did not get stuck in any traffic. On the main highway headed to Gatlinburg traffic was at a standstill. The way we were going, Cherokee and eventually Bryson City, traffic was moving at a good pace. Of course, there was the occasional braking and cars pulling over to the side of the road when a bear or other sort of wildlife was spotted. We passed a lot of tourists, cameras in hand, hoping to capture a photo souvenir. By the time we got to Cherokee we were all pretty hungry. We had gone through Katie's snack stash by the time we got to Clingmans Dome, and it was already 7:00pm. You ever get to that point where your so hungry and you can't make a decision because you just don't care anymore? We went right through Cherokee and all the way back to Bryson City without deciding on something. We did stop at a coffee/wine local eatery called the Cork & Bean, however, there was a forty-five minute wait and it was standing room only. So we went with our next best option- cook for ourselves! We swung by the Ingles Market grabbed some New York Strip steak, red wine, veggies, and some hummus, crackers, and cheese to hold us over until dinner was ready.
The fun did not end there. Chris volunteered to cook the steak out on the grill on the back porch. Things were going well until five minutes in the charcoal for no apparent reason died and was officially all used up. We wound up having to broil the steak in the oven, but it turned out okay regardless of what Chris thinks. I mean at this point nobody was going to compalin! Plus the majority of us had our fill on cheese and crackers :)
That was probably my favorite night from the whole trip. All of us finally together sharing a meal, laughing over the days crazy events. The best part for me was after the dinner, the kids minus Chris decided to do a game night (Stewart family tradition). We played Bananagrams for a while, before switching to Trip's brand new game Seinfeld Scene It. My brother is a huuuge Seinfeld fan. Seen every episode. Knows all the little details, quotes, episode titles, etc. I on the other hand, while I really like the show, am not as up to date on it, have not seen every episode, and only know like 2 characters last names. But as it turned out... I beat Trip in this game! And the best part was I did it by guessing which I'm really good at I guess.
We came down to the end where when you land on the last mark before the three final rounds you have what's called an "All Play to Win." Basically, whoever rolled the dice and landed on that spot has the opportunity to win the whole game. All they have to do is be the first to answer the question presented to them on the video screen. If somebody else guesses right, you would just go to the third ring for finals and turns would resemble as normal. Trip had already hit that last spot, answered the question wrong and was in the third ring. I hit the last spot next and had a strategy in place. Guess! The video question was a face scramble where a characters face was all mixed up on the screen and would slowly go back into place. You just had to guess who it was. My plan was just to yell out Kramer as soon as whoevers face came on the computer as it was my only shot to win the game. It turned out it was Kramer and much to Trip's annoyance I won the game. He was actually a pretty good sport about it. He did try to shutdown the computer when it was playing the victory video, but Katie took my side and said I should get to watch it. We were pretty much tired out at this point, and since we all had a long drive home the next morning those of us that were still up went to bed.
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