Well, Michael. You (almost) win!

This weekend, for the first time in twenty-two years, Brian and I went away without kids, parents, siblings, or anyone else.

Ahhhh!

I was concerned that we would come home and divorce. Michael Damron, our youth minister, was concerned we wouldn't come home. He turned out to be almost right!

To be honest, I was becoming more and more concerned that Brian and I were losing touch. I guess it happens as life does. You become more concerned about the kids' lives than you do your own. Your parents start having their issues. Your mortgage and other financial issues crop up and your job, as much as you may be thankful for it, gets in the way. I finally told our church staff that we "needed to get on the same page." I guess this weekend, I found out we'd never lost each other's "pages" after all, really.

We spent the day Saturday strolling around an area we'd never known existed in Pigeon Forge. Up till then, I hated PF. If friends hadn't gone about the Old Mill Restaurant so, I'd probably still hate the place, but we decided to go there Saturday morning for breakfast. YUM! Then, we decided to stroll the area. We ended up "strolling" for hours! The shops, the art galleries, the country store, the candy store, the toy store...you went back in time a century or so. A couple hundred dollars (thanks mostly to some beautiful artwork) and about five hours later, we went on to the Apple Barn, where we met some folks from Butler Baptist and Brian's cousin from Knoxville. (These meetings were totally unplanned!)

Sunday, though, was the good day. It's just not a trip to the Smokys if you don't go to Cade's Cove, so we went. (My appetite was whetted by the paintings I bought the day before.) During our abbreviated visit, we saw turkeys, geese, deer and a woodpecker who was nearly close enough to our car for us to touch. Brian stopped at the woodpecker and turned off the engine. We just sat there for a bit and listened to our red-plumed friend peck away at the log he'd chosen that morning. Later, we stopped just to listen to....nothing. On the way out of the Cove, we stopped to listen to the mountain stream rush over the rocks. We listened. No one was there to break the silence.

On the way back through Townsend, we both wished we could just stay there. Spring had arrived early, and we felt as though it did that just for us. We were surrounded by the beauty of the mountains.

The arcades and outlet malls try to compete, but nothing will ever match the glory of the Lord in the Smokys.