SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
THE
LOCKERRIDGE VACATION..
YEEEHAWW BABBY!
2008
Yeeehaaaww folks! I have done it! I went on vacation all by myself..
Lockerridge hath defeated the evil travel gemlins!!
Took lessons from Shera don'tcha know! hehehehe
I took off from home on Tuesday the 9th of September and arrived in Murfreesboro around 4:30p.m.
The amount of miles I had to drive was not a lot.. but man the roads are something else! You have about 50 miles of really good 4 lane road.. and then another 85 miles of climbing up and down the Quachitah Mountains.. one of them is named Blow Out Mountian.. whew! It is two lanes and the going down side of the road has pull out places just every little while.. for big trucks to stop and put out the fire their brakes are about to burst into!
I was getting worried cause it rained on me off and on all the way there.. but never a drop except the first night camping did I hear sprinkles on my tent roof... hehehe.. !
DEATH TO GREMLINS!
Didn't see any diamonds.. sigh.. but I found something more valuable than diamonds I think maybe.
I found out I am a grown up!
I found out that I am capable of traveling by myself .... I can read a map.. I can find food.. I can find a place to pitch my tent.. and I can get lost a little bit and find my way back without having to have directions given to me , but am not to good to stop and ask either!...
umm humm..
I am woman.. hear me roar..
Well maybe not roar exactly..
Lets say..
Talk real loud if I need to, and I found out I don't have to take crap from park officials who frown on you if you do not make their 4:00p.m. deadline to register your camping reservations... hehehe.. yep made them work for a living for once while I was privy to their activities .. and these were women! Mean eyed and mouthed too.. but after I stayed silent after this woman ragged on me about being late.. not offering an excuse for not arriving on time, sighing deeply, and asking a simple question .. "Well am I going to have to sleep in the truck in front of the visitors center tonight or what?".
(I was kind of tired .. just a little bit ya know..)
She filled out a form and said to go and set up and then first thing in the morning come back to register.. why I don't know.. they already had my deposit and debit card number on file.. and my name.. car tag..drivers license number..
Dumb shit is just not something I put up with too well any more..and not mean mouthed dumb shit from someone who has not lived my life the last few hours especially! Government paper work is more than just dumb shit.. it is the dumbest of shit in the entire world!
Used to be a Quality Control Tech for USDA.. with a 0 mistake tolerance for perfect paperwork.. dumbest of the dumb dooky world wide!
I put up my tent without any problems.. but when I went to air up my air mattress to sleep on.. someone had lost the little needle deal that came with my little air compressor I had stolen from Jamie.. (hum.. could be why it wasn't all there, huh?)
I figured out that manually doing it with deep breaths was going to make me hyperventilate and probably become another state park statistic for 911 calls.. I dug around and located an ink pen and using my trusty Bic Lighter melted it a little bit and rammed it in the thing and wa-la.... little air mattress filler upper lockie style! This must have been about the time I figured out.. if I don't have any car trouble.. I can do this stuff!
Taking a shower in a camp site is an experience all its own also.. Killed two monster spiders and a mosquito the size of a house fly with my towel the first morning.. after that.. I took my fly swatter with me!
I dug and I walked all the nature trails and then I went to visit a friend from here.. Crystal .. you might know her as alterb4ego here on multiply.. twice. Met her and her husband John and their three kids.. Allie, Jessie and Paige.. Had to bribe Paige to smile by telling her I would put her on the internet.. so look for them in the sideshow..
Simply wonderful people all the way around! Felt so at home in their house.. Lady Bell really liked me ... a lot! Dog has got a very odd way of loving on a person.. and a very wet tongue.. got a little personal there once or twice.. but nothing I couldn't control! hahahahahahahaaa!
Took Crystal some peacock feathers and the kids a watermelon.. and on the next to last day there I found a horse-apple tree in the mine field and took her a couple of those for roach control.. hey try it all .. those things are worse than gremlins to get rid of!
Allie treated me to a showing of all her pretty rocks and they gave me an amethyst to take home with me.. hehehe.. only precious gem I found in all that dirt digging!
I was really into it until I watched this guy and his wife run a sluice all day long.. they don't allow any wheeled or motorized transport in the mine area.. so this guy all day long.. put a five gallon bucket on each end of a cedar post and carried them full of dirt to a sluice thing where he dumped them out and his wife ran water over them.. finally went and asked if they had found anything.. the reply was.. " Not today... but probably the next bucket full... "
WHOA! Wait a minute here lockie ole gal.. if he does this all day long.. in the heat and the bugs and finds nothing.. I looked at my little digger thing and my three pronged scratcher and .. went to Sonic and got supper!
The campsite started to fill up on Wednesday afternoon.. and the noise level increased to the irritating level well into the night .. and I was doing fine until around 2 a.m. and a hoot owl did his hooot hooott hooooowwwww thing in a tree right over my tent! I didn't spook and run away.. I had heard it all week out in the woods ... but to do it right over my tent! Make a country girl stay up the rest of the night.. make a city girl have one of those 911 call things happen!
The squirrels are not afraid of people either.. and right now the pine cones are ripe and hehehe.. yeah.. it is noisy when you get three or four of them crunching on them and throwing the cob down on your tent.. hehee.. raccoons and crawdads.. hehehe.. lovely!
Funny thing though.. there was this really nice expensive camper that was there all week long and I never saw a soul outside of it.. I know they were in there.. the curtains would open up every once in a while..
Finally dawned on me.. honeymooners! lol
So I packed it all up and went into Murfreesboro and got a motel room that last night there.. and had to fight the refugees from Ike for a room practically.. if I had of been in front of one those poor people I would have pitched tent again.. but I wasn't .. ( thank the good LORD!) remote controls and bathtubs and ice in a box that isn't covered in mud is such a luxury people!
And don't get me started on the joys of Air Conditioning! ooo laa laa! Who needs a man when I got access to a Rheem!
I started home on Friday around 11a.m. and piddled all the way home.. stopping here and there till the rains and wind started moving in on me.. I made it home around 4p.m.
I have been doing some major sleeping and just kicking back I guess.. feel better this week though.. and for all intents and purposes...was something I should have done years ago!
I gained more than dirty fingernails..
I found out..
I am a grown up after all!
I am posting two video players in hopes that you guys will be able to see one of them.. the Media Player one is for my buddy Crystal..
graphics for my blog provided by
lockerridge
