Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Our Labor Day getaway


After church on Sunday evening, we headed south and spent the night in Athens, TN. Our first destination the next day was Murphy, NC. I was so overjoyed to find our beloved Shooks Marina and surroundings unchanged and just as we left it years ago. The church we four Bentley kids sang specials in was still there, Kristin's pet rock was unmoved, you can still swim on the boat ramp, and I sat on the rock steps where Grandaddy would sit for hours and watch his grandkids swim. I hope you all can make it back some day and bring your spouses who have never seen our Hiwassee Lake!
Then after enjoying some delicious juicy peaches from Mountain Man Produce, we headed north up through Bryson City and stopped at Cherokee to see Mingo Falls and tour the Oconaluftee Indian Village.
Below is a map of our travels...(A) from church Sunday night and (E) arriving home Monday evening.

5 comments:

Anne said...

I sure would have liked to have been on this trip w/you all. These pictures do bring back many fun memories. Did you see Grandaddy's houseboat? Grandaddy loved to be at the lake better then anyplace. Did you kids use the johnny house? Was anyone at the trailer? I don't think there is anyplace better to be then the hills of NC and Tenn. Did the Vols win?

Candace said...

I looked for their houseboat, but didn't see it. The trailer was closed up for the winter...but whoever owns it now is keeping it up nice.
Yes, the Vols won 50-0...granted they did play no name college Tenn-Martin...but it was a shut-out win! :)

Katie said...

This is so crazy that you went there! I was thinking about our summers on the houseboat this weekend and how much fun we had. It looks exactly like I remember it. Did you buy anything at Shooks? Did you tell anyone there that you used to go there when you were a kid? Thank you for taking us on a stroll down memory lane!!

Kristin said...

Well, Candace, I watched this slide show about every two hours yesterday. The first time was a tearful one. Especially when I saw my wonderful friend, the rock. I used to sit on it just like Ally was doing. I guess the hardest part of watching those pictures was knowing that we will never get those times back again. I enjoyed these pictures better than any others. Thanks so much for sharing them with us. I cant wait to go there again. I have so many little short movie clips in my brain that I play over and over in my head. I will share just one. Just us four kids were down at the lake and we were all at the trailer getting ready to go back to the houseboat. Well, granddaddy had a little black and white tv and he was watching a basketball game and wanted to see the end. Well, I begged him to stay with him and watch it. Everyone else went down to the houseboat and at the end of the game granddaddy and I walked down together. It was dark and I was so scared. Granddaddy held my hand the whole way and talked to me and I remember just feeling so safe walking with him. I can just see this video in my head.

Candace said...

I bought nightcrawlers at Shooks.

Yes, Kristin, I thought that also while walking around...it might look the same, but those goodtimes aren't comin' back.