10 Oct 2012 – Hot Springs to Cherokee

Sun: after seeing the grandchildren enjoying their swim was met by Glenda/Hi Hills and Franklin at Sugar Mt and drove around Grandfather Mt. The mist and fog were good excuses to just stroll up and down Beacon Heights 🙂 

Decided against hiking and headed on to Blowing Rock where G&F’s daughter Jessica Leigh and son-in-law Kenneth have a trendy boutique, Monkee’s. This buzzing village has the best door-sign!! Nice lunch at the Village Cafe***

Linn Cove Viaduct, construction began 1979 and completed in 1987 built with 153 concrete segments to avoid destroying the scenic Grandfather Mt.

Checked into Hot Springs cabin (including 1hr soak US100 S$123). Franklin drove like a F1 driver to and from the car park at Max Patch, walked up the slopes in time for a beautiful sunset. 2005, we hiked here in total darkness. Mother Nature was on our side to show her beauty for 15mins today. Rushed back to Hot Springs in time to soak into the natural mineral hot springs and slept soundly in the cabin by the river.

Mon: had the chance to revisit the 3 White Blazes thru’ Hot Springs to smell the roses which were again rushed thru’ in 2005!

Headed SW app 73mi/118km, 1+hr drive to the Microtel Inn & Suites (US$70 S$86) in ᏣᎳᎩ/Cherokee, a tourist-oriented area located at the entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and at the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. 20mins at the Harrah’s Casino (opened 1995) and $10 down was enough with these modern high-tech slot-machines. Miss the old-fashioned machines when one can hear the coins even for the minimum win…

Met up with MoFo and 2 other hikers at the trail-head after their 2 days and 1 night in tents on the Mountains-to Sea Trail. Nice to meet Guinness and Cruiser. Mexican food for dinner with the exchanging of hiking experiences and info. MoFo has a new tent weighing 9 ozs which is calling out my name 🙂 🙂

Tue: after dropping the hikers off bright and early, we continued to Mingo Falls with 167×2 steps to climb and down to a 120ft waterfall. From Cherokee/NC to Columbia/SC app 200mi /322kms, 3+hrs drive.

ᏩᏙ/thank you to G&F for their gracious hospitality and wonderful company, for one of the most memorable and enjoyable weekends. Appreciations for the driving, arranging of accommodations and for showing their beautiful NC state. Drive safe home back to NC.

When a man moves away from nature his heart become hard – American Indian proverb 

6 Oct 2012 – Mormor is what the grandkids call me!

Wed: Whitehall Carpet Cleaners did a good job with the living room, staircase and the room above the garage or referred to as the movie room which is the grandchildren’s study and where I sleep during my visits. With a projector and a white blank wall acting as the screen, this certainly makes a perfect screening for movies.

John locked himself into his room on Wed and when Linn knocked, he replied that he had a surprise. When he finally opened the door, all the toys were put away. He is such a sweetheart.

Thu: a date with John at McD. Decided to reward him by taking him to his favourite joint, McD with an indoor air-conditioned playground where he requested for a chocolate milkshake which was part of the treat.

Fri: preparing to drive to Sugar Mt/NC again. It is a long weekend and the kids are off school Mon. Jeff is planning to do some easy hike with the 3 older ones in the area.

Hi Hills and Franklin will be picking me up Sun with plans to hike around Grandfather Mt/NC which will be a new experience. Then on to Hot Springs/NC and will be nice to revisit. A natural hot spring is located here, the only such spring known in NC and in much of the SE USA. Being on the AT, stayed a night and indulged in these springs before heading on to Lover’s Leap in 2005!

Looking forward to soaking into those springs again. Maybe a massage too this time round to live up to the 2005 AT thru’ hikers Candy Ass/Miss Wiggy, Gadget, T2 & TigerLil reputation 🙂

No laptop or mobile with me for this long weekend, thus no internet or posting till middle of next week!

The beginnings of Hot Tubs & Spas reaches back before the start of modern recorded history, when neanderthal man used the Earth’s naturally occurring hot springs, whose warmth and natural healing properties were soon recognised –http://www.squidoo.com/hot-tubs-lens

3 Oct 2012 – Hello October…

Last year’s experience at Irmo Elementary School (dates back to 1935) was in portables including Katy’s class:

http://amylamsg.com/2011/10/18/samhain/

School pix below downloaded from:

http://www.lexrich5.org/Irmo.cfm?subpage=1481

Tue: this year with new classrooms, the talks at Irmo Elementary were for both Katy’s & Ellie’s classes about SIN, focusing on the Mid-Autumn/Moon Festival.

Appreciations to Mrs Paddock and Mrs Cain for sharing their home-class and thank you to Katy, Ellie and their classmates for their attention and patience. Hopefully they will look for ‘the lady on the moon’ when the sky is clear with a full moon! And also remember how the Hans defeated the Mongols with Mooncakes 🙂

Sugar cookies by Blue Flour****usually not a fan of sugar cookies but these are good:  http://www.facebook.com/blueflour

A school is but just walls and a roof over the students’ heads, no matter how fancy or well-equipped. A good school is one with good educators but sometimes it is not easy to educate children whose parents also expect educators to be doing the raising and the discipline! Glad to know that both Katy & Ellie are in good hands of parents and teachers!

Class pix credits to Mrs Cain. Mrs Paddock’s pix was blur and I forgot the camera :-(Not too much changes from 2011 class with an additional of a couple more students.

http://www.lexrich5.org/webpages/kcain/

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one – Malcolm Forbes

Oct’s Special Dates

3 Happy Bday CHONG Siong Yin

4 Happy Bday Berit Lisbet EGGEN

6 Happy Bday David WONG

7 Happy 70th Bday Leslie LAM

8 Happy Bdays Larry LAM, Audrey WONG and KONG Heng Sun

12 Happy Bday Karen SCAF-BENHAM

13 Happy Bday David YUNG

16 Happy Bday Patricia LAM

21 Happy Bdays Steve LAM & Dee HALL

24 United Nations Day

27 Happy Bday Ellen HALD sr

29 Happy Bdays LAM Kwok Lock & Kiera CHUA

31 Happy Bdays Adeline LEE, Mark BOROWSKY and Happy Halloween