July 17
This is the end!! We are home and glad to be sitting on our couch.
We had a wonderful time traveling together and seeing the sights.
We realize that we are very, very fortunate to be able to travel like this, and we are truly thankful to our God for the blessings that we have that allow us to do the things we do.
Tune in again next year.
Ron and Sandy

July 16
We spent the day at Vicksburg just like we spend every trip to Vicksburg - at the Military Park. Each time we become more educated!!
We head home tomorrow.
Ron and Sandy

July 15

Today we traveled to Vicksburg, Ms to Aunt Dot's. We stopped in Jackson, Ms at the zoo. We really enjoyed the zoo - especially Katey. When we got to Aunt Dots we had a feast of catfish and all the trimmings. It seems as if the vacation has been based around food!

We will spend tomorrow here and leave for home on Thursday.

Ron and Sandy

Ron and I are glad to have Lucy and Katey join us for this part of our trip.

Today we left Georgia after a wonderful time with our family. We drove to Birmingham, Alabama where we stopped at Oak Mountain State Park. They have a wildlife rescue facility there. We toured it and saw them "tending" to animals that were injured. We went on a elevated "treetop" walk. We saw several exhibits of animals that had been rescued and were not able to be released. This required another hike in the hills.

We left Birmingham and drove on to Meridian, Ms. for the night. Tomorrow we will head to Vicksburg by way of Jackson.

Ron and Sandy

We have had a wonderful few days of visiting with our family at the family reunion. For our Texas group this was a time to get to visit aunts and cousins and to see the new "crop" of "Smith" kids coming up.


Katey and Lucy are joining us for the remainder of our trip. We are beginning our trip back west and will make some stops on the way.

Ron and Sandy

We have been out of blog "business" for two days so I will catch up.

On Thursday we traveled across the mountains of north Georgia. Our goal was to eat at a place called the Dillard House. There is history behind wanting to eat there. When my daddy was young he went to Jr. College in Rabun Gap, GA. He was poor and owned one pair of overalls. Across the road was the fancy, fine restaurant - The Dillard House. They would watch all the families drive up there to eat and he said to himself that one day he was going to take his family to eat there. He did do that in later years and so in honor of daddy we went there.

We go in, sit down, they take our drink order and tell us that our food will be there soon. Ron looked at me and said "We haven't even ordered!" Well, little did we know that they brought you all they had. They came out with a platter about 3 feet in diameter loaded with food. They put 16 serving dishes on the table for just the two of us. You should have seen Ron's face -- in fact the picture tells some of the story. You cannot see my half of the table!

We are now deep in family at our reunion and look forward to another great day.

Ron and Sandy

Day 8

This morning after "Red, White, and Blueberry" pancakes from IHOP we headed for the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We studied the map carefully and decided to start on an easy hike to (I can't remember the name) Waterfalls. When we got there we found out that about 500 others had the same idea. We skipped that adventure and headed across the mountains on Newfound Road. This road carries you all the way across the top of that section of the mountains. All along the way there were areas to pull over, hike, look at God's handiwork, and wait for faster cars to pass you. We finally got to the Newfound Gap where the Appalachian Trail crossed the area. Now - know that our goal was not to hike far on the trail just to hike some on the trail. There were about 300 people at the beginning of the trail - but not to worry about crowds - they did not go on the trail just took their picture at the sign! Ron and I started up at a healthy pace and did pretty well for 2 non hikers. We stepped over rocks and stumps and kept on walking up the incline - well for 1/2 mile. Then we decided it was time to turn around. Coming down was easier on the lungs but harder on the legs!

Our next stop was at Clingman's Dome. This was another 1/2 mile incline walk. I had to stop a few times on the way up but I am proud to say I made it. But the best part is that we made it back to the car just as the rain started.

We drove to Blue Ridge, Georgia where we are staying tonight.

It has been great day but my tennis shoes are saying "enough"!

Pictures 2 is when we turned around on the trail and picture 3 was what was behind us when we turned around.

Ron and Sandy