After planning this for a while, it finally came to be Halloween weekend. Cindy and Rosie had found this cabin in Gatlinburg area where if we rented two nights we would get a third one free, so that is what we did. We left on Friday at mid-day to drive down there and stay until Monday, thus filling our three nights at the cabin. If you have never been to the area, I think that Vonny put it right when we were talking about it with him, “I was driving down there with a friend when I started to see all these neon signs and very touristy type places, I asked ‘Where are we, becasue this just does not happen anywhere?’ and my friend said that ‘we are near Pigeon Forge, the home of Dollywood’.” This was truely a place where tourists go. After all, the Great Smokey Mountain Nation Park, which is right behind Gatlinburg, is the most visited National Park in the US.

So after driving down the main strip, we found the company that our cabin was with, we checked in and they gave us directions to our cabin. We get back out on the strip and follow the directions which have us turn off the strip right at the end just before a nice windy road to the town of Gatlinburg. The cabin was only about 1 mile off the road, in a nice little gated community full of cabins that people rent. The cabin was a nice A-frame house with wood all over the place on the inside of the house. And the best part was the hot tub on the deck on the front of the Cabin. Overall, it was a very nice place, it had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a nice living room.

We went out on Friday night to get some dinner. We were looking through the Menu at TGI Fridays, where several people were looking at what mixed drink that might want, when the waitress pointed to the sticker that said they do not still mixed drinks in this county and that we would have to go to the town of Gatlinburg to get mixed drinks. Oh well, we still have a great dinner.

Saturday started with a trip to a store where they have bears in back that you can feed. These were the fatest bears that I have ever seen, you figure they just sit around and people throw food at them. They were so lazy that they did not want the food unless you threw it right into thier mouth. But it was lots of fun. We then proceded to play a round of putt-putt, and since I am writing this, I can tell you that I beat everyone else there (even though other people might give you the impression that Mook won, but who are you going to beleive We headed back to the cabin, after a stop at a local Ice Cream parlor and some great sweets… After some relaxing in the hot tub and watching some football, we decided to go up to Gatlinburg for some dinner. We decided to go to the Hard Rcok cafe in Gatlinburg. There was quite a wait, but with it being Halloween weekend, all the waiters were dressed up in costumes which helped to pass the time. One waiter in particular drew considerable attention as we tried to decide if it was a man or a woman. The costume was of Madonna during her skimpy material girl phase, let’s just say that Cindy was wrong in guessing that it was a woman…

So after ordering dinner, and wathcing the waiters do YMCA, we sat there talking. Cindy and I listing as Mook talked to Rosie, and then she did not even notice as he brought out a ring and put it in front of her. She was just curious why I was sitting there snapping away pictures on my camera, then she saw the ring and heard what he was saying. Right then he proposed to her, and after she stopped crying (well I guess she really did not stop crying) she said yes and they spent a few minutes re-aranging jewlery on her hands to put this ring on the right finger. Then Rosie turned her attention to Cindy and Me, and called us poopshits for not telling her, since we had known about this for a little while now. Cindy went and helped Mook choose between two rings that he was looking at. Hopefully we will get out of the doghouse soon enough…

That night we went to the Ripley’s Hunted House. It was fun, the best part was this dark room with black walls, a blakc light, and glow in the dark pokadots on the walls. Then there was a person that jumped out who we did not see because they were in black with the polkadots all over them so they just blended in… The rest of it was lots of fun too, lots of walking around in the dark…

On Sunday, Rosie and cindy started the morning with a trip to a local stable to do some horse back riding while the men just chilled and watched some football. We did some more lounging in the hot tub that afternoon. Then I cooked up some steaks (the house has a nice gas grill for cooking on) and we watched some movies and had some food and just had fun…

Monday was the last day that we were there. After packing, we spent some time trying to get some good pictures of the gang, they did not all turn out as nice as I would have liked, but oh well… There were still a few good ones… On the way out of town, we also stopped to feed the bears again, and call a close to our weekend adventure… Oh yeah, we went on the Go-carts before leaving… But rosie got the fastest go-cart so we just did not have a chance, we think that she cheated, but we will just have to wait for the re-match…

Pictures can be found here

-Matt