Time Waits for No Blog

I've been such a blog slakker. Let's see, we went on vacation to the Ocoee River in Tennessee. It's where the Tennesse, North Carolina and Georgia borders come together. How was it? Well it was Grumpy's~Snow white~Whirly Bird~Gonzo Shoals~Broken Nose~Second Helping~Fanny Rock~Moonshoot~Sweet Cheeks~Double Suck~Double Trouble~John and Sue Rock~Left, Right, Left (aka Three Stooges)~Flipper~Hollywood Hole (aka Hands and Feet)~Doldrums~Tablesaw~Sneaky Pete (aka Suprise Ledges)~Diamond Splitter~Witches Hole~Western Flyer~Slingshot~Cat's Pajamas~Hell Hole~Powerhouse. I would put up pics, but we used those disposable waterproof cameras and are waiting to get the pics back.
Vacation was great.

My b/f had a birthday while we were there and since I didn't have a card, I made him a birthday rock with my CRETACOLOR Sepia art set. I drew his kayak on an Ocoee River rock I picked up while resting in an eddy.. I also made him a "Salmon of Knowledge" rock. The Salmon of Knowledge comes from Irish/Celtic mythology. I was reading a book on the subject on the long drive to the Smoky Mountains. The story is that all of the knowledge of the world was contained in a Hazel tree. The hazel nuts fell into the river and a salmon ate them, thereby gaining all of the knowledge of the world.




The day after we got home, we decided to go the coming weekend to the Youghiogheny River in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. Since we would have Monday,Independence Day off, we took advantage of it.









As you can see, the paddling was great and the room we stayed in had a humming bird feeder next to it. The humming birds were about as much fun to watch as the river was to paddle. Another interesting part of that trip was that something about the size of a black lab crossed in front of us as we were driving away from Ohiopyle. It was followed by something huge and black. We quickly realized that it was no dog, it was a black bear cub and mamma bear! That was the first time I had seen black bears somewhere other than the zoo.

Here are some humming bird shots:
























When we got back, I received an email from a family historian with information about my dad's side of the family going back to when the first ancestor arrived in the American Colonies in the 1700s. Fascinating reading and worth it's own blog entry as soon as I work my way through it.