We weren't sure how good the fall color would be but we could not have had a prettier drive. The Parkway was just gorgeous. I never take good pictures of trees but these are okay. The sun was shining so brightly I had to adjust the contrast a little. D and I discussed how even though we only lived in TN for five years and we've been in SC for 10, we feel like we're coming home whenever we drive up here. I guess because we dated here and fell in love here it has a lot of special memories and it holds a certain place in our hearts.
When we were dating, D and I would often come to the Quiet Walkways and sit by the river. I believe it's the Pigeon River. This is one of my most favorite places in all the world. It is so peaceful. And it has such a strong presence; it feels old. Like you're sitting on the bedrock of the world. We arrived about 4:30 and it was around 60 degrees. I already had on a shirt and a sweatshirt. I then put on another sweatshirt so I was wearing three layers and a toboggan. I felt like an Eskimo.
After the hike we were ready for dinner. Luckily, they've built a Texas Roadhouse here while we've been away. I adore TR's steaks, they are consistently good. And the nice thing about TR is that on your birthday, you quality for free ribs. The best ribs. Ever.
Most of the staff was dressed in costume. The whole experience was slightly Freudian. There was the pirate who introduced himself as Captain Morgan, the male server dressed as a banana, the Pimp behind the bar and the requisite bunny. Our server was Kayla, the naughty cop. And she would have stopped traffic in those fishnets. D said he felt like he was in Hooters.
We had noticed this castle-like structure on our drive in and decided to check it out after dinner. It's one building with three venues inside: The Odyssey Mirror Maze, The Laser Maze and Pirate Golf. All three had special lighting effects and my pictures were crappy.
My favorite part was the mirror maze. I had never done one before. They outfitted us with plastic gloves so that we would not leave prints all over the mirrors. Once I got in the maze I understood why. The flashing colored lights made it even more disorientating. If I had been in there alone I would have never found my way out. Luckily D is a smart cookie. When God gave D his sense of direction he must have gotten my share too. We were the only ones in the maze at the time. They were playing the coolest techno dance music in there. In the middle of the maze they have installed what I'm going to call a ripple screen. When you walk in front of it, the image ripples and distorts. D had a lot of fun with it and then we danced in front of it. The 'neat factor' was very high.
This picture is taken dead on and yet you don't see me. I'm the Invisible Girl!
I did not enjoy the Laser Maze at all. It was a pitch black room. Just a straight stretch but with laser beams cris-crossed in front of you. All directions and heights and angles. Every time you broke a beam a klaxon sounded. For someone of my size and inflexibility it was impossible and infuriating. I finally just ran through all the beams to the other side. Not worth my time.
The third part of the adventure was Pirate Golf. It's an indoor course and it's completely done in dayglo paint and blacklights. All the walls were black with dayglo paintings. All the props and statues were dayglo. The balls and clubs were dayglo. The pirate ship in the middle of the course (which was one of the holes) was painted in dayglo paint. It was awesome. Everything just... glowed. The golf holes themselves were nothing spectacular, most were done in 2 or 3 strokes. I even had a hole-in-one! I wish I had better pictures but even with all that glowing going on, there wasn't enough light for the camera's liking. There was a couple right behind us so I couldn't really take the time to use a slow shutter speed.
I had a FABULOUS time at Adventure Quest. I could not stop remarking on what a great time I was having. I want to go back.
2008 is an even year so we have our timeshare points and we're running out of calendar days to use them! D and I have never stayed at Wyndham Smoky Mountains before. I didn't realize it was such a huge facility. The ones we've visited before were single buildings (Myrtle is actually two towers). This is a whole series of complexes on both sides of the road. We're in building 28 on the 3rd floor. It's a wonderful suite. We have a full kitchen, dining room table, living room, balcony and the best part of all... a jacuzzi right in the bedroom. It's so much better than a hotel room.
We've had our timeshare on the market for over a year now and not one single person has been interested in buying it. I guess with this economy that shouldn't surprise me. After taking a jacuzzi with D I was thinking maybe we don't want to sell it after all...
It's 11PM and that means I have 1 hour until NaNoWriMo begins. The website is having some issues and the word count widget went wacko on me so I had to remove it from the blog. I'm going to try and get a good head start on my story while D is asleep because I don't know how much I'll do Sat or Sun and I don't want to get too far behind. You need to do about 1700 words every day to finish NaNo on time. Wish me luck!
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