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‘Twas the Night After Christmas
We’ve had ourselves a merry little Christmas. Just the right size after another fast-paced, busy year. Not to mention we just celebrated Christmas with my family on Sunday, and three weeks earlier, we did Thanksgiving up right. Here at home. We went to our first Christmas Eve church service here in Chattanooga last night. It…
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Déja Vu All Oven Again
I can’t remember the last time before this year that Bill and I hosted for Thanksgiving. But I’ll never forget the first time. We’d been married just a little more than two years; we’d rented a table and some extra chairs to accommodate the 15 who were coming; and we were both registered to run…
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Mount Cammerer: It’s Time to Climb
Ascending Mount Cammerer is one of my very favorite hikes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s also one of the hardest. My first ascent was in 2010 with Bill and my brother, Jack, along. I’ve gone back at least four more times prior to this year. In 2012, Bill, Jack and I were part…
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Fair Enough
If you grew up in Tennessee and, certainly if you grew up with Tennessee 4H, you more than likely have been to a county fair more than once. I don’t know exactly how many times I have been to a county fair, but the number would have been at least 12 or so by the…
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Hiker College
Lookout Mountain. Signal Mountain. Raccoon Mountain. Chattanooga rests in the laps of multiple mountains, so why would hikers in Chattanooga go out of state looking for a mountain to climb? In the case of a hike Bill and I recently took with the Chattanooga Hiking Club, which has members living as far as 50 to…
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The Party With Purpose
Over the 15 months since we moved to Chattanooga, Bill and I have steadily discovered more and more of what makes this area so highly acclaimed for its outdoor offerings. Mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers—calm and wild, it’s all here if you want to do it. And there are a whole lot of do-ers, like us.…
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Last of a Long Goodbye
Mary Arthur Anderson would have turned 91 years old on August 31, had she not passed away this year on Easter Sunday. She was the first of five siblings that include Bill, of which he is second-to-last born. His younger sister, Hazel, and he are the two surviving siblings. Mary was a faithful wife of…
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Operation Move In
When I showed up as a freshman to get the key to my room in Crawford Hall on the campus of Tennessee Tech University, a couple of student workers welcomed me to college and pointed me to the stair well closest to room 311. The three-story building didn’t have air conditioning, had one wall phone…
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Call It Work
“That’s why they call it work.” You’ve probably heard that expression, often used as a verbal shrug after summarizing something done not by choice but by job requirement. I have to plenty to do by job that’s not by choice, but every once in a while, my job offers a really choice assignment. A recent…
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Stump Jumpin’: A Lesson in Limits
Some hikers have no trouble deciding, from the trail, that it’s not the day or the time or the right conditions to finish. I’m not one of those hikers. I tend to press ahead under almost any circumstances. I’m there, I can do it. I’ll push myself, if that’s what it takes. Last Saturday, I…
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The Cable Trail: A Humbling Tale
I grew up about 45 minutes away from the most-visited of Tennessee’s 56 state parks, but I never got to experience it until a couple of days ago. We didn’t go to state parks except for the occasional family reunion when I was growing up. On Saturday, I went to Fall Creek Falls State Park–only…
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Face to Face with the Fiery Gizzard
The name is colorful, the reputation is intimidating, and the location is way off the beaten path. And, as of Saturday, I can say I hiked the Fiery Gizzard Trail–and lived to tell the tale. The Fiery Gizzard is a 12.6-mile gash down the middle of the South Cumberland State Park. The park is made…
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