The Smokies: the Final Leg of the GRT

On Saturday, I was in the Harrison County Fair Parade (Harrison County, IA). I sat in the back of a pickup truck throwing shirts and pencils to the people who lined the street. Riding on a float in the Harrison County Fair Parade was a strange throwback to my life growing up. Living in a small Midwestern town in the fall often meant staking out a spot on the sidewalk lining Main Street and collecting as much candy as I could from the passing floats. I remember how exciting it was to hear the drums of the marching band and the blast of the horn on the fire engine. Then, as a member of the high school marching band, I was often a part of small parades. We'd march in our matching summer uniforms of shorts and polo shirts, or sweat like crazy in our wool uniforms, walking sort-of-close-to-in-step with one another past the grins of proud parents and children who wished we could produce candy out of our instruments instead of music. I had forgotten how much I liked parades.

From there, A and I drove across Iowa to visit her hometown, which I have heard about for years. She is the "heiress to the feed store" in her tiny Iowa town, and it was really fun for me to see the places she'd talked about and glimpse what life might have been like for her growing up in a town even smaller than the one I grew up in.


Then it was on across the country, past the world's largest truck stop, down through the hills of Kentucky to Great Smokey Mountain National Park. A's parents have a gorgeous cabin just outside the park, and they welcomed us warmly. We spent a couple days exploring the park, having picnics and going hiking, and driving down the windy roads looking for animals. It was fun to join in their family vacation, and I felt almost like one of the family as we ate together and talked about their small town and shared stories of family vacations past.


On Wednesday morning, A and I spotted a two-year bear cub while hiking around Cades Cove. We were only about thirty feet away, so I got some great shots of the bear:





Then, after nearly two weeks and more than 2,300 miles of travel, I made my way back to the city. Too bad my air conditioning was broken when I got back to my apartment...