My worthy opponent and WWC

When I first met Macey, I can remember saying, " She is a worthy opponent." She held up banter well and was able to match wits in the most peculiar way. She made me smile with her charm and intelligence. She read me like a book in a way no one had ever done before: familiar, and steady. I was instantly at home in her arms and I knew beyond a doubt that with her is where I was supposed to be for a very, very long time. I I knew I'd found love.

This weekend Macey and I went to the Smokey Mountains and stayed in a cabin near Gatlinburg and celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. We had a beautiful time and a beautiful view from our balcony:

which housed the jacuzzi that I didn't want to leave behind. Who am I kidding? I didn't want to leave the cabin behind. I tried to pitch the most convincing campaign that I could possibly muster for our moving in immediately.




I campaigned hard for quitting our jobs and moving to the mountains, becoming a couple of mountain women and one mountain sun-dog. Then we ventured out. We made our way down the mountain and into town, where, unbeknownst to us, a hot rod car show was under way for the duration of the weekend,OUR weekend.

I wouldn't have minded the car show so much, had it been in a singular location, this however was spread fully across all of Pigeon Forge, causing the travel time to be 2 hours to go from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg, that's 2 HOURS on a 7 MILE stretch of highway! It was absolutely crazy. I saw more rebel flags and mullets than I've ever seen in any one spot. Except that one time that I had to travel through Alabama and stopped at a little country gas station, then promptly decided to keep on going; me with my rainbow "Dyke Pride" sticker in my back window shining like a "kick me" sign on my back in the school yard. What was I thinking, anyways? Nowhere, Alabama is no place for a couple of dykes with rainbows and queer pride stickers, it was like some Gynocentric version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Rebel flags and mullets aside, I enjoyed reconnecting with my wife. I enjoyed the escape from our everyday life, and I enjoyed the scenery of the Smokey Mountains. I had fun going into Gatlinburg and being a tourist for a day. I felt really sad for the area, though. Like it's lost it's soul. A million stores selling the same ole' thing in each and every one. I found you have to get out of Gatlinburg, into the meat and potatoes of the smokies to see the beauty. Otherwise, you've got a tourist trap with nothing but shop after shop of the same old crap and so many cars and engines being revved that you can smell the imminent threat of carbon monoxide poisioning from the cloud that surrounds each and every car's exhaust like a little cumulus of death. I didn't find quite what I expected to find, but what I did find was a wonderful little pancake place, a beautiful cabin, some scenic vistas, and a renewed connection with the love of my life. I think it all worked out perfectly fine.

Now, on to the WWC...

Tink, of Pickled Beef, gave us a tricky little feat to accomplish this week... tisk, tisk, Tink! She made me have to get out my thinking cap. She asked us to capture our interpretations of

Wind

&

Five

quite a challenge, for me at least. Here's mine.

and here's some bonus Gatlinburg photos

Tink has set up a Flickr group for the WWC so check that out too! flickr's free to join, so why not?

Oh yeah, and
Happy Earth Day Everyone! I've committed myself to cleaning up the litter in my neighborhood,
what's your commitment?