The day before

It has been slow around here lately it feels like. Not that I haven't been busy with work, there just haven't been much to write about.

Sarah and I just dropped the dogs off at the kennel (the vet's office). I just set up my auto reply, so I am officially off work until Tuesday morning, nice!

I did laundry this morning, so now I just have to pack everything and set things up for smooth departure tomorrow morning.

We have to roll out of bed at 4.30 AM, get coffee/ice tea/whatever, drive to Tampa International Airport (1 hour), check in at the long-long-term parking (cheaper), take the shuttle from there to the terminal, check in, and go through the security... All that should fit perfectly into the allotted time if nothing unforeseen comes up.

We will actually travel to a different time zone and will be on Mountain Time (Central Time?) while in Tennessee, so 1 hour behind us here in Florida.

When we arrive at 9 AM local time our rental car should be waiting, and then we have a 4 hour drive to the cabin (plus 2 extra hours to kill before we are allowed to check in).

We should arrive at 4 PM, just early enough to go grocery shopping before it gets dark, get cozy and fire up the sauna. Nice!

On Friday morning we are off on our first tour and hike, to Cades Cove, a valley inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The entire area have been preserved as it was over 200 years ago, buildings and all, so it will be interesting to see how they lived up there back then.

There is also supposed to be a lot of wildlife in this area, among those black bears. Should be a great trip all in all!