Those two words can mean so much! lol. This past Thursday morning we headed out to Tennesse. The weather forcast for the 10 days prior to us leaving called for temperatures into the 50s. We were bringing family on this trip that had never seen "real" snow and since last year when we were there we saw snow, we prayed and asked God to please send some snow for us. Well...there's two, ok maybe three, things I know for sure. 1) God answers prayers, 2) God provides above and beyond what we could ever ask or imagine and 3) Be careful what you pray for. haha.
The few days leading up to the trip the forcast changed - the expected temperatures fell and I saw a few snow flakes on my iPhone weather app. :) I honestly didn't expect much snow because I knew the warmer weather had melted most of what snow was already in Tennessee. We left Alabama expecting to see atleast a "light dusting" or maybe a few inches of snow fall while we were there. We arrived in Tennesse and there was barely even any snow. You had to look hard to find some "patches" of snow in the shady parts where the sun was unable reach and melt it. We continued to drive, checked in at the cabin rental office and began our trek some 2000+ feet up the mountain to our cabin - in our 2 wheel drive vehicles. ha. We had rented this particular cabin before and had no trouble getting to it in our vehicles even in snow. We fell in love with it and we were headed back there. As we progressed up the mountain, we saw a little more snow, nothing like we had seen last year though. But, we were thankful to be there anyway. We unpacked the car, played around a bit and settled in for the evening. Before we left, my mom and I had "planned a menu". We were going to eat out some and eat in some. We cooked a few things ahead of time and brought some things to make to save some expense and so we could be in and enjoy the cabin more this year. (last year, we spent so much time out and about we were rarely at the cabin to enjoy it). We watched the news and knew that snow was headed our way! As we wound down and prepared for bed, the snow began to fall. I woke up some point in the middle of the night, looked out the window and saw some snow but was like, hmm-that's not as much as I thought there would be following what we heard on the news. When we woke up the first morning we saw this on the back deck:
No big deal. They had plowed and salted the roads going down the mountain and we were able to get down.
We went to eat at the Pancake Pantry:
then headed to Ober Gatlinburg that day.
It continued to snow and it came down harder and harder and did not stop. We did everything we wanted to do at Ober but knew we needed to quickly leave because the weather just kept getting worse. See:
We knew/heard that alot of snow had accumulated on the mountain and not only was there snow but ice. Because of what we had been told by others and the fact that the snow was not going to stop we knew our 2 wheel drives would probably not be able to make it up the mountain to our cabin after leaving Ober and if we did we knew we wouldn't be able to get down in them. So, after much debate - we rented 2 4wheel drives and left our vehicles at the rental place. We paid for the cabin and wanted snow so we were going to make the best of it. Thank goodness we made that decision. As we headed up the mountain in the 4 wheel drives it had already begun to ice over. We would have never made it safely in our own cars. The snow continued to fall and never let up. Wow, does God have a sense of humor. We knew we were in for the night and probably wouldn't get out at all the next day (Saturday). We woke up Saturday morning to this:
At least 2 feet in most areas around our cabin. This was our "way out" down the mountain...no way were we getting down that! So we staying in, played alot in the snow, and played card/board games inside.
The snow plow did not even come up to the mountain at all on Saturday until late that evening. We talked to the guy plowing the snow and he said that he felt like we had a small window of opportunity to get down the mountain on Sunday and if we didn't/weren't able to get out we would probably be stuck there for another 3-4 days atleast. It was still snowing at that point on Saturday night. It was supposed to let up throughout the rest of the night and Sunday morning and begin again Sunday night for the next several days. He was going to be back early the next morning to plow and salt and he said that we should leave about an hour after he plows so the salt would have time to work its magic on the ice. We were prepared to be stuck but were hopeful that we would be able to get down. We were able to get out Sunday morning but were headed into terrible winter weather in Alabama...really - this was nuts. We drove as fast as we could out of Tennessee to try and arrive home in Alabama before the ice storm came though there. We made it to Gadsden and we were a-o.k. But when we hit Trussville we knew we had not beaten the weather home. It was sleeting and the roads were already iced over. We had to drive about 20 miles an hour from Trussville to home and saw alot of wrecks along the way. Thank goodness we made it home safe. Vacations are fun but sometimes there is just "no place like home". I thank God for the fun we had and that we were safe through it all. Here is a picture of part of the inside of our cabin and another that shows some more of how much snow we got.
If you are ever looking to rent a cabin in Gatlinburg, TN go to www.cabinsusagatlinburg.com. We have rented from them three times now and have been pleased everytime. They are also very nice. If you're a friend on Facebook, be checking there for more pictures from the trip.
Now I'm off to watch the rest of the BCS National Championship Game. As a graduate and long time Tide fan...Roll Tigers Roll. Let's keep it in the state!
Much love to all,
Angele
