The Muckheads and I traveled to Tennessee to visit with my three older sons two weeks ago. Grant and Carrie own land on a mountain top. Lee is living in the little Winnebago trailer of theirs. I may have mentioned this before. And Dan and Jeania, who have six-year-old Hannah, have bought a piece of property adjoining with Grant's. Dan and Jeania have plans to move there sometime in the way long future.

The reason for the get-together was because Dan and Jeania made plans to come up from Florida to spend their vacation on their land. It was a perfect opportunity for the rest of the Landenberger siblings and their mom, who live in Ohio, to go down for somewhat of a family reunion.

Grant and Lee do all the cooking for this resort called Watts Bar Resort. The resort is right across from the Watts Bar Dam and on the Tennessee River. It's definitely a fisherman's kind of paradise. It's a beautiful place to visit but if you are thinking of going there you better call first. The road across the dam is going to be closed for the summer and the owner of the resort is talking about having to shut the resort down. Everything is all up in the air for now. If it's open, I recommend going if for nothing else but the food served in the restaurant. My boys are two mighty fine cooks.

D & J, and the Muckheads and I were able to get a bit of a discount on cabins at the resort so we settled in that first night right across from each other. The cabins were cozy enough but very retro in furnishings. The next night D & J decided to save on expenses and pitched a tent beside Grant's house on the mountain. D & J's land didn't have an access road or toilets yet.

After Grant and Lee got off from work, they came over to our cabins. Grant's wife Carrie joined us, too. The majority of our visit happened that night. There was birthday presents from us for Hannah to open, there was lots of talking and remembrances, there was lots of drinking and there was lots of staying up all night. For some reason, Grant and Dan stayed up to see the sun rise over the river.

Lee had to work the lunch shift. That gave most of us time to sleep in before going over for lunch at the restaurant. After Lee got off work, it was Grant's turn to be cooking. Lee managed to get permission for us to take a pontoon boat out on the river. A thunderstorm came up just as we were heading out for the dock so Amy and Todd decided not to go with us. They were concerned about the safety for the baby. The storm skirted around us and by the time we drove the short distance to the dock, the storm was over. Kip, Lee and I had an exhilerating ride on the boat. Lee took the helm first, the Kip had a go at it, and then I drove us home. I love to be out on the water like that. We did some birdwatching and plenty of house looking. There were lots of houses lining each bank that we went by and each island.

After the boat ride, we headed up the mountain. The plan was to have a campfire and eat steaks. Or eat steaks and have a campfire. Another thunderstorm followed us up the mountain. Everyone but Grant was there so we sat around and talked and played with the dog and cats. Hannah and Dan went upstairs and played a game. Carrie got Kip to light the bbq and we all poked fun at him for having to keep pouring lighter fluid on it. Lee went to help Kip and before long there was a healthy cooking fire burning. Lee loves to cook for all of us so he took charge of cooking the steaks and bratwurst. While they were cooking, he also made up a salad and dressing to go with it. Fortuitously, the rain stopped just before the steaks were to be cooked.

Grant arrived at 9:30 and he had brought some boiled cabbage and Brussels sprouts. How many other families would dig into that stuff and sit around yum-yumming about it? Then Grant got the campfire going. Amy and Todd stayed for a little bit then had to get back to the cabins to put Addy to bed. Grant loves to build huge bonfires so with a dozen large logs on the fire it was roaring very well. An hour later, Jeania coaxed Hannah into the tent to try to get her to sleep. She was restless, not wanting to miss out on anything. I decided to go in the tent with her and stay till she fell asleep. This was a most enjoyable time for me since I don't get to spend any time with her on a regular basis. She is such a bright girl and her mind rambles on and on. Finally, an hour later, she went to sleep. As I got out of the tent, I told Kip that we had to head out, too. It was late and I was tired.

What an adventure Kip and I had then. We drove around for two hours trying to find our way back to the resort. The road to the resort branches off in two different directions that got me completely turned around. We only found our way home after getting a map from a Tennessee policeman that we finally came across way north of where we should have been. Like Kip said, "I sure could have use that extra two hours for sleeping."

Sunday morning came too early for Kip and me but up we got and soon all of us were packing up our gear and stockpiling it into our cars. It was time for us to go home. Before we did that, we were going to eat one more time at the restaurant. Grant and Lee were both on cook duty for lunch. It's rather nice having connections to the kitchen. They plied us with all sorts of food and a few extra portions of this and that. Dan and Jeania were supposed to meet us for lunch but they never did make it down the mountain in time to say goodbye. We stopped in the kitchen one last time to say our goodbyes to Grant and Lee. Amy snapped a picture of Grant. For some reason, I didn't manage to take one shot of him. Not that he minded that. We hugged and then it was time to take off. It was lovely to hear all the praise that the resort workers gave about my two boys.

Then it was home again, home again, jiggity jig.