Truly, a 1st world problem.

[gryphonrhi]

Here we are, off on vacation, hiking until our feet hurt (today it's more the calves, from that climb up to Clingman's Dome), eating good pancakes (see Respite for an explanation of where we're eating pancakes), sitting over a brook listening to babble... and I run out of books. There's a lovely used bookstore in Knoxville, but that's an hour from

Comments

[springwoof]

Hi! glad you're enjoying your vacation.

and I very much enjoyed re-reading Respite--lovely characterizations and I could hear both their voices. very nice.

so, from the looks of the story, and what you're up to, it looks like you're busy doing "research" on your next fic....

[gryphonrhi]

We're just sorry it's over, drat it. Driving home tomorrow, which gives us the weekend to *sleeeep*. ::imagine sound of zombies calling for brains:: Thanks! But yup, that's where we've been getting breakfast. Whee!

I really should set a story here again sometime, yeah!

[adina_atl]

I've climbed Clingman's Dome too, back a few years. At least I think it was Clingman's Dome--has (or had) a lodge at the top? Also climbed Rabun's Bald and picked blueberries, only to discover from the "scat" on the trail that the bears were picking blueberries too.

[gryphonrhi]

Clingman's is the one where you climb about half a mile of trail that feels like you've gone up 1000 feet of altitude, too. (Not actually quite that bad, but ouch.) You get to the top and there's a cement spiral ramp up to a viewing tower. And the bears were out today, too -- we got to see a mama bear and four cubs, three of whom thought (mistakenly) that they had this tree-climbing thing under control. ::amused:: They'd get maybe three feet up and start slipping back down.

[adina_atl]

We did Clingman's Dome too, but the mountain I was thinking of was Mount LeConte, the third highest in the park. We took the Boulevard trail, about eight miles.

We never actually saw any bears, but we conclusively answered the question "Does a bear shit in the woods?"

[gryphonrhi]

Ah! Yeah, we went up to Grotto Falls yesterday, which is the first third of a different route up to LeConte. ::grinning:: That does answer that question, doesn't it?

[gryphonrhi]

Don't worry about it, just get well. So sorry to hear you're badly ill! {{{hugs}}}

[jimpage363]

Sounds like a cool vacation!
Are you aware that Harry Kemelman is from my end of the world? "Barnard's Crossing" is my hometown in thin disguise.

[gryphonrhi]

::giggling madly:: No, I wasn't aware, but I told Dragon over breakfast, "I have to ask JiM if Kemelman was understating things. Or his lawyer said, 'Take some of that out...' " I'll catch you online later to chat about these, I'd forgotten how much I love them. But it's been closer to 30 years since I read them!! Eep. I did *not* catch all the subtleties as a teenager, that's for sure.

[vivwiley]

Running out of books on a vacation is one of my not-so-secret nightmares. This is all related to a childhood trauma of being at my uncle's mountain cabin (in the middle of freaking NOWHERE, and running out of books and the only reading material available being a Danielle Steele novel - apologies if you're a fan).

I'm so paranoid that about 1/3 of the weight/space in my vacation luggage is often reading material, or was, until my absolutely fabulous parents bought me a Kindle a few months back. I've become a rapid convert, particularly once I discovered I could load Word, PDF and txt files to the Kindle, which means, of course, I can bring fic along....

Hope the drive home goes well!

[gryphonrhi]

::laughing:: The scary thing is that I haven't spent as much time reading as usual, and I *still* went through two mysteries (one Stout, one Christie), one SF (Maxwell), one F (the new Jim Butcher, once Dragon finished it), and a western (L'Amour, one of his thicker ones). Just... eeep! Thank you for the reassurance that I'm not the only one who does this!