Friday, September 5, 2008

Labor Day Weekend at Parksville Lake

She Lives!

Hi all, just wanted to stop in and let you know about my wonderful weekend at the lake. As you know I've been working long hours and have been on the road so much that I haven't checked in for a while but here I am.

Parksville Lake is located in Southeast TN in Polk County TN. You may know it better or can locate it better by calling it the Ocoee Lake. My BIL, Doug and sister Shirley have a cabin on the lake that you can only get to by boat. Before a telephone was on the property the only way you could notify someone at the cabin to pick you up in the boat was to pull over at a special spot on HWY 64 and blow your car horn. But alas, a phone was installed and you can call for a pick up but the thing about that is you have to be in a special place to get a signal to call over. Miss the Dam and you have missed the boat! LOL



The cabin is a big one room cabin with sheets up to separate the bedrooms. There is a kitchen and a bathroom. The water is pumped from the lake so you can't drink the water. When the dishes are done, you have to add clorox bleach to the water to make sure all the "bugs" are gone. If you take a shower, it's lake water. So I figure I might as well take soap and shampoo to the swim area and bathe that way. The water is always pretty cool so you don't get so hot taking a hot shower. No air conditioning in this cabin.

There is a basement and a nice ping pong table downstairs which proves to be quite competitive at times. Of course there is a big fire ring outside to enable us to have a fire for SMORES.

We usually have all the kids and their kids and now its their kids down which means as many as about 55. This year there were only about 25 down for our cookout of hamburgers and hotdogs on Saturday. Jonathan and Taylor (ds and dgd) came up from South GA for the weekend. It had been since Christmas since I had seen them so I was sure excited for them to be there.




Guess you could say this is like a family reunion we have every year. We had gotten away from our gtg at the lake until 2002, the year my Mama died. We have been following the tradition of getting together since that July 30 day. It is a blessing to have such a loving family. Everyone looks forward to going to "the lake." Next year, I won't have to be in such a hurry to leave and get back to work.



Lots of water skiing and tubing goes on. At least among the youngsters. Since I hurt my shoulder I can't do the water sports anymore but it's good to watch memories being make for everyone else.

This year, Jerry & Dana, had found a trail to hike, Boulder trail, close to the Olympic site of the whitewater rapids. On Saturday, several of the "kids" decided to go see the water falls and hike the trail. We had told everyone to be careful of black bears as they had been known to be in the area. You may remember a story from a couple of years ago where a black bear had attacked & killed a kid. This is the same general vicinity. Anyway off they went and when they returned everyone talked about how beautiful it was and it wasn't a hard trek.







Sunday they wanted to go again and Wanda and I decided we would go along. We hiked up the boulders for a short distance and then went to the smooth trail and finished going up that way. They were right, it was just beautiful. We had hiked for a while and I decided I wanted to stop and "smell the roses" and soak in the water. I sat in the water and then hung out on a big rock. Jonathan came back to where I was and chilled with me. There were some beautiful wild flowers. I don't know what they were but they were quite lovely.



Now I thought I had done quite well and had stopped by choice. My great nephew Jacob came to me and said he was happy that I had come and "even though you didn't make it to the top" I'm proud you are here." WHAT???? Had I known it was going to be a challenge, by golly, I would have gone all the way to the top. I could have, you know. LOL

Anyway, Wanda and I went back to the car and waited on the others to come down. They were coming down the boulders. Wanda had told Heath to look after Taylor but of course being boy, he ran off and left her so Jonathan go on the boulders to help her out. As he jumped off one boulder to tell the others good bye, crack, crunch, oh. Yep, there went his ankle. He climbed out and hobbled on down to the car. He said, "well, Mom, I turned my ankle." I didn't think much of it and we all piled into the car. No ones cell phone would get out so we drove over to the pull off place and did it the old way. Blow the horn and wait until someone comes down to wave you on, which they did.

When Jonathan got out of the car, he couldn't walk. I realized at that time he was hurt worse than I thought. I told him I would take him to the hospital. He didn't have his wallet, insurance card, etc. We waited until Doug went over to the other side of the lake to get Jonathan's wallet and bring it back. Then we went to the hospital in Bradley county.

I called David, my other nephew, who lives in Cleveland and got directions as to where the hosptial was. We checked in about 3:30 p.m. OMG, you would not believe how many people were in that emergency room. I got a wheelchair so Jonathan could get out of the car and get from one location to another in the hosptial.

Oh, I'm still in my bathing suit and coverup. It's cold in the hosptial.

It was fun sitting in the hosptial because we were sitting in front of the door and the only way you could get out of the door was to push a button. People would walk up to it and stand there, just waiting for the door to open. Oh, it was funny to watch but writing about it, is not too funny. Trust me, people watching was very entertaining.

They took x-rays and then it was time to see the DR. who turned out to be a PA. Now, I don't want to discount PAs, I'm sure they do well but this guy didn't even look at Jonathan's ankle. He didn't even know x-rays had been taken. We told them the x-rays had been taken, he left, came back in about 2 min and said it wasn't broken but he couldn't be sure until the swelling went down.

By this time it was about 9 p.m. and too late to get back across the lake, plus Jonathan could not have made it up the hill on crutches anyway. David invited us to stay at his house for the night. We did. Don't think that his DW, Jan, appreciated unexpected company that night but it sure was nice to have a place to go other than a hotel room. Thanks to David and Jan for opening up their beautiful new home. A REAL shower was certainly refreshing.

Taylor had to be the responsible one and get us packed up and loaded our things in the boat. Jonathan and Taylor had a 7 hour trip in the car. It was Jonathan's right ankle. By the time he got home, his ankle was swollen to a basketball size. It didn't go down through the night either, next day it was still swollen but he was able to go to his DR and sure enough, it was not broken. Very bad sprain. It will take about 4 weeks of recovery and his DR took him off the crutches. Jonathan learned he has an extra bone in his ankle which is developing bone spurs! What? He is too young for bone spurs, aren't those for "old" people? DR said don't worry about it until it starts giving him problems. Seems like my family has extra parts all through their body. Might as well be Jonathan too. Wonder what Taylor will end up with? I had an extra rib but it's gone. LOL

When I got back to Nashville I talked to Ann who had stayed for the weekend in the area where I was and while they were out on Saturday exploring they saw a big black bear run across in front of their van. So he was out there close to the trail.

It was just so nice to get away just to relax after three weeks of travelling and staying in yucky hotel rooms. I have about three more weeks of teaching until I can get back and settle down. The worse part about all this is Sedona is not here. When I come home it's so empty. She is with Theda while I'm travelling so much. It's best for her but I sure miss her being around.

I'll check back you you all a little later, hope things are going well with my readers. Oh what about that Sarah Pelin? I'd say impressive!

Later...

2 comments:

Teresa Brooks said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful week-end. You took some great pic too. Sorry to hear about Jonathan's ankle. Hope it is getting better.
Your Cuz...Teresa

beckles1 said...

Although I've heard about "the lake", I'd never seen pictures. Great pix. Gosh, Taylor has grown! Looks like a great place for a family reunion or to "just go"!

Beck