Berea KY Artisan Stop

As I sit here with overheated laptop in lap, we are safely in Gatlinburg TN. The utter beauty of the Smoky mountains combined with tourism gone wild. It is truly the absolute definition of an oxymoron. The only down side about coming to Gatlinburg, is that from OH you must drive thru Pigeon Forge. This afternoon it took us about 90 minutes to drive the last 9 miles. Now granted there was construction. I thought for a minute we might have to stay at the Wax Museum or go minature golfing or ride a waterslide or visit Elvis until the traffic cleared somewhere in the middle of the night. Oh happy day, somewhere around traffic light #2A we started moving forward faster than walking.

It was a very gray, often raining drive. Uneventful -- other than the memorable traffic at the conclusion of the drive. When we travel on Route 75 we always make a point of stopping to stretch in Berea at their artisan shop. BTW I asked permission from the shopkeep to take some pictures. In her very most inviting southern drawl, she said, "honey, take all the pictures you want..... we're proud of our art here in Kentucky." So with their permission, here is the "Tall Giraffe" found-sculpture upon walking in the door & all of the black & white folk painting I could capture.

Tomorrow's a VERY big day. I got to see my presentation room: WOW! I was greeted at the registration desk with a group hug of memorable proportions. (This is the conference where my proposal somehow got "lost" and we all just figured that out a couple weeks ago, right in the hayday of our wedding departure. And then we went from my one presentation to a total of three, in that they had someone unable to present at their big morning breakfast on Saturday....... so I've gone from falling off the radar screen all together, to THE Mills Auditorium tomorrow. AND I'm in the program with my picture, too. It is indeed amazing what can get accomplished when the chips are down.)