johnny July 7th, 2008
We just finished up a week long stay at a commercial campground with Jenn’s family. The entire week was a blast. There was good food, good company and plenty of kids to keep things interesting. However, after spending the prior month in the middle of the national forests, we had a bit of culture shock coming back into ‘the city’.
It started as we came into Pigeon Forge, which is about as big a tourist trap as Myrtle Beach. Six lanes of traffic, giant signs on both sides of the street and lots of useless shops and attractions. Thankfully, we got out of the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg areas and back into the National Park lands for the last few miles.
However, as soon as we arrived at the campground, we ran into the owner who quizzed us about pets and whether or not we were planning to ride our moped in the campground. She then pointed us at the site we were to occupy; it was, in fact, next to the creek, but the creek was very low. It was also thirty feet from the entrance to the campground and as close as you can get to the road. At least, we had three sites together, so that we only backed the truck camper in halfway, turned around the pop-up camper on one side with the class A on the other and had the creek to form the fourth ‘wall’ of the compound.
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Tags:
campground,
family,
gatlinburg tn,
holiday,
pigeon forge tn
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jenn June 28th, 2008
If I had an oven, I would so make you a cake! I know, I am supposed to be using the solar oven, but babes, it wouldn’t be very effective here in the rainforest anyway. Oh, and the fact that we used up all of the sugar and eggs feeding the local folks pie doesn’t help much either.
That’s our new life hun. 
I hope you’re loving it as much as I am.
Glad to be spending another birthday with ya. I am sorry that all I have to give you is this stolen birthday card.
xoxox Happy Birthday, Baby! xoxox
Tags:
family,
holiday,
unix geek
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johnny December 30th, 2007
We hope everyone had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas with my parents in the middle of nowhere. Well, 10 miles or so outside of Boone, NC; but 10 miles is a long way in a place where everything is uphill both ways and not even the crow flies in a straight line.
As you can see from our Charlie Brown Christmas tree, Jenn, my brother and I went for a hike until we found something roughly Christmas tree shaped. The process of hiking in, choosing a tree, sawing it down and carrying it out took less time than the last tree we bought off a lot. It’s apparently a lot easier to choose a tree when you’re trying to convince yourself that something looks like a Christmas tree than when you’re trying to decide which Christmas tree is ‘best’. I’m not sure if we were completely on Dad’s land when we found this one, but I doubt the neighbor will miss it.
We spent the first couple of nights down on the road leading up to my parents place. We got in after dark the first night and weren’t brave enough to try the driveway. It’s something like a 30-40% grade and would have our rear jacks dragging if we hit it at the wrong angle.
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Tags:
boone nc,
charlie brown christmas tree,
christmas,
evdo,
family,
fuel,
geek toys,
internet,
oxy acetylene torch
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johnny July 15th, 2007
Well, Jenn and I both have jobs at the same company. We’re IT folks. Overall, it’s not a bad job. In fact, the only real complaint we have most days is that we have to be there instead of elsewhere.
Recently, our company merged with a larger company. In theory, we’ll be assisting with the migration of our existing customers and then continuing to work with our colleagues in the larger company. In reality, the parent company is located 400 miles or so away and the majority of our existing systems will be shutdown. There is a fair bit of thought that we may become redundant in our current locale.
At this point, I can’t even remember exactly how the topic came up, but basically, Jenn tossed out Chris Farley’s line from SNL - ‘living in a van, down by the river!’ I think she was a bit shocked when I said it sounded like a good idea. I know I was shocked that she agreed.
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Tags:
rvs,
vans
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