Our valentines day started out wet, rainy, and far too early for my taste. My friends had decided that we were going to "See Rock City" this day, which I heard tell was a hike, to a big rock or something. Trins' fiancée' was in town, so we wanted to do something "Fun" while he was here.
But looking at the rain, I was silently praying that we would scrap that idea, and do something else; I was planning to take Tim with me, and I was NOT looking forward to the prospect of a big, wet, muddy, stinky dog. But several quick text messages revealed that everything was still a "go".
So I packed some extra towels, and my sisters and I headed out. We reached my friends house, only 20 minutes late…..to find them all still in bed and/or in pajamas! Needless to say we weren't overly pleased at this discovery, think of all the valuable sleep we could have been doing!?! About an hour later, we decided to scrap the plans to go to Chattanooga TN, and headed to the over popular Gatlinburg.
Finally everyone was ready, and we figured out the car thing …Tim is like takes up two seats….and headed out!
Our first stop was at "The Apple Barn", apparently it was a huge apple orchard with a restaurant and souvenir shop. Anyways, Christina ran inside, and came back with some of the best apple fritters! At this stop I decided to let the girl's niece hold on to Tim's harness….1.) to keep up with her, and 2. So he could get some practice. She was more than happy to help!
After that we all piled back in the car, and decided to figure out what we were going to do….well Rebekah and Christina were trying to figure it out, I was eating. :D
I don't know what was decided, but we pulled back into traffic. (Or would that be whipped?) and headed into Gatlinburg; As we crawled the small town Gburg. I spotted a sign for "Hillbilly Golfing…Incline Mini Golf" after some quick calls back and forth between the vehicles, we decided to stop.
Despite the cold, and drizzle, it was pretty fun! I don't know who had the idea to put a golf course on the side of the mountain! By the time we were finished, my hands and feet were numb, be I was sure Tim would be ready for a long walk. (No I didn't take him…we did that once with Midnight…and he's a LOT bigger then she is)
Everyone was standing around trying to figure out what were going to do, Kimber, Tim and I just struck out on our own;
And we walked, and walked, and walked…..and walked some more…..and then walked some more!! We window shopped, and some of our group serenaded the masses, while the rest of us, sped up and walked faster.
We stopped and watched candy being made, at a candy factory; and then walked around a small "village" and squeezed our way in and out of the quaint shops housed there. We got lost a couple of times, and then lost some a couple of times….
All in all during this part, Tim was doing reasonably well; what I'm coming to find is typical Tim behavior; it wasn't overly bad, so I couldn't complain too much. But then it was time to eat. As we walked in, my dear, dear friend introduced our party as 8 people and a dog. That kind of freaked the head girl out, because she ran to the back, without a word to us. I knew what had happened as soon, as I saw her walking back with a guy; as they approached I assured them that he was a service dog, and everything was fine.
Now Tim has some kind of vendetta against restaurants, but we made it through lunch…or early dinner.
By this time, the masses were out in force, and walking down the sidewalk meant you were going to be walking shoulder to shoulder…add Tim and Kimber into the mix, and we were both (Kimber and I), walking into people, and narrowly avoiding poles, and benches.
A Guide Dog Tim is not, and never will be.
At this point, I think everyone was pretty tired, and so we dashed across the street, and headed back to our cars. Once we got there I was thourghly wiped out. I felt like I couldn't move. Tim felt the same way, and sprawled across me, and slept the entire way home.
This trip gave me some more insight on Tim, and how I should go about working with him in different ways; so that'll keep us busy.
Only about a month or so, until graduation!
*girl runs screaming from the room*
