Tennessee isn't all that bad....

I just returned home from a mandatory trip for work to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Immediately you might be saying, "gee, gatilinburg? well that isn't so bad-lucky you." I will tell you one thing-it was not the most enjoyable trip I've had.

First and foremost, we were supposed to fly out from St. Louis to Chicago, and then on to Knoxville, before driving into Gatlinburg. So I rolled my sleepy butt out of bed at 4:15 in the morning anticipating a quick trip down. Okay kids-can you say anticipate? Have you ever heard of worst case scenario? We arrive at the airport at around 8:30 for a 9:15 flight (traffic was horrible coming in-there was like 5 wrecks near St. Louis because of snow). The first thing we hear is, "oh, it looks like your flight is cancelled, you'll need to go to the check-in counter." Great. So we wait in line for fifteen to hear that the second half of our flight is cancelled from chicago to knoxville. To make an extremely long story short, it took us three hours, and many phone calls, to finally rent a van to drive to knoxville. For those of you who have ever driven to Gatlinburg, you do know it is back the other direction I just came. To further drive the point home, we took lunch in benton, IL at 12:45. Okay, I live 1 hour and 40 minutes from Benton and I left home at 5 a.m. Let's see, doing the math, almost 8 hours of travel to get 1 hour and 40 minutes from home. Fantastic work!

Moving on. We arrive in Gatlinburg at 11 p.m which is 12 eastern time. Everyone but two people in our cabin are already asleep, and the only place to sleep was on a couch. Fantastic number two. I proceeded to get about 3 hours of sleep because one insomniac co-worker decides to get up at 4.a.m. to make coffee and small talk with a co-worker. Great! 18 hours of travel and then 3 hours sleep. Fantastic number three!

Well the first day we had meetings that lasted all day. 8:30 until ten at night. Granted the meetings were fine (when I could keep my eyes open) and that night we had a great dinner banquet. However-I return to the cabin and my stomach starts hurting. For those who know me, once in a while I get stomach cramps. They usually pass after a couple of days. So I thought "No biggie, just a cramp, I'll sleep it off" HA! Once again on the couch-couldn't sleep at all, and at 5 a.m. mother nature informs me "that dinner wasn't any good-let's return it." Ugh. I enjoy food like everyone else, but not twice! So I missed the first half of day two's meeting, then went, in pain, and attended work until almost 9 that night. Keep in mind I'm running on six hours sleep (as I finally laid down and slept from 9-12 that morning). I'm dying here. Fantastic number four.

Thank goodness our flights back weren't cancelled. Phew. Clear skies-quick travel-home in the afternoon. I couldn't be happier.

To sum it up, however, Gatlinburg has got to be the MOST beautiful place I have been lucky enough to see. I've been to Hawaii, the east coast, Canada, Cancun, and Florida to name a few. By far, Gatlinburg is the most beautiful. I recommend you take a shot at going. So after all, Tennessee isn't all that bad....