notsomuch the best laid plans.

so, my mil called on friday afternoon to see when we’d be arriving. what?!! i totally forgot that THIS was our weekend away! i called the leon and he was a wonder. he packed for kids, us, dogs...i swear he packed for the neighbors. and it was all ready to throw in the car. we did the normal bedtime routine for the kids, and threw them in the car in their pajamas.

i suggested going to barnes & noble to pick up the insiders’ guide to knoxville. the leon said we could pick one up there [foreshadowing, can you feel the forsehadowing?]

we ended up in middlesboro by eight thirty or so. c-dawg hadn’t fallen asleep, but did fairly quickly. h-dawghad fallen asleep in the car, but the three televisions blaring and the constant flow of traffic through the rooms, coupled with the presence of his beloved cousin maraiah, had him wired. so wired, in fact, that he was UP TILL EFFIN TWO IN THE MORNING. ye gads! a) i did not maim him, and b) it really reinforced that getting away was a good idea.

we left fairly early in the morning. any trip that includes interaction with his family adds about two hours to whatever you are planning. the drive to knoxville was nice and we got in about ten thirty. we trekked over to the visitor’s center to see what we could see. which was about nothing. we asked about local bookstores, and i kid you not, they knew of ONE. what kind of everloving town boasts of one bookstore? at any rate, we got there only to find that it was a used bookstore. well, that meant that we left four or five cookbooks later, but without a guidebook.

when we hit town, we decided to search out the restaurant we had gone to on our one and only trip to knoxville about six years ago. we went the wrong way (leon swore that he could smell it in that direction), and then we went the right way. and then we found it closed. the delivery guy at the restaurant recommended another restaurant, which, you guessed it, was closed. heck, half of knoxville proper was closed. at any rate, we hiked back to the historic district and found a restaurant that was open. lovely place. lots of vegan and vegetarian choices. w00t! i had a lovely ravioli dish with roasted pepper sauce, and the leon chowed down on a goat cheese and pesto sandwich. oh, and banana pudding (leon), and a damn near perfect key lime pie for me. seriously. i’ve seen many a key lime gone bad. this was somewhat close to grandma bea’s keylime pie. it’s hard to get too close to a pie made from keylimes picked that day from a citrus tree in the garden.

after that we just kicked around some little shops. well, what was open. and we bullshitted about all sorts of crap. can i just tell you how long it has been since we've had the luxury of talking about absolutely nothing important? honest to goodness almost everything we talked about was fruitless and stupid. it was awesome.

on friday, i had called the b&b that we had looked at to see if they had openings, but nosuch luck. so, i booked a room at a downtown hotel that they had recommended. land sakes. if ever a place had character this was it. everything was just slightly off, you know? beautiful antiques, but they all had chips here and there. and none of them matched. and there were mingish vases and stuff with big ole hunks missing. a beautiful round table was at the entrance with a vase containing the largest boqet of dear roses that you ever did see. they had a fantastic wooden screen where the manager's office was. with the opening for him to peer out of and pass out the keys. and there was a gigantic oriental carving on the back wall. with a phoenix style dragon. all the colors were burgundy and brown and there was a smell of passing time. the leon declared it a muppet hotel, and i quite agree.

when we went to check in, the manager explained to us that our room had a busted water somethingorother and that he needed to get us a new one. he was waiting to see us before he decided what room we should have. i don't really like metal fourposters as i am afraid that they will cave in on me in the middle of the night, so his options were kind of limited. he consulted the largest paper ledger book i had ever seen. we were upgraded to a suite on the third floor. he checked around for the keys for what seemed like ages. then he went searching around the hotel. when he arrived back at the lobby, he handed them to over and told us that we would have to turn the lights and the heat on, but that it would warm up quickly. we went upstairs to an equally character ridden suite, and took a very long nap.

then? dinner. fabulous fabulous mindnumbing sushi. vegetarian delights galore. and chocolate to end. which combined the spicy of the meal with the sumptuous smoothness of the chocolate. i swear i could eat that way every damned day of my life. okay, maybe not every day. but since this weekend? i've made sushi three days in a row. http://namasushibar.com/

afterwards we went to hunt a movie to see. the downtown theatre was being restored or somesuch nonsense and we hit the stripmall that nightmares are made of. i've never seen so many variations on a theme. strip after strip of similar stores which culminated in a mall. oh, and a borders bookstore. which probably had the guide we were looking for. *bangs head* well, the theatre had about eight movies that we had never heard of. so, we walked around the mall looking at stuffs. and headed back to the ranch.

champagne (that i won in a drawing at christmas and saved), cheese, and strawberries were had back at the hotel. followed by [edited for content] and sleep. [edited for content] is good and all, but dang, yo! that sleep was fucking amazing.

we drove back. picked up the kids and headed back to berea. for the first time we actually stopped at chicken gas. we go by it every time we drive that way, but we never need gas. i have never been so excited to be out of gas in my whole daggum life.

then we visited for a bit with the 'rents and headed home.

you know how naps are supposed to be worth twice their weight in normal sleep? you make up about two hours of sleep or something for every hour that you nap. well, i think time away on your own? one overnight makes up for about four years of not getting away on our own. and it was marvelous.

now to distract you with a picture of the leon at chicken gas.