Strawberry Time

My dh and I went to the Waterloo Market on Sat. morning for a change. We hadn't been there in quite some time. We noticed the local strawberries where for sale so we bought a flat to make jam. I am usually away when the local berries are ready but they are early this year.

This morning I was up bright and early to get the berries ready for the jam jars.

I got three batches of jam and some left over just to eat. They sure taste better then the California ones. These should keep my dh happy for awhile.

Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge

While in Gatlinburg we got to walk the streets between concerts. In my mind I thought Gatlinburg was like Niagara On The Lake or like a nice little town at the foot of the Smokies. To my surprise the main street is like Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls times ten. They have Ripley's and all the junk and trinket stores that go along with it.

We where there on Memorial Day weekend so it was really busy. After the concert at night we had to drive the main street to get back to our campsite at about 11 PM. The street was packed with people and all the stores were open. The next morning when we came back into town about 8:30 AM.(so we could get a parking spot for the day) the stores where open already or they hadn't closed at all.


The picture above is a mini put on the side of a very steep hill. You wouldn't know it was there until you walked down one of the lanes between the stores.

This is another store we discovered walking down one of the little villages as they are called that are placed between the junk stores. Some of these stores a very upscale and artsy.

Here is the entrance to one of the villages. They are very well done. This is what I thought Gatlinburg's main street should have looked like.

Our friends thought we should go out for supper and have a Catfish dinner at Pigeon Forge. My mind said NO! no! no! NOT me! But I didn't want to be a spoil sport, so I thought since I was in Tennessee I would do what the natives do and eat cat fish. Yikes!

We ordered and out comes white beans, coleslaw and deep fried bread.We also ordered sweet iced tea and that came to us in a very large Mason jar. I tried it all and it was very tasty, all the time thinking about the cat fish.

Then out comes the Catfish. I looked at it for a little while and watched the others dig into theirs.

They all had smiles on their faces like Sylvester had just eaten Tweetee Bird, so I guess it couldn't be that bad. Soooo I tried a small piece, mmmmmmm that was good. I tried a little bit more and before I new it I had it all gone. I don't know what my problem was. I guess I just had to get past the looks of cat fish.

Family Fest in the Smokies

John and I and our friends Henry and Carol Lang took an 11 day trip to Gatlinburg Tenn. to the Family Fest in the Smokies, by Bill Gaither and friends.

We took in 3 concerts that where about 5 hrs in length each and 2 morning Special Sessions with Dr. Ravi Zacharias and Andy Andrews as speakers as well as listening to alot of the singers you see pictured here. It was a great 3 days of listening and singing along with all these great Gospel singers. They are very friendly and spoke to as many as they possibly could before and after the shows.

The lady above is Sonya Isaacs. She has a voice of an angel. You should hear her sing It is Well with My Soul. It makes the hair stand up on your arms.

This is Gordon Mote and his wife Kimberly. He is blind and plays for the Gaithers and plays for alot of the top recording artists in Nashville for their recordings, and they posed for me so that I could take their picture.

This is Bill Gaither himself. I didn't stand in line to get his autograph because it was just too long.

This is Lynda Randle. I tried to get a picture of her by herself but she was to busy hugging everyone that came up to her. Another great singer. Have you heard the song God On The Mountain? If you haven't, you should. Just beautiful.

This is Ivan Parker. Another great singer.

Here we are waithing for the concerts to begin. We figure there must have been about ten thousand people in the convention center.

This is Kevin Williams. He is the one that gets the crowds excited before the concerts start and he is very funny and good at what he does.

Here is Gloria Gaither signing her books. I picked up several music books for my choir directer and had this one autographed for him. Can't wait to see his face when he sees it.

This is Ernie Haase & Signature Sound a high energy quartet, and they posed just for me. (Sigh).

This is Ernie (see his arm around ME). You should hear them sing>

And this is Tim Duncan the bass singer for Signature Sound. His voice is so low, it is down in his shoes. I can't even describe just how low it is when he talks let alone sing. Amazing.

It was well worth the two days we took to get there and I would do it again in a heart beat.

sdafj