Last Saturday we drove to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, planning for 6 days of fun with Nancy's sister Elaine and her husband Karl from Michigan and Nancy's cousin Becky and her husband Orville from Pennsylvania. No sooner did we arrive than we all got the bad news that Becky was sick, and they would not be joining us. The good news is that as of today she's feeling a lot better.

Now the other bad news: What do we do with all the food without Orville and Becky to help us eat it? Nine pounds of bacon! It became a standing joke...bacon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And what about the 3 large bowls of Elaine's stuffed cabbage? Even if Becky and Orville had been there, we couldn't have eaten all the stuff in the refrigerator. A lot of it is now in our refrigerator at home. We returned to Huntsville yesterday.

In spite of our not all being there, we did have a good time. We dinned well each day and enjoyed 4 of Pigeon Forge's best shows. (And I didn't gain any weight!!) The picture above was taken as we entered the Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Show. I know. You're thinking "Dinner?" As you can see, I forced everybody into the show at gunpoint. But they don't look very sad about it. We also did our usual walk-around through the little shops in Gatlinburg. The 3 of them had many hours of shopping. I don't shop. I did get the impression that most of the shopping was devoted to things for the grandkids. But don't get too excited. They're for Christmas.

So shopping, shows, and EATING. We had a good time, and we're already looking forward to the next time we can all get together.