The Great Smokey Mountains have called to us, and tomorrow morning we will be headed their way. For the past four or five years, we’ve made it a point to show up in those hills at least once a year…sometimes twice. We go when it’s not hot and not crowded. I just love how breathing in that crisp mountain air can affect you…and not just you. It can trickle down to the ones you love until they find themselves in your fantasy.

Sometimes it’s just Joel and me, but most of the time we make it sort of family thing. This time Adam and Laura will meet us there. The last time they came,

They took a hike up to Ramsey Cascades…

just the two of them…

and Adam proposed.

Thank goodness, she said,

“Yes!” This little incident, as you know, led to a bigger one

which involved an antebellum home, a horse-drawn carriage and a lot more people. Isn’t it funny what a little mountain air can do?