All roads lead to roam: 3/52 Frosty 4-Miler

Chan needed a tooth looked at and of course they could fit her in EARLY on a Monday. yay. Much to my surprise, when I asked Ben if he wanted to go, too-he did. Even without the lure of Alex and Emma, which is generally the only reason he heads north.

Tooth checked-there is a hairline crack, but after X-raying her head for an hour, they decided it was her super stuffed up and super small sinuses putting pressure on her...face. So the weakened tooth was feeling it more than usual. Nothing to do for it. I have a tooth that's been cracked since we lived in Tennessee. Sometimes they don't get worse.

I am pretty happy about it not being an issue, the van was in the shop 2 days last week for brakes that were mysteriously overheating-enough that the ABS stopped the van in town. The diagnosis was ABS module failure. Just google that little teeny tiny part. Yeah. $1500. For just the part. So shelling out for a crown was not at the top of my wish list!

After the dentist, we had kids meals at Sonic (grilled cheese and tater tots, our personal manna) and all scored Jake the Dog toys from Adventure Time! Then, to my amazement, they both wanted to go hiking! So off we went to Blevins Gap and we did the Certain trail to the end and looped back on the West Rim trail for a total of 4 miles. It was so pretty up there! Good solid climb at the start of about 400 feet or so over a quarter of a mile (guessing, I have not looked at the terrain map). Then flat along the top of the mountain with views at the overlooks.

We saw a herd of deer! They flashed and ran. Saw 2 downy woodpeckers and 3 indigo bunting quite near and a couple hawks sailing around over the valley below. Picked out the library, Arsenal, South Parkway, the dentist, Lowe's, Wal-Mart and Arby's. We could see the Space and Rocket Center and the Tennessee River!

My two Lomo shots of the west rim overlook

I spent most of the weekend playing my favorite game from childhood-Pioneer. In it, I pretend all of my worldy goods are in a wagon and I run away from home. I have modified it somewhat to put all my things in a pack and to run away taking as many people from home as will go with me. With the icy rain and chance of hail, that turned out to be only Nia and only on the bed. Murphy is NOT allowed in the tent, she will viciously eat his face if he tries.

The van was iced over. It was 11 miles down the road before all the ice finally came off the front!

The trail was ICY

There were frost flowers in the creek!

My puffy! Matt got one, too, it's a faded orange.

I have been looking for a down coat with a hood for a whole year. Got this at TJMaxx for $32!

Even though it's a men's size large and does not fit my curves, I still am very happy with it. It fits in a tiny stuff sack and weighs about 7 ounces. It's SO warm.
They only had large or I would have snagged one for Ben!