Day #234 – Kittens

Gatlinburg TN

Today, Fran came by my rig to ask me whether I’d seen the kittens yet.  “What kittens?” I asked.  “The newborn kittens,” she replied.  Off we went, at a good clip, to see the little ones.

When I arrived at the campers’ site, two of the kittens were curled up together on the outdoor carpet and one was trying to crawl across gravel next to the carpet.  I gently picked up the kitten that was on gravel and put it back on the carpet.  The RV owners were trying (unsuccessfully) to feed the kittens from a bottle with a hard plastic tip.

It probably happened this way:  On Wednesday, July 14, MomCat climbed into the undercarriage of a big RV that was parked in South Carolina.  On Thursday, the owners of the rig drove it to our campground in Tennessee.  This morning, when they heard their rig “crying,” they took the front end apart to find three newborn kittens.

The RV owners made it plain they could not cope with the kittens and did not want them.  They were not interested in taking them back to South Carolina to be reunited with their mother.  Things got a bit confusing.  The manager called Animal Control and Kelly and I took the three kittens back to our rig.  Kelly searched the ‘Net for a vet and I started warming the kittens.  The one who had been on gravel was cold.  Kelly had no luck finding a vet, but we did find a website devoted to newborn feral cats.  Based on what we learned, Kelly went off to the pet store. 

After the kittens were warm, I bathed and dried them thoroughly.  By then, Kelly had returned with formula and bottles and the fun started.  We fed the kittens every two hours.  We told each other they would probably not survive.  We tried to not fall in love with them.  Later in the evening, the owner of the RV knocked on my door.  They had found a fourth kitten.  He was very cold and barely responsive.  I warmed him, bathed him, and tried to feed him.

These kittens have been without their mother for at least a day.  They will probably die.  If they do die, they will do so while being held and loved, in a warm and dry space.

Day #232 – Dental VIII & Museum of the Appalachia

 Gatlinburg TN

Today started with a trip to the dentist.  He inserted the permanent crown over my cracked tooth and sent me on my way.  I had such a wonderful sense of relief.  Kelly and I weren’t sure the best way to celebrate, so we just headed down a road we’d never been on before. 

We passed the Bush Bean plant, Clint’s BBQ (live music several nights each week), and a Ball (canning jar folks) plant.  All this was in the midst of farms and fields – definitely not an urban or factory setting.  Neither of us felt like touring these places, so we kept driving.

We ended up at a museum outside Knoxville that I’d wanted to visit.  It’s called the Museum of the Appalachia (http://www.museumofappalachia.org).  I had read many descriptions of this museum.  The one I liked best was this:  The founder was a pack rat whose need for old farm clutter got a bit out of hand.  When his family threatened to “do something” about it, he out-foxed them by turning his collection into a museum.  He’s collected buildings, machinery, tools, quilts, artwork – everything to do with the culture and lives of the people of the southern Appalachian Mountains.

If you’ve traveled much off the Interstate, you’ve probably seen the large concrete crosses, with writing on the vertical and horizontal parts of the cross.  Usually, the crosses say something like, “Jesus Saves” or “Get Right with God”.  Well, the founder of this museum was friends with the Rev. Henry Harrison Hayes, who put many of those crosses along the road (http://www.themountaineagle.com/news/2010-04-14/News/Highway_markers_memorialize_Appalachias_concrete_e.html).  It was his life’s work.  This particular exhibit included about twenty crosses, a map showing the routes the man had traveled, plus many of his writings which explained why he devoted his life to this project.  It was his dream to have these crosses from the exhibit erected on the Moon and Saturn.  He apparently gave the crosses to the curator in exchange for a promise that the crosses would be erected in those places.

We’ve seen a lot of cabins and barns over the last few months, so we went through those exhibits pretty quickly.  But, face it: I was there for the music.  We plopped ourselves down on some cabin steps and listened to four musicians play “old time” music.  As best I can figure, old time music is what came before bluegrass.  Examples include, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “I’ll Fly Away.”  We’ve been told that songs from Virginia, such as “Barbara Allen”, country, and generic folk music do not make the cut.    We listened to them for over an hour.  Apparently, that was a challenge for them.  They were used to audiences who stayed for one or two songs and then moved on.

When we returned to the campground, we got some good news.  In our absence, the manager had asked Fran to clean a cabin.  The cabin had been trashed.  Fran showed the manager, who showed the owner.  Fran now gets paid again for cleaning cabins.  Yippee for all of us!

Day #231 – Pigeon Forge Cabins

Gatlinburg TN

We are sooo fried.  We’ve been working way too many hours for way too many days.  Because cabin cleaning is no longer a paid job, it has fallen to us.  This week, we’ve put in 30 hours – way too much!  Kelly mentioned something about burnout to the owners and the next thing we knew, we’d been offered a free night in one of their cabins (http://www.arrowcreekcabins.com).

We packed enough stuff for an overnight and headed out.  We had some trouble finding the cabin as it’s really off the beaten path.  It was worth the search, though.

There was a big over-stuffed leather couch in the living room.  Kelly sat at one end, with her feet up, and I sat at the other, also with my feet up.  I was snoring within minutes.

Kelly has a thing about laundry – doing laundry just makes her feel better.  Because we knew there would be a washer and a dryer in the cabin, we took all our dirty laundry along.  She had such a wonderful time washing all our clothes!

In the early evening, I sat on the front porch and watched a thunderstorm roll in across the mountains.  I could see sheets of rain falling in the valley and lightning strikes coming down from the clouds.  I loved hearing the rain falling on the metal roof. 

Kelly played a game of pool in the living room, just steps away from her laundry. 

We had packed some leftovers for dinner and ate them in front of the wide-screen TV.

We did not turn on either of the gas fireplaces (one in the living room and one in the bedroom).  We also skipped the hot tub on the porch and the Jacuzzi in the bedroom.  Kelly was primed to take a bubble bath, but the water smelled strongly of sulfur and she thought the odor would clash with her bubble fragrance.

We had a much-needed break from the campground.  We returned to work with the clear knowledge that one night just wasn’t enough.