Great birthday party last Saturday. About 25 people. Grilling and eating and singing and fire. Sadly, no tiara -- it's lost to the tides of time. I finally went to bed about 1am and the rest went in the house.
Sunday, I got up early and set out for Gatlinburg TN about 10am for a noon lunch with Richard Harris (and wife and friend). We've only talked through email so it would be our first in-person meet.
He is my 5th cousin once removed (we think). There's a Thomas Harris who landed in Providence RI in 1630 along with Roger Penn, and we're both descended from him, me along one line and he along another. When we met, he said, I have cousins who look just like you!
Anyhow, I loathe Gatlinburg, the tourists and the shops catering to them. Richard and his wife Cristina were in town to attend the Arrowmont School of Crafts. He has a son who used to live in Asheville and may have wandered into my bookstore at some point.
We wound up at the Hard Rock Cafe (in Gatlinburg!) and I must say the food was good, though the music was just a touch loud. I know, I know. Told you I'm now elderly. Pretty soon I'll say thing like "whippersnappers" and "get off my lawn" and "why, when I was a child . . ."
It was very pleasant to meet him and wife and her friend Jocelyn (who turned out to be an ex-typesetter/prepress person, like me), and they're going to try to come to Asheville soon.
After I fought my way out of G'burg, I came back by way of 441, through the Cherokee National Forest, a beautiful and twisty drive, into Cherokee (saw the casino) and then through Maggie Valley. Both towns seemed kind of dead after the chaos of G'burg. Of course, they have 4-lane roads through town but there weren't so many people wandering around and much less traffic.
Got back home about 5pm, a long but pleasant day. Car performed well (got 30mpg). Promptly took a nap.
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