The next morning started out like a day in Pleasantville: The sun was shining, the fireplace responded promptly to the turn of the switch, and the thermometer of the hot tub pretended not to know what a two-digit number was as it displayed a warm 102 degrees Fahrenheit. The line for breakfast was conveniently short, probably because we decided to take our cereal in our cabin. Life was wonderful!
The really nice guy and I had planned to go hiking that day and equipped with hiking boots, water, snacks, and a Mount Everest mountaineering survival kit we were heading towards the Smoky Mountain National Park. Unfortunately, we had to go through Gatlinburg which meant that we were stuck in traffic once more. Gatlinburg must have the world's highest per capita demand of pancakes, resulting in an overwhelming density of pancake houses. At 11 am, picture 50 people each waiting in line in front of every single one of them, trying to get a table for themselves and 25 of their closest family and friends that were yet to arrive and you understand why our patience was put to the test again.
Once we left all restaurants behind us and were on the street that would eventually lead us to the starting point of our hike, traffic eased noticeably until we didn't see a single car anymore. "That's great," the really nice guy was thrilled, "no traffic at all. Unbelievable!" He turned around the corner and had to bring the car to an immediate halt. "Just what we needed, another traffic jam," and while I was still contemplating how only two stopped cars in each direction could disrupt traffic completely, I noticed a woman outside her car shouting into her cell phone. "Oh no, I hope it's not an accident," I said when a rain of green leaves right outside the car caught my eye. The loudness of the woman's voice assumed alarming proportions and we decided it was time to leave the car and find out what had happened.
"I don't believe it, I've never seen anything like this," the lady screamed hysterically. Neither had I, and I started to commiserate with the person she had called and who must have been on the verge of acute hearing loss. "What happened?" the really nice guy asked when the woman was quiet for a split second to take a breath. "Bears! There are three bears! A mom and two babies! They are all up in that tree!" Well, that explained the constant falling of leaves from the tree that the woman was pointing at. However, I couldn't see anything and to be honest, I wasn't sure if she hadn't made up the whole story as a sorry excuse for her being late for a family pancake feast. I had been to Canada twice and have spent an extensive amount of time in various bear-sighting-guaranteed National Parks without ever actually seeing one. And now there should be three of them just outside of Kentucky?! Yeah, right!
As the lady continued to yell into her cell and the tree continued to shake I caught the glimpse of a brown fur ball that was moving further up towards the tree top. I was impressed. I didn't know that bears are that good at climbing but I could truly sympathize with that poor creature that would do anything to get away from that voice. After taking a few pictures of a brown spot on green background we followed the example the bears had set and escaped as well before our ears started bleeding.
Will we have any more bear sightings when we are finally on our hike?
I'll keep you posted.
Bis bald,
SAPgirl
