Ride on

It's August 11th, and I'm only now beginning to reflect. There's a lot of reasons for that, of course, but excuses are for sucks.

Oh, my trip ? Went fine. The Great Smoky Mountains are well worth your time. Gatlinburg, TN is a tourist trap....and Pigeon Fork, TN is an even bigger and gaudier tourist trap. Skip all that crap and ascend into the mists of the Appalachians. Our little troupe wandered about 20 miles (in total) on various hiking trails, seeing black bears, deer, flora, and some magnificent views.

Only one of us - the littlest one- almost fell off a mountain. Fortunately, his dad was there to grab him. It is tough work to hike up a mountain with 4 kids who aren't used to it, and sometimes those kids get tired.

I think we'll recall the names of the trails: Alum Cave, Chimney Tops, Andrew's Bluff. It was fun, exhausting, and amazing.

Then we trekked to Atlanta which looks like Baltimore but has a bigger and better Aquarium. The whale sharks are indeed impressive, really the whole Aquarium was. Pretty cool place to visit. We skipped the World of Coke and the CNN tour, opting instead to hang out in the Centennial Olympic Park and our hotel.

From there we moved northeast to Fayetteville, NC to see my brother Tom and his family to celebrate my nephew Tommy's 6th birthday. It was a rather large group of kids and kin, but a fun way to end the trip after so many hours on the road.

I think it's taken a couple weeks to re-acclimate to life. Returning home from vacations - especially good ones - suck.

So, like I said, it's August 11th. I started this blog in 2010 (I think) as a way to chronicle the last years of my "stay-at-home dadness"..... and in all of 18 days from now my little guy begins Kindergarten. I think I've been waiting for this day since 2006 when he was born and now that it's getting closer and closer it saddens me in a way I hadn't expected it to. I've taken the little fellow from diapers, bottles, and Thomas the Tank Engine to big-boy pants, glasses, and Spongebob. Just the other day he was letting me know that Thomas simply wasn't all that great anymore, but I still pictured him in his little overalls and conductor's hat sitting on his little train anyway.

It's all part of the process, I know. This ain't my first time at the rodeo, but I'm very aware that it's my last.

He won't need me anymore, not like he has anyway. And, with that, my world becomes a much different one. This is equally a saddening and liberating moment.