Fall Break, Part 1: From Alabama...

Me near the site of my first Alabama cache find! 

Ahhh....fall break. The time when the trees are absolutely aglow with vibrant hues of red, orange, and yellow, and when there is no school and minimum work. In other words, a very welcome break from the daily grind of things!

So felt I this past fall break, which occurred last week. While I still had to work on Thursday, our family had planned a grand big trip up to the Cherohala Skyway on the Friday of fall break. Well, scratch that! My little sister awoke Friday morning with a case of very bad pink eye, and there flew out all our Cherohala plans! Holding a family council, we decided to try for Cherohala on the Sunday of fall break, and that day (Friday) get Alison all squared up with medicine.

So on Friday morning, Mom took Alison to the doctor, getting some medicine as well. But the afternoon was free. We wanted to do something with this rare time opportunity! So we decided to drive the hour or so over to South Pittsburg, Tennessee. South Pittsburg just happens to be the home of Lodge Manufacturing, which is the only company in the country that still produces cast iron cookware. (They've been doing it since 1896!) Additionally, there is an outlet store of Lodge cookware in South Pittsburg. Mom really wanted to visit the outlet store, so we hit the road and decided to have some fun.

View of Nickajack Lake,  taken from the welcome center

Now I must mention something. All day had not gone to plan. The drive to South Pittsburg was no different. Cherohala--out. Instead, Alison had pink eye and went to see the doctor. We are about to get onto I-24, but an overhead sign warned us of severe traffic delays on that highway, so we quickly got off of the Interstate (75). The traffic was just as bad off the interstate! Finally we were able to get some maps (we had left ours at home). Still I-24 had bad traffic. So we skirted the city close to I-24 but not quite on it. After almost totally going around Chattanooga, we rejoined I-24 and reached South Pittsburg shortly thereafter. But it took us like two hours instead of the planned one! (However, we did stop to eat a wonderful little picnic lunch at a Tennessee Welcome Center--and find a cache.)

The Lodge outlet store was very nice, and Mom had a wonderful time selecting various pieces to bring home with her! Alison and I thoroughly enjoyed a nice little video on how Lodge manufactures its' cookware. Wow--very interesting, hot, and hard. Really awesome video, loved it! As Dad put it, watching the video makes you want to say, "Cool!"; but really, it's "Hot!" (Lodge manufactures its' cookware using temperatures of several thousand degrees Fahrenheit!)

The "Iron Man"

Finished with the outlet store, we hit the road caching. In geocaching, you must understand that it is a big thing to find geocaches in different states. Previous to this day, I had never found an Alabama cache before. South Pittsburg is like only a mile from the TN-AL border. Guess what I asked my parents to do? ;) Happily, I was able to quickly locate and find my first Alabama cache. It was a really cool location, too, with a plaque talking all about the Trail of Tears and Alabama! Many photos were taken.

After that, we reentered Tennessee and found a really cool micro cache that was hidden in a statue of cast iron (naturally, by Lodge of course!). This statue looked like a man, so it is called the "Iron Man"!! :D After that we headed home, a grand day indeed. It was honestly amazing to see how God turned something bad (my sister's pink eye) into something good (a family trip to South Pittsburg, something we weren't even planning!) That reminds me of a favorite Bible verse...


And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)


To be continued...