Chairlift to the Tip Top
On our recent Great Smoky Mountain trip, we had intended all
along to go to Dollywood. As we arrived
there, we decided to skip the amusement park scene and opted to go to Ober
Gatlinburg instead. It was my
daughter-in-law Cassie and her two boys and myself that went on this grand
adventure. Ted and Rande were golfing at
the Gatlinburg golf course. Sande stayed
in the room and kept baby Hannah. By the
way, Ted ended up beating his personal best and shot a 78 on a par 72 mountainous
course. He is still coming down off the
elation that he felt. Back to the story
of Ober Gatlinburg. A huge gondola that
probably holds 75 people took us to the activities at the top of the
mountain. It was about a 15-minute ride
and the scenery from that vantage point was amazing. Charles spotted two black bears on the road
below. These were the only bears we saw
on our trip. There was a house built on
the side of the mountain that was a copy of the original Barbie toy house. Another house was called the stilt house and
only 6 inches of the house was actually built on the ground and the rest was
supported by stilts. The ride up in
itself was a treat, but at the top was an indoor skating rink. Right away Charles wanted to go get on the
ice. He had taken skating lessons when
he was 3 years old, so he was ready to try his skills. They had small plastic apparatuses that could
be used to assist in balancing while pushing it in front of you. Charles got a hold of one of those and went
cautiously on his way. He only fell a
couple of times before getting the hang of it.
Later, when Cassie and Grayson joined us, Charles pushed Grayson around
while he sat on the pushcart. Also at
the top was a variety of challenging outdoor experiences. There was a mountain roller coaster, mountain
trail biking, a zipline, a rock-climbing tower, a jump pillow, a tube ride,
swing chair ride, and a spider jump trampoline equipped with harness for doing
flips! They did many of these activities
while I enjoyed watching. The mountain
roller coaster had a 2 hour wait time so that was unfortunate. We were not willing to wait for Cassie and
Charles to ride. A large screen was
positioned outside that offered news and sports. The breaking news happened that President
Biden had dropped out of the Presidential race while we were there. It was one of those “where were you when”
moments. My favorite attraction, however, was the chair lift. We were already on top of a mountain, but not
at the tip top. The chair lift went to
the tip top. Cassie and Grayson rode
together, and Charles and I rode together.
Only a metal bar across our laps separated us from the ground below. It was a slow ride, and the view was incredible.
I suppose we were only 20 ft off the ground. I wondered why I didn’t see
sandals, cell phones, sunglasses or hats on the ground below. It would have
been easy to accidentally drop something off the chair. A bear was spotted up ahead of us. The folks on the way down that we passed were
all excited and telling us about it, but unfortunately the bear was gone by the
time we arrived at that spot. There was
nothing at the tip top to see except the view and a tourist stand selling photos
that they took of our approaching the top.
Charles wanted to have a picture of us kissing, so he held a constant
lip lock on my cheek for what seemed like 5 minutes to ensure it was in the photo. It was cute, but we passed on the photo and
headed down again. We were able to take
our own photos because going up we were ahead of Cassie and Grayson and when we
dismounted, we took a photo of their arrival.
The same is true when we returned to the bottom and Cassie took our
arrival. They sat in front of us on the
way back. The funniest thing started to
happen as we descended the mountain on our chairlift. The people we passed initiated games of
rock/paper/scissors with the approaching chair.
Charles had a grand time playing this well-known game with the passing
tourists. In fact, he won with the
majority of his games. Grayson was also playing,
and we could see him in front of us. It
was a reminder that ultimately, we are all in the same chairlift, dangling our
feet above the ground, reaching for the sky and celebrating with strangers. What a ride!
Tammy Harvey
8/7/2024
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