Now, where was I? So, I made it "safe and sound" to TN, we all unloaded and (literally) chilled out, then headed out to dinner. And I was introduced to the wonderful yumminess that is Indian cuisine. (Nom Nom Nom Nom). I had chicken tikka (?) and na'an bread (?) and it was so good. I took pictures. I'll try to add them when I add the leg injury pictures; the colors kind of complement each other.
Tuesday, we got up (way too) early and went for a drive through Cade's Cove. I admit the slow, windy roads put me to sleep a bit, but I was awake for most of it and it was beautiful. I saw a few deer, and a couple bears and lots of mountains. Plus, we were early enough that there wasn't much traffic. Bonus! (Yes, I have pictures. I said I'd try, so stop bugging me.) Afterwards we did lunch at McAllister's Deli- love that place! It was delicious- and I got a free shower when Mary knocked Megan's tea all over me. :) So, back to the hotel to change then Megs and I set out for Parrot Mountain (and The Garden of Eden). It really is a mountain, y'all. And their "handicap" ramp does not have handrails. We really should have taken the stairs. (That's my fault. Stairs are my kryptonite.) We pushed ourselves up the parking lot (on the side of the mountain), then pushed ourselves up the first part of the ramp. Or, I should say I pushed, while Meg pulled (she's way stronger than she looks). Then we got to the switchback and realized the 2nd half, which had been hidden by trees, was even steeper than the first half! And again, no handrails. So we were stuck; had to go up or down. We chose up and pushed on. About 2/3 of the way up my vacation REALLY tried to kill me. I was leaning pretty far forward against the slope and felt myself start to fall forward. I knew if I fell on the ramp there was no way I'd be able to get myself up again so I tried to counter it by leaning back a bit. Well, I over-balanced and started to fall BACKWARDS instead. Even though I'm like two of her, Meg would not let go of my hand when I started to fall. So, I twisted to the right to try to stop her from falling, while I was falling. I'm pretty sure that twist saved my life. Instead of landing on my head and back, I apparently landed on my right knee. That's based on evidence, not recollection. I don't remember landing, just rolling down the side of the mountain (no way am I ever calling that a handicap ramp again) after we fell. The evidence? Well, once we stopped rolling I immediately scooted over to Meg to make sure she was okay. She hit her head when we fell (hard enough that her ABI flew off into the bushes. But not hard enough to crack it; she's got a really hard head.) and scraped up her legs and arm pretty bad. I thought I came through just fine until our first "rescuer" asked "Is your leg broken?" There was a HUGE bruise and lump that had formed immediately. It was very freaky looking and scared the crap out of me. For about a minute. Then I thought "You know, that doesn't really hurt that bad. I think a broken leg would hurt a lot worse." An on-site EMT checked us over, then some burly men helped us back down the ramp to sit on the steps while we waited for the ambulance to get there. They had called for it when they thought my leg was broken and Meg might be concussed or brain-scrambled or something. Those EMTs also said it wasn't a break (it's a soft tissue injury). And they dressed Megs leg up real pretty, then sent us on our way. :) Once we calmed down a bit we headed back to the hotel to rest. But we still wanted to see the parrots so we didn't give up on the dream.
And that's going to be another day. This is exhausting, reliving my adventure. And I'm only halfway through Tuesday! I think though that after I survived falling down the mountain my vacation realized I'm just not that easy to kill.
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