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Little Debbie

We were on our way home today, and we left Cleveland with just a few stops on the way home, the first being at the Little Debbie Park!  Yes, there's a park with a sculpture of Little Debbie, and there are also oversized sculptures of all kinds of Little Debbie snacks there, as you'll see!

Mom and I had a really pleasant morning, walking along the park.  The weather was nice, and this park is so nice and quiet.  There were picnics and children and other people walking along, and there were all kinds of nice little things to see.

Along the path are some signs with history through the decades of Little Debbie, all leading up to the construction of this park.  

Check out this fudge swirl on the ground!  This is wasn't a sculpture, but it was pretty big.  Here's the sculptures!

After that, we went to the actual McKee Bakery Shop, which is right there nearby.

Inside there were all kinds of snack cakes and everything that Little Debbie makes - we picked up quite a few boxes for our upcoming party on Saturday, and there was all kinds of merch too.  In fact, I got one of these Christmas Tree cake ties you see above.  

We got some neat stuff.  Then we were on our way.  It was a quick trip home - we stopped at Buc-ee's again on the way home, and got ourselves some of the usual items, plus gas of course.  It wasn't as crowded this time, and we were guessing that's because the last time it was a weekend.

We went home after that, and it was a pretty smooth and quick trip.  Maddie was doing just fine of course, and later on she was off to the cardio class at Edgefit.  Mom and I continued watching the services from Cleveland that we just left, and we got to sleep a bit earlier tonight.  

Maddie got back, and we read for a bit and of course said our prayers.  It was a nice little trip.

Seeing Rock City

We had a nice and relaxing morning today, one that started out at Rock City!  We got up a bit earlier today, said our prayers with Maddie over the computer, and I got some continental breakfast that was fairly forgettable.  And oy, the smell in this hotel is awful.  It's a La Quinta Inn, and for some reason they went so overboard with the bleach and the a Clorox and disinfectant that you sort of actually get sick from the vapors!

But we got on the interstate and drove south until we got to our destination:  Rock City!  It was themed to Halloween, and in fact some of the decorations were a little bit too much for Mom, but the time we spent at Lookout Point was just precious in my memory.

The last time Mom and I sat together in an oversized Adirondack chair, it was at Turner Field before we got married.  I have a picture of that somewhere in a printed album.  Anyway, someone took this photo of us, and it was really fun.  We're right there at the spot where you can kind of see seven states from this one overview.

Interestingly enough, we don't enter where we used to, but instead go to the side.  It was kind of confusing, and also a little challenging to actually purchase a ticket.  But we succeeded and got inside.

This is part of our tour of chairs.  No joke - we stopped about six or seven times, each time finding a nice place to sit, and we just rested there enjoying the atmosphere for a few minutes or more.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, a crisp and cool day.  The fall colors hadn't arrived yet, but it was still pleasant.

This decoration is more Mom's speed, versus all the webs and ghosts and skeletons.  And speaking of skeletons, I have a personal rule that I follow in life lately:  Don't go to places that have those oversized two-story tall skeletons.  Well, that being said, there were some at the entrance of Fairyland Caverns, as we were ending things up, and yeah, we skipped that part.  But we did see quite a bit inside the other caverns!

The twisting and turning path leads you over and under all the rock formations.  Not long before, we were actually up there on that suspended bridge.

Here's a giant pumpkin dangling over the ledge at the waterfall - a big ol' Times Square sphere there that lights up at night.  Obviously we were the day.  Before noon, in fact.  So here's what it looks like at night.

And here's what it looks like behind me and Mom.

We were taking pictures of other people there at the waterfall, and a couple took pictures of us too.  We were all doing that for one another a few times throughout the walk.

I love this shot because of that one gnome on the rock there.

Ah, another one of our stops along the way.  This is a nice comfy chair.  We were sitting here for a while.  

This is what you can see from that comfy chair.  We had a debate about what kind of animal it is.  Mom thinks it's a bear's head, and from the side it's elongated and I thought it was more like an alligator.  The official answer:  Tortoise Rock.

Okay these chairs here were super, super comfortable.  They're a trap.  You sit down in one, and you're gone for ten minutes.  Which is what happened.  These overlook the viewpoint, and it was just a nice quiet day up there with the weather so perfect in temperature, a slight breeze blowing by and a fiddler playing off in the distance to give us a little soundtrack.

Not too crowded yet either!  There were a good number of people there, but it was easy enough to navigate certain areas without too much traffic at all.

This is just outside a shop that has some unique items in it.  Yesterday we were on this big mission to get Maddie some lip balm from Buc-ee's, as Maddie was in dire need of some lip balm.  We were shocked when we got to Buc-ee's and there was none at all.  The employee there said that someone came in earlier and purchased - get this - one hundred and fifty tubes of Buc-ee's lip balm.  I have all sorts of questions about this, but the end result for us was no lip balm.  And then... in this store, sure enough we spotted something fun:  "SEE ROCK CITY lip balm."  No joke!

And here we are at the highlight of the earlier part of the day.  We found a table right there at the edge, just a beautiful view, and we had lunch together.  The horizon was so far off and the view just gorgeous.  Mom and I shared a platter of wings and fries, and just sat there basking in the wonderful day.

Behind us a fiddler was playing, adding a bit more colorful atmosphere to the day.  Interestingly enough, deeper in the woods there was a guy playing a baritone as well, an interesting choice of instrument.

The swinging bridge!  Immediately a whole generation of us nerds thinks of Indiana Jones with this bridge.

Over, under, the path winds through the caverns and rock ledges above.

Lots of lit pumpkins along the way.  I'm sure this place looks very interesting at night.  Again, it was bothering Mom a bit, as she wasn't expecting so many spiders and skeletons - and unhappy pumpkin faces.

This picture is only here because of that lone gnome up there.  What's going through his mind at this time.  Does he know we can see him? 

We went through Fat Man Squeeze and the Eye of the Needle, but early on we were in one area where there just were no other people yet.  It was wonderful - we had this whole spot to ourselves.

And that was Rock City!  We have a small version of this gnome at home on our bookcase.  We had a good time, but it was time to be getting back.  I wasn't feeling sharp, and didn't sleep as well last night.  We drove back up the road to Cleveland, got back to our hotel room and got to sleep for an afternoon nap.  

Tonight's healing meeting at the church was pretty intense and amazing.  A lot of people visibly healed.  Mom and I sat back and enjoyed the message and the atmosphere, but it's been a while since we've been in church that long of a service.  I think we arrived there around six, and left around eleven.  

Mom really enjoyed it.  We got back to the hotel, and as you might suspect, it didn't take long to get to sleep.