Seviervlle, and back to Harriman.

Wednesday in Harriman began with a late get-up in the hotel (we was pooped), and then a drive over to the little hermitage on the lake where Paul was waiting patiently for us to show up. I'm sorry dude. We never seemed to be able to get our asses goin' as fast as we wanted to.

We'd decided the night before that we'd head over to Sevierville and have breakfast at Mimis Cafe, and then hit the Tanger outlet mall. Then, after loadin' up on low priced crap we don't really need we'd all head over to the Smokey Mtn. Knife Works store and jump off that cliff with both feet! Paul and his bro-in-law Ron took me there last year, and it's wonderful! I mean, I can always use a fist full of new pocket knives, whether I really NEED them or not.



So, the day started at Mimis. We'd enjoyed a great breakfast at there last year, before my first trip to SMKW. This visit confirmed the impression I'd had then. This place is great!

I think, if memory serves, last year I had the Santa Fe Omelet. It's a huge beast, with diced jalapenos, cilantro, tortilla strips, tomatoes, jack cheese and spicy chipotle sauce, all mixed up with scrambled eggs and wrapped up in a big tortilla.



It was wonderful, but a bit more than I had the desire for this time. In stead, I chose the two egg breakfast, with sausage, smoked bacon and red skin skillet fried taters. Mmm, mmm, good.



After eating, Paul, Denise and I went over to the Tanger Outlet Mall. Paul parked the car (yea, he was still totin' us around, this time in Judy's Altima) in a central location and we started walkin' through a variety of stores. I found an Eddie Bauer store there, and ended up pickin' up two great pairs of shorts and a little flexible tripod for my camera.



Paul and I had some fun as we waited for Denise to satisfy her curiosity and pick out a few new over-the-shoulder-bolder-holders at the Maidenform store.



This is one of Paul's shots. Oh hush. The best thing about followin' Denise around these places is it allows me to fondle the goods without lookin' so much like a perv. Boys will be boys.

Anyway, after spending an hour or two at the Tanger, we mounted up again and headed for the Smokey Mountain Knife Works store.



If you've never been to this place, maybe you're familiar with their catalogs. I've been getting them regularly ever since the 1980s. If you're into knives, or edged weapons of any kind, this is your place.



It's amazing. Almost too amazing. It's like there's too much to see, meaning that you can go through the place over and over and always see something new.



Thing is, if you go down into the basement floor, they have all these cool artifacts. It's like the spoils from some Mayan ruin...



Mixed with fossils and crap from a dozen developing countries. There's a part of me that would LOVE to plunk down a bunch of money for some of this stuff. But I've got enough crap around here as it is.



If you go up to the top floor, they have an exhibit dedicated to private collections and rare items that are not for sale. This was my favorite part of the place.



I especially loved all the Boy Scout knives. I had one of those back in the day. I think I wore it out by the time I was 12 or so. I wish to God I still had it.

On the way back to Harriman the sky opened up on us and it started to rain. We were all pooped, but I didn't let that deter me.



I'm tellin' ya, it was pissin' down rain. You can hear Denise there in the background. She panics easily. And yep, I'm an asshole. But come on, admit it. That there was funny.



After picking up Judy, who'd been feelin' puny earlier and had stayed home during the day, the four of us headed over to the Gondolier for dinner.



This is a great Italian place. Paul and Judy took me there the first time I drove up to Harriman, in 2007. It was great food then, and it's great now. They even make great take-out pizza, but that's another story.

We started out with drinks and bread. The bread sticks were wonderful. Then Paul and Judy split a Baked Cannelloni plate, Denise had a huge friggin' sandwich, with Italian sausage, marinara and meted provolone (I got to finish it later that night), and I had a great plate of spaghetti and meat balls.



You can see my meatballs there. Oh stop. Get your mind out of the gutter.

After dinner we went back to their place for more drinks, and more relaxing in front of the TV.



At one point Paul took me back into his computer room and talked about crankin' up his old stereo so I could see the speakers jump. I'd heard lots of stories about these speakers, and why he bought them, and why he loves them, so it was gonna be cool to finally hear them.



He started lookin' through his CD case for the right tunes, with the right base thump.



When he turned on the system though, this little wisp of smoke started to rise up out of the amp (OK, yea, he photo-shopped the smoke here, but it's really close to what we saw). Aaaaawwwww, no! Damn! The amp was fried. What a bummer.

Since then he's talked about maybe getting a replacement, but I doubt he will. It's too bad. Such a cool system, but he just doesn't listen to it that much any more. All of his party music is on his computer, piped through speakers to the porch. Maybe he'll figure out how to connect those speakers to his hard drive. We'll see.



While we were in there, Paul drug his old combat boots out of the closet. These were his boots in Vietnam, and on hunting trips in decades later. He's decided to donate these to the local American legion post. Funny thing is, they're 9s, and he wears a 12 now. WThF? Musta had a growth spurt after leavin' the jungle.



At some point I went out to my car and got my new lap top. I wanted to show old Obi Wan my own toys. You can see him here, goin' through my music while he downloads a new program to his own desk -top system. Multitasking.

In the end, after another great day and with plans made for yet another, Denise and I drove back to the hotel and collapsed into bed. We had one more full day in Harriman before we drove back up to Kentucky to spend a week with her kids.

The next post will cover that last full day, and then maybe the drive to Kentucky. We'll see. Cheers.