Friday, July 8, 2016

Fall Creek Falls 2016

On Friday, June 24, we left Spring Lake RV Resort in Crossville and drove separately to Fall Creek  Falls State Park since it was only about a 50 mile drive.  We got set up into our site relatively easy and surprisingly were able to get out with satellite reception.


After we got set up, we rode over to the golf course to check out the driving range.  As usual, there were lots of deer on the course in the late evening.


We were the first of all our family and friends to arrive so all we had to do was sit back and wait for them to start coming in on Saturday.


Darlene and Steve arrived first and then Donald and Anna on Saturday.  By Sunday, Brent, Renee, Rachel, Ryan, Wanda, Jared, Beth and Lila were all there and set up on their sites.  We helped Donald & Anna get their EZ-Up set up.  I didn't know that installation of EZ-Ups required the wearing of bike helmets!  :)


Sheila and Kip arrived Thursday night and Chuck helped them get their EZ-Up up too.

Whose feet do these belong too?
By Friday, the "K" family (Karen & Kevin and Kayla, Kyle, Kora, Kason & one month old Kolter) and the "J" family (Justin, Jenny, Jake and Joah) had arrived.  Rachel's friend Grace also came up Jenny's family and Jenny's brother and sister-in-law and their 3 children arrived on Saturday.

With all the good cooks, we had lots of good food -- particularly desserts:  apple dumplings, banana ice cream, blueberry cobbler, chocolate cake, strawberry cake, peach cobbler and chocolate ice cream.  Yummy!  :)

We had introduced pickleball to Donald & Anna when we were in Nashville in the spring and by the end of the two weeks stay at Fall Creek, almost everyone had learned how to play.


Initially, we marked off the pickleball lines on the tennis courts with masking tape but the sun and the heat kept the tape from sticking only a few hours.  We then resorted to marking off the courts using a chalk line and sidewalk chalk which worked much better except when it rained and washed it all away.


Pickleball was probably the favorite recreational sport at Fall Creek Falls this year.  And Ryan was its biggest fan.  Anytime we would be sitting around thinking about what we might do next, Ryan would say "let's go play pickleball."  :)

When it wasn't raining or we weren't playing pickleball, there was usually always some kind of card game going on.  We played many rounds of Skip-Bo, 5 Crowns, 7-Up and Golf over the two weeks with several different winners but I guess we were all winners because we were having a good time together at Fall Creek Falls.

On the 4th of July, we began the day getting pictures in our new Fall Creek Falls t-shirts that Rachel had designed and Anna had ordered for all of us.


And then everyone went back to looking at their cell phones while waiting for the campground parade to begin.


Soon, we began hearing the fire truck sirens and we knew the campground parade had started.


The kids were ready for the water wars to begin.


As the fire truck came by, the water balloons and water guns started shooting from every direction.


Most of the little kids got soaked and the biggest kid of all, Donald, got drenched as usual.  While many of the group went to Campground A for the 4th of July games (egg-toss, seed-spitting, etc.), some of us stayed back and just enjoyed a quiet afternoon of playing cards and pickleball.

The annual campground golf tournament was on the day after the 4th of July this year.  Brian, Terry and Mary Kate came up on the afternoon of the 4th of July so Terry could play with Chuck and Donald in the golf tournament.  Unfortunately, the rains and storms came when they were on the 13th hole cutting the game short for them.  They did win some door prizes though:  4 buckets of range balls and some ball caps.

On Thursday, July 7th, our last evening at Fall Creek, the rains came again and then the power was knocked out around 4:30.  But did that keep this bunch from enjoying homemade chocolate ice cream and playing a last round of 5 Crowns??  NO WAY!  They rigged up a chandelier of flashlights...


...and 9 of us enjoyed one last game of 5 Crowns.


Over the course of the two weeks, there were well over 30 family and friends that had come once again to enjoy Fall Creek Falls over the 4th of July holiday.  Donald & Anna started this 4th of July tradition over 30 years ago and it is still going strong!


And the number of people going seems to get bigger every year!


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