Are you ready? Start your engines

We made it! It was a harrowing drive south - rain smashing into us at every turn - trying to get through the smokies at night in the rain was tough but we got through it. We ended up spending the night at a Motel 8 - it was almost 11:00 at night, we were dead tired and it was the first place we saw after the mountains. So I didn't tell them about Scarlet - we just snuck her in. OK - that was a mistake. Do not ever try and sneak a dog into a hotel - they bark at every sound and we soon found out why the hotel was so cheap. Every 18 wheeler had to drive through our parking lot to get to their parking lot. We went to bed late, got up early and skedaddled out of Chattanooga. We arrived at our destination about 4:00 yesterday and both of us almost died from shock. It took everything I had not to burst into tears. I have seen some run down shady looking places in my life but nothing prepared me for the shock of Shellman Bluff. The recession has hit this place hard - as a rock! Well before we actually got to town we decided to pick up a 12 pack - in hindsight was a mistake because no sooner did we get into town that I realized that I forgot the damn directions. We pull up to this house and it was on a river just like advertised but the "guest house" looked like a shack - a real shack. I got friggin' to my stomach. Plus we are buzzed so we can't stop laughing - literally. Now I'm like "Holy Shit Caroline - we have got to find someplace with Internet access so I can get to my email and find the directions." You need to understand - we are in the middle of no where - when the lady I'm renting from said this place was remote it in no way prepared me for how remote this really is! Caroline was freaking out right along with me but we knew we had to man up and do something. For some reason we stopped at a house and I knocked on the door to ask the lady if she knew where Serenity Bluff was - she said we were in it! I asked if she knew Lin the landlord and she did. She called Lin and Lin told us how to get to her house. Meanwhile some lady came up to Carolyn and asked if we needed help. Caroline told her yes and she said she knew where Lynn lived and she would take us there. By this time we were both scared of what we were going to find. But thank the Good Lord where Lin and her husband Jimmy live is truly beautiful. It's right on the river with a cool dock and a boat - just beautiful. My little cottage is behind their house - and the cottage is darling. Mind you we were still shell shocked so we took a deep breath, unpacked the car and decided to drive around and check out the town. One of the first things we found out is that this place isn't referred to as a town but as a fish camp! By now it's around 6:00 - so it was dark - that was probably a good thing. There are no roads here - there are dirt paths that you drive down. At times you feel like you are driving through someones front yard and at times I probably was. But I digress. We went down Main St and saw the Boat Shed (which the locals pronounce Bull Shid) tavern and figured that the best place to make our first stop was a tavern. We took a deep breath got out of the car and entered. The sign outside said they were forming a new bowling league - this filled us with anticipation until we read the sign closer and realized the league was WI bowling of which I am now a sub. Anyway the people we met last night were some of the friendliest people I have ever met. From the Bull Shed we went to Hunters Cafe right next to the river. The place is known for it's great food - by now we were pretty buzzed but we plowed through every one's yards and found the place. There we met more friendly people - by the time we left that bar we were feeling no pain - at all. Everyone we met said "How did you find Shellman's Bluff?" They love it here and would never leave. It is a down home place. This morning we decided to find the grocery store and try and get a feel for the area. Now I can honestly say this is a really nice place. Lots and lots of water and boats. I can't imagine what I would have done if Caroline didn't come with me - Thank God she did. So today we went into a town called Darion and found this cool wine shop that has wine tasting on Thursday nights. So my time is filling up.

• Tuesdays - WI Bowling
• Wednesday - Right, Left, Center at Hunters cafe ($3 a game)
• Thursdays - wine tasting

I'm just going to have to suck it up and do things on my own. The people here are so friendly that I think this will be fun. Oh! I almost forgot - they also have a gaming boat and actually goes out into the ocean for a 5 hour cruise. It costs $10 and that includes dinner. We are going on the Sunday cruise from 1 to 6 then we are heading over to the Bull Shed to listen to a man that plays the sax - he's suppose to be outstanding. Things are looking up!