Diane's Birthday is May 20

I was very excited to see the dump truck bring in two loads of gravel and dump them in the curve around the group site.  I thought maybe they were going to fill some of the potholes around here. Later, Spence told me they are for him to place around the edges of the picnic table and tent pads.

Spence brought me a large tub of sour cherries he picked from a tree in his yard. I began pitting them right away.  Spence went to great lengths to make me appreciate how he bravely fought off the birds in the rain to get those cherries for me.  I decided to make a cobbler. Even though they were sour cherries, Andy snatched a few every time he walked by the kitchen counter (for no apparent reason, I might add).

Friends Jim and Diane arrived from Asheville, where they are spending the weekend for Diane's birthday.  We were flattered that she chose to spend her birthday with us.  She arrived bearing gifts for us - North Carolina blueberries and strawberries.  Jim brought his musical instruments.

A ranger truck came down the drive just as I was pulling the cherry cobbler out of the oven. How did Heath know?  It turned out not to be Ranger Heath after all, but Steve Roper whom we had not met before. Steve is the head ranger for this quadrant of the park now. He said he was not familiar with this area of the park and asked us how to get to Mouse Creek Falls.  Then he went back up to the parking area to relay the information to some park visitors.  He returned after a while and we offered him some of Spence's cherry cobbler.  He said he has been in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park since last fall.  He was in Yellowstone for eleven years before that.

I love this picture of Andy laughing.  He was chatting with Diane, but I don't know what she said to get this reaction.

I forgot to get this fellow's name.  He had just finished hiking the Benton MacKaye Trail, about three hundred miles.  I offered him some of Spence's cobbler too.

Jim had bought Diane some nice pottery for her birthday to replace a favorite piece the cat had knocked on a shelf.  He wanted to surprise her.  Jim had already sneaked it into the motorhome where I unwrapped it and set it on the table.  Diane did not go into the motorhome to discover it.  So, we filled it with water and brought it out to the picnic table with the mugs. Diane noticed it (she loves pottery) but didn't say anything about it.  Finally, Jim began telling the story of how his father replaced a glass vase his mother loved, by having it on the table with flowers in it when they dined at some friend's house.  Diane had heard the story before and then realized the pottery was for her. 

 Here they are clowning around with pottery.  Notice who's hand is holding the spoon in the cobbler dish.

A group of young women was walking down the horse trail when they stopped and all began to scream.  I ran for my camera to capture whatever they were screaming about.  We couldn't see anything. The girls walked on.  I didn't have any trouble finding the source of their consternation. This gal is huge! Jim and I took pictures until I got too close and the spider ducked back into the hole in the tree.

I took a measuring tape out to measure the hole so I could judge the size of the spider with my pictures.  That hole is two inches tall and that is a big spider.

I used Google Images to determine that it is a Dark Fishing Spider. Some of those images show people holding the spider.  Not me.  Have a closer look.

Here is Jim giving Andy a ukelele lesson, It is supposed to be very easy to learn

Andy wanted to take Diane to the Mellow Mushroom for her birthday.  After filling up on pizza we returned to Big Creek and had a nice campfire for the evening.