Seriously. It probably would have been fun, but not really a great idea to go ahead with.

Palmie got to my place around 11 and we headed out to Marianna. She drove as I was rather opiated at the time (not sleepy, only a smidge loopy, but I did seem to have more than a little trouble getting words to come out in the right order, tense, etc.) and it really didn’t seem to take all that long to get there, especially when you consider we gained an hour halfway there. Even though the gate warned us that they were selling tours for over an hour away, we actually got in on the 12:30 tour which gave us ample time to go over to the picnic area and have lunch.

Our tour-guide (a vounteer name Tom) was awesome and, even though he was probably totally scripted, his spiel was great. Lots of corny jokes and a couple that would have earned the tour a pg-13 rating, but we all appreciated them. I think I took about 100 pictures or so, not sure what’ll really turn out of them. Released to our own wiles we wandered one of the trails for a bit, blissfully lacking any other company, ending up back at the visitors center. The museum there was less than stellar and the gift shop not much better, but they did have a few cute oddities.

After an ice-cream break (fruit juice bar for me) we headed over to the Tunnel Cave. Um, well, it was kinda cool but a lot more disappointing. It was mostly one huge rock under which there was a little pass. I’m sure there’s plenty of significance there, but um… no.

We drove over to the camping area and saw where our slip would have been. It seemed like a nice enough spot, we’ll definitely have to give it a try one day when I’m not injured on 3 out of 4 limbs, and when I know how to work a grill.

About the injury level. Primary is the cut finger which would have been a bear to keep properly clean, elevated and out of danger. But also injured was my left shin where I’d seriously bruised it getting into the shower Friday morning (by that time I was stupid tired and feeling a bit like I was in Final Destination with all the little things going wrong). And to complicate matters that much more, the site of my tetanus shot is knotted up and red and painful (normal adult reaction for 30% of the population according to a quick search on MedLine, gee, fun) so if I wasn’t banging my shin on something I was catchin my arm somewhere. I was sort of a lame duck today 🙁

Now about the grill. See, we headed home after the trip over to the camp ground and I went to start the coals. Now I am fully aware of the ickiness of lighter fluid so I purposely did not buy the pre-soaked briquettes. I figured I could just light these and wait. Right? Er, no.

A couple of calls later we decided to go in search of a chimney which I thought I didn’t need. (I had read how to improvise one but didn’t really have a way to punch the holes in the bottom edge of the coffee can so no help there.) 3 stops and 2 detours later (what was going on at General Dynamics that they had both Hartsfield and Commonwealth blocked off by police?) we got back with the chimney. Which promptly smoked us off the patio and back inside.

Sigh… I knew you had to wait until the coals turned grey before dumping them into the grill but I figured it was a good idea to wait until the stopped actively burning as well (since, you know, my asbestos smock was at the cleaners). By the time that happened the coals had shrunk to about a third (or less) of their starting volume and looked pretty doggone pitiful in even my little portable grill. Palmie suggested we add some more coals and let the catch and that way we’d end up with enough heat.

I think we only got to medium heat and while it did a great job at toasting the buns, the burgers still needed to be finished on the stove, just to be safe. They were tasty though… ar 10pm. I’m a whiz in the kitchen and could probably rock some socks on a propane grill, but me and charcoal obviously need to come to an understanding!

Still, it was a fun day overall, ending with me baking chocolate chip cookies (store-bought dough, y’all, since the original plan had been to try and bake them on the grill after the burgers) while I introduced Palmie to the first 4 episodes of Girls Next Door, Season 1. Yay for being able to finally share one of my fandoms with her instead of the other way around 🙂