To Big South Fork

Today, went to this National Park called, "Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area". CT wanted to go somewhere not too far but we have to come back for dinner as we will be meeting up with Jerry and family for dinner at "Outback Steakhouse" near my hotel. Jerry is CT's American colleague whom CT has been attached to for this trip to Tennessee. They invited us out for dinner.

So, in the morning, we went to the National Park. I chose that place as there is a twin arches which looked quite nice from the pictures in the internet. I have seen hills,mountains, trees and rivers. So, planned to see some rock formations today.

It was a long drive which I did not expect as we had to go to small roads with stones and gravels. So, it was difficult to drive fast...moreover, ours was a car, not a 4WD..so it was difficult. Took us about 2 hours to reach the place. We first went to the visitor centre in the national park to ask the person which places I should visit in the park given only 3-4 hours. So, they recommended a few places which we went to.

We drove to the twin arches first. It was about a 40 mins drive to the place and 15 mins hike. The hike was tiring as it was upslope and downslope, including of the hot weather. The twin arches is so huge that we only made it to one side of the arch. To go to the other side, we have to trek for a long while. So, we just stopped at one side and went back to the car.


This is how it looks. Very big rock formation.



























The Twin Arches look something like the picture on the board.

After that, we went to the river side and walked on this bridge that is on the river..only few feet above the water. There were people who brought their dogs and the dogs started running to the river and soaking into the water, swimming and drinking the water. Very cute. The weather is very hot..should be about 30 over degrees. Look at what CT is doing...he found this stick on the bridge and started doing some kungfu moves..I was very surprised as his moves really look professional..haha..I guess he watches too many swordsman shows..


After that, we went to this lookout point at the mountain to see the view of the river. It is the Big South Fork River...the water is brown in colour..not nice..

We reached back hotel at about 3plus pm. We had lunch at long john's silver. Yes, there is a slight difference from the Long John here and Singapore. Singapore fries are nicer as it has some batter on it.. The fries here are normal. But the fish and chicken cooked here are more tender and juicy.

When we reached back, we met Gek Teng and Kok Fong in the lift as they just went swimming in the hot sun! They were surprised we come back so early as for the past few days, we have been coming back late. We told them it is because of tonight's dinner. We invited them, but they do not want to go as they like to try other food than Outback Steakhouse which we have been twice already.

Met Jerry and Family at 630pm and initially, the waitress told us that we need to wait for about 40mins and handed us this beeper thing that will vibrate and light up when they have a table for us. However, when we turned around, a second later, the beeper vibrated and litted up! Ha..they said got space already.

I have been to "Outback Steakhouse" twice already and this would be my third time. This time round is the most enjoyable as Jerry recommended ordering the "Rockampton Steak"..which is so nice! It has little fats, tender and juicy. Yummy. Jerry eats his steak very well done..he says he likes the burnt smell of steak..and does not like things raw. First time I hear people ordering very well done steak. I shared the steak with CT as it was a 16 oz steak..very large..and moreover, we ordered 2 appetizers to share with the whole table.

In the end, Jerry paid for the dinner as he said he was the one who suggested bringing us out...and suggested the place. He also gave CT a baseball as he is a little league baseball coach. In US, there is major, minor and little league. Little league is baseball played by kids. After dinner, we went to the carpark and Jerry started playing ball with his son, Ty. They were catching the ball and throwing the baseball.

Then, before we parted, we told Jerry that we would be going back to Tellico Plains (The place where he brought us tehre before) again to swim. CT told him that I like the place which I really do as it is a very relaxing place with fun and food. When Jerry heard that we are going to swim, he also wanted. So, we arranged to meet him there at 1:30pm as his church service ends at 12noon.

Initially, we planned to go in the morning, but since Jerry would like to join us, we went along with his timing. When we headed back to our car at the carpark, we found a note on the windscreen. We thought, "Summon ah? cannot be what...since carpark here is all free." Then we read the note..it was written by Gek Teng. She wrote that they would be playing bowling at about 830pm and asked us if we wanted to go. So, I told CT, why not. So we went to the bowling place which is very near by but they were not there. We sat till 9pm and decided to leave since we suddenly had things to do as when we were waiting, I was discussing with CT what to buy for Jerry and family since they have done so much for us. So, ideas were thrown and finally, CT suggested something very nice. He suggested printing out photos I took for the places we went together and put in a photo frame.

So, we left at 9pm since we couldnt see Kok Fong and gang. We went back hotel to place the photos into my camera memory stick. Then, brought the stick to Walmart for development. However, it was close..so we spent the time there buying a nice photo frame. We got this frame which has 8 frame..all diff sizes in the frame. So, I told CT that we would put 8 diff pictures in the frame depicting the time we spent together with them.

We planned to develop the photos tomorrow morning and pass to them when we go swimming with them in afternoon. So, tonight, I was planning what to develop.