How It Began

Where do ideas come from? I have found them while driving to work, standing in the kitchen, reading a flyer, copying a recipe, working a puzzle, walking the dog. Really, they're everywhere, ideas are, and they aren't hard to find. Good ideas can be trickier; sometimes they aren't seen for what they are until they've been hashed around a bit and discussed and dismissed and then picked up again.

This idea happened when we were invited to spend a weekend in the Smokies with some friends, Rod and Pam. We are recent empty nesters and our dear friends, also empty nesters, but more experienced at it, were the inspiration for the trip. They had also invited their son and daughter-in-law, Nate and Rebecca. So the six of us converged upon a cabin with a steep driveway (that's a requirement for all cabins in the Smokies) on a Friday night in September, 2015.

As we were sitting in the living room of the cabin that night, Rod picked up a magazine about the Smokies that way lying on the coffee table and read aloud a few things that caught his attention. He mentioned the 900 Miler Club in conversation and piqued my interest. I'd not heard of that club and wasn't sure if I wanted to guess what it was. He continued to read about it and it remained a topic of idle conversation throughout the weekend.

We had already decided that the Saturday hike would be the Chimney Top Trail. And that is what we hiked. Rod, Pam, Nathan and Rebecca had hiked Clingman's Dome and Laurel Falls on Friday, before we had arrived, and had bought a book called Day Hikes of the Smokies and marked off their hikes.

I am a list person, so this idea intrigued me, and before the weekend was over, I had bought myself a copy of the book. It was on the way home that I looked up the website for the 900 Miler Club, and became inspired with the GOOD IDEA.

Why Not? All we have is time, bits of it here and there anyway. And we aren't too far from the Smokies. I hoped to get my husband on board with the idea, never dreaming that we would all six fall for the IDEA and be in it together (in theory at this point anyway).

So there you have it, another IDEA for your idea pile. Why not?