Read this if you like LISTS of stuff or if you're just curious what we've been doing.

Foster Falls and swimming hole

Mandi climbing "Finger Lockin' Good"

Katy leading "Jay Walker" at Tennessee Wall

Shannon climbing "Finger Lockin' Good"

The 'T' that sparked "Things that 'T' Stands For List"

Ironically, this story begins where the last one left off....sitting in a coffee shop waiting for the rain to cease. Fortunately, it is not the same coffee shop. This rainy Sunday finds us sitting in Fayetteville, West Virginia in the Cathedral Cafe outside of the New River Gorge. Luckily, in between these two rainy coffee shop days we have experienced nearly a month of sunny weather, colorful people, and stellar climbing.

So back to Chattanooga. We arrived in Chattanooga with hopes of climbing at the Tennessee Wall, however after talking with some of the locals we decided to try our hand at Foster Falls, with the promise that it would dry faster than Tennessee Wall after all of the rain. Foster Falls is tucked in the hills 30 minutes outside of Chattanooga. A short hike down took us past the falls themselves, by a great end-of-the-day swimming hole, and along the base of an overhanging sandstone cliff band ("we"...meaning our biceps and upper bodies.... have found this overhanging sandstone to be the epitome of southern climbing). After a month of climbing under our harnesses we were feeling slightly more confident in our abilities. That is, until, while waiting at the base of a route a saggy armed mom- type suggested that we would have better luck at a route called "Bear Mountain Picnic". She might as well have sent us to the McDonald's Playland with a snack and our nap blankies. Dragging our egos behind us we made our way to the "Fluffy Little Bunny Route". We didn't know it at the time but the "climbing bar" is set high in the south. This overhanging sandstone breeds bad asses and leaves no room for McDonald's play dates.

(Side note: we put in our time on the recommended "Fluffy Bunny Route" and also managed to salvage some of our dignity by climbing some harder routes that didn't contain the word 'picnic'. And in the grand old tradition of never judging a book by its cover, we will never again judge a climber by their age or arm tone.)

You may have been wondering about other Nebraska chix who rock. It just so happens that one such chick was winding her way through Tennessee at the exact time we were there...her name is Mandi. Katy and Mandi graduated high school together 7 years ago and hadn't seen each other since, but as Katy flagged Mandi into the campsite with her headlamp she could tell that their lives had taken a similar path. Mandi's car contained all of her earthly possessions and as they recounted their lives into the night it felt like not so much time had passed. The following day was a "chix rock" climbing day. The Tennessee Wall provided the perfect setting for a mandatory lesson in crack climbing. We jammed our hands and contorted our feet to wedge securely in the cracks. As we hiked towards our cars, exhausted from a hard days climbing, we talked excitedly about driving to Nashville to celebrate the end of what we all decided was the perfect day. The celebration involved live country music, George Dickel, and proving that the jeep could "comfortably" sleep three.

The next day could become a dissertation for a doctoral candidate in psychiatry. We had coffee at the Waffle House with Mike, a coffee drinking, trousers wearing fly. This was followed by what we refer to as the "list making segment of the day". The list of lists is as follows:
1. Good Things about Bees List
2. Things in the Car (today) List
3. Things I Did Today List
4. Things that "T" Stands for List
5. Types of Tapping List
6. Funny Things to Roll Up in the Window List
7. Three Things Katy Wants to Do List (note: includes five items)
8. Things Stephen Foster Can and Can't Do List
9. Animals Katy Will Tattoo On Her Toes List
10. Border Collie Insults List
11. Possible Occupations for the Nashville Palace Guys List
12. Reasons Why that is a Prison List
13. Uses for a Small Dog List
(For more information or copies of the lists themselves, please contact us.)

The list making took us all the way to Lexington, Kentucky where an attempt to find a park to cook dinner landed us smack dab in the middle of a Border Collie Convention. After an educating discussion with a Border Collie trainer we felt competent enough to start deducting points from the Collies as they rounded up confused sheep. It was probably a good thing when we had to part ways the following day to attend two separate weddings in two separate states.

(The coffee shop is closing but we've been accused of being slackers by a person we call "Nick". So, check back to learn about the Red River Gorge and our newly adopted brother.)