What a Strange College Football Season It's Been

Today, I'm writing about something you probably don't expect to read on my blog: football. Specifically, college football. Mostly because, it's much more fun than pro football, being scrappier, and because this has been a weird season indeed.

Let's start with the Tennessee Vols, currently #20 in the BCS rankings with a 7-3 record. That record does not tell the whole story, because like Michelle Pearcy's team, LSU, Tennessee has been playing "heart attack football" this year. The South Carolina game almost went into double overtime. I hate to say this about my team, but they won out of sheer luck - some favorable calls in the first half combined with South Carolina missing a field goal in overtime to lose the game. Lots of people in Knoxville thing Phillip Fulmer should be fired, but they're just looking for someone to blame for wearing out the batteries in people's pacemakers.

Then there is the hometown team, Texas, ranked #13 with a 9-2 record. Again, these guys have become the masters of coming from behind and I'm not sure the fans are really appreciative. The Longhorns have the week off this week, and everyone here is so bored after all the action that they're coming up with stupid video ideas to keep the locals at bay. You can see Kirk Bohls' interview from New York at http://www.statesman.com/news/mplayer/m/40550.


Lastly, I have to acknowledge to my great chagrin that Oregon lost last night which means that LSU is now #1 in both the BCS poll and the AP poll. I worked with a lot of LSU people and they never have anything nice to say about the Vols, so this burns me. But the chances of Tennessee playing LSU in an SEC championship are diminishing, so at least we won't have to get our ass kicked. And, Florida is #12. I hate Florida.

Where the Heck Have I Been?

Hi Everyone...

It's been brought to my attention that certain folks (not to mention names but specifically Paul Walker from GCI) feel that I have been ignoring the blog. I logged on today and was horrified to see that I have made no posts for more than 3 weeks! So, I suppose I am guilty as charged.

I feel I owe my loyal blog readers, if there are any left, some type of explanation. So here goes:

Excuse #1: Interrupted travel plans. I was planning a post in mid-October on my trip to Portland and Seattle. Unfortunately, this journey had to be called off at the last minute due to, how do I put this nicely - booting. It seems that 24 hours before the flight, I was struck with some dreaded stomach bug. I think I got it from a porta potty on the Riverside golf course, but will provide no further details. I have rescheduled my trip to the west coast for December.

Excuse #2: The Great American Novel. I'm about 2/3 of the way through my book. I know you'll ask what it's about, and it is NOT about my family so all you blood relatives can stop worrying. I'm creating a fictitious company caught up in the internet bubble. I've hired an editor on my own dime and have been attending the St. David's Writers' group. If you're a literary agent and you want to take a look, you can email me at gretchen2dot0@austin.rr.com. Expected completion is January 1, 2008.

Excuse #3: Golf. I have continued to practice and play golf and I'm happy to report I am marginally better. Only marginally though. A throw down match with Figueroa and Bowins is scheduled for this Thursday, November 1 if Bowins does not wuss out. Maybe I will post the results on the blog.

Excuse #4: Football. For those of you not following the SEC greats of our time, tonight is the showdown at Neyland Stadium between the Tennessee Volunteers (Go Vols!) and the South Carolina Gamecocks. I am in Knoxville for the aforementioned match and will be there to root on the team.

Excuse #5: More travel! The trip to Fiji, Australia and New Zealand has been set for February/March 2008. Travel companions include Sharon and Andrea and (we hope) Corey and Mike. On deck in the near future are Vegas, Pawleys Island, and Portland/San Franscisco.

In short, these are all lame excuses and I know that. I will redouble my efforts to post and get back to this soon. Look for a post on Hiking in the Smokies: Redux very soon. This post will also contain my analysis of the football game in question, now less than four hours away.

Hiking the Smokies

Me & Dad

This week, rather than simply doing nothing, I have been visiting east Tennessee - home of my dad, Mike Miller, and his wife Pam. My dad is a serious hiker who about a year ago completed hiking all 900 miles of trails in the Smoky Mountains. We hiked almost 20 miles this week and I have the blisters to prove it. Despite the fact that the weather was not great over the weekend, it ended up being a beautiful couple of days. Here are some photos I took with my cool new camera! Check out the serious water crossing (I passed on this one).

The Smokies are a very special place to me and my family because my grandparents had a summer home there in a place called Elkmont - near where we were hiking. My dad and his brothers spent most of their summers there. Elkmont is a community that existed prior to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. This park now attracts more than 9 million visitors per year and is the most visited of all the national parks. The families who lived in Elkmont when the park was created were granted a lease from the government which expired in 1992. You can read more about the history of Elkmont on this site: http://www.imagesbuilder.com/gsmnp/elkmont.html.

Anyway, the real shame is not that the houses had to be given back, because everyone knew that was going to happen - but that they are still there 15 years later. Believe it or not, the US Government has not been able to figure out what to do with all these houses. It got so bad that in 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Elkmont on their list of the Eleven Most Endangered Places (http://www.nationaltrust.org/11Most/list.asp?i=156). We saw our old house this week, and very sadly it has continued to fall into a state of disrepair (it was a really cool house). There is some indication that certain homes are going to be restored - if they are in fact salvageable at this point. In the right hand picture, you can see where some new wood frame has been laid over a decaying roof. We are not sure what the deal is on this, but I'll post more when I hear. That's all for this week...

My Grandparents' House

New Roof?