Remembrance of two birthdays coming up before the end of the month, your mother’s, Mary Laverna Schick-Orndorff and Carol’s father, Granville S. Hammond; both born in 1918.
A quarter ‘til noon. Everyone had a late breakfast at Flap Jacks near light three in Pigeon Forge. One of Del Mann’s good friends paid for everyone. He was well-thanked for his generosity. Carol and Mary Lou went shopping with Linda and Bill, and Tina and Bobby (Tina is Bill Smith’s sister). Others headed out to Gatlinburg and ‘zip-lining’ a mountain.
Not my cup of tea. In 1972, Carol and I were on the Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf) Cable Car in Rio, almost to the top, when a storm roared through, seventy mile an hour winds and the car dropped off to the safety cable only. People on the top station finally got a rope to us (about thirty feet way) and pulled us into station. Later, we had no problem going down. I’ll not forget the experience. Some were crossing themselves and otherwise praying; but, it was the little fellow who was the operator, whose frozen face turned white as a sheet when we dropped a few feet that I remember most. I have a few photos from the event but they are at home.
Drop in one from the net.
Sugarloaf Mountain (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar), is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar.
The mountain is only one of several monolithic morros of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-paneled cable care (in popular Portuguese, bondinho - more properly called teleférico), capable of holding 65 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Cara de Cão every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972/1973 and in 2008. The cable car goes from the base, not the peak of the Babilônia mountain, to the Urca mountain and then to the Pão de Açúcar mountain.
To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro de Açúcar, 220 meters high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar.The Italian-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. Each car takes you only three minute from start to finish. Departures are available every 20 minutes between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm and the fare is US$11 for Morro de Açúcar or US$22 for the whole way to Pão de Açúcar. [Wikipedia pic/text]
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Anyway, this is the reason Carol and I were not interested in being tethered by straps and ropes and sent sailing down a series of wires to the bottom of a mountain.
What did you think, boy, that the cable car was going to fall?
I don’t remember other than the operator’s face told me this was not a normal experience. Not only did we stop dead in our track, but we dangled and swayed in the strong winds. I was more concerned that the swaying arcs were going to pull us off the safety cable. I didn’t think any further than that. Didn’t see the need to, I suppose. I read in the above text that the cars and cable were replaced in 1972-73, so that tells me something. The cars were old and small, I did not realize the equipment was installed in 1912. Actually, the car was rather quaint. I liked it – reminded me of old beautiful, wooden framed trolley cars used in the forties and early fifties. You still see them used, mostly for tourists I imagine, in Memphis and New Orleans.
How do I get off the subject? It amazes me how I jump from one thing to another. I wonder if everyone thinks like this.
Post. – Amorella.
Late afternoon, and you are sitting at the dining room table enjoying the quiet and the view. Earlier you stopped up at Jean and Bob’s cabin – way up at the top for the best view.
According to Wikipedia:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through the centerline of the park. It is the most visited national park in the United States. On its route from Maine to Georgia, the Appalachian Trail also passes through the center of the park. [Wikipedia]
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Shows what I know. I always want to add the ‘e’ between the ‘k’ and ‘y’. Not worth changing. The mountains do appear smoky and they have the ‘blue ridge’. Too much travelogue I can’t think of any use for this in the books.
I can. Topography of one of the ancient cultures.
Which one?
China. We can find a use for such a description. – Amorella.
I don’t think China looks anything like this.
You can find a similar example.
Then why not use an authentic example?
Don’t get carried away on your ‘authenticity’ boy. The topographical line between fact and fiction doesn’t really float in this book. Remember what Milton said about the separation of Heaven and Hell?
Here are the lines from Book One:
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night [ 50 ]
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
Confounded though immortal: But his doom
Reserv'd him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain [ 55 ]
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as Angels kenn he views
The dismal Situation waste and wilde, [ 60 ]
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd onely to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace [ 65 ]
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd:
Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd [ 70 ]
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n
O how unlike the place from whence they fell! [ 75 ]
There the companions of his fall, o'rewhelm'd
With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He soon discerns, and weltring by his side
One next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd [ 80 ]
Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus began.
[Paradise Lost: Book One]
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What wonderful words!
Post. – Amorella.
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