Justin Acuff’s Blog

This weekend I was in Memphis for my sister’s (Rachel) graduation from Med School. Since my parents were going to take two vehicles anyways, I figured I just go to their house and ride with them, since there would be room. It makes for a longer time in the car for me, but less driving that I actually have to do.

So we arrive at the hotel on Thursday. After we went over to Rachel’s for a little bit, we headed back to the hotel. My mom and dad had a parent’s dinner to go to, so we (me, my youngest sister Katie, my aunt, and my grandma) were left at the hotel to enjoy their dinner. It was chili and chips. I was OK with that, but others wanted to get something else. Since we were just a block from The Rendezvous, I took them there. Afterwards, they wanted to ride the trolley around, so we did that.

Friday morning we went to the Dean’s Convocation. I was looking around and all of a sudden I noticed Beth Jent. I went to high school and church with Beth (McCauley then), so I’m always really happy when I happen to see her. The convocation was a nice ceremony and was about the right length too.

Finally it was time for the Graduation. UTHSC held their graduation at the Mid-South Coliseum. The first thing that I noticed was that it seemed kinda dark. People would go into the bathrooms and say the lights were off. It was also kind of hot too. For a while they had some lights, but those would go off and then a few minutes later, they would come back on. Several people assumed they just had an inexperienced person working the house. They had no lights on stage. By the time they finished awarding all the professor fellowships and such, most of the lights were out and you couldn’t see anything. I was hoping to take some pictures, but even at ISO 3200 200m f/2.8 with a flash, it was hard to get anything. Things might have gone over a little bit better if they announced at the very beginning that the power was out and everything was running off of generators. We found out on the news later that the area near Mid-South Coliseum had lost power around 9:00 that morning and there was also a potential gas leak. Graduation was a complete disaster.

I’ll close with Knoxville needs to get a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Really, really, really good.

Lately it seems I get around to actually posting a couple of days later than when I actually wanted to post.

Well on Sunday afternoon, a few of us went and saw Over the Hedge. Its a good movie that I recommend. Its got a really awesome soundtrack done by Ben Folds. The premise of the story is that a “family” (a turtle, a squirrel, a skunk, and two opossums) of animals have always gathered up food to store for the winter. Well over this last winter, a new housing development has been built, destroying much of the food sources these animals knew. Along comes this raccoon that teaches these animals about suburban people live and how they can get food.

Now for the irony. The movie theater we watched this at was at The Pinnacle 18, located in Turkey Creek. Probably the majority of the people reading this either have no clue what Turkey Creek is or have always known Turkey Creek to be a huge commercial area. It wasn’t too long ago that that whole area was nothing but wetlands. 22 acres of wetlands actually. You might expect to find wetlands like this in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, but not Tennessee. Yet it was there.

So the movie kind of puts a new face on residential and commercial development.

It is confirmed now… I am going back to Brazil this summer! We bought our tickets yesterday. The price wasn’t insanely high, but the itenerary now includes a 12 hour layover in Sao Paulo on the way down and a 9 hour layover in Recife on the way back. More details to come later.

What to read next???

So after I finished Donald Miller’s new book, I was looking at my library of books and trying and figure out what to read next. I could read Mere Discipleship, but it didn’t draw me into it when I read the first section. Ultimately, I’ve decided to read one of those books that have been on the shelf for a very long time. The Case for Christ has been on my shelf since maybe my sophomore year in college. Before Hoss came, the LYF group was studying this for their Wednesday night class. With The Da Vinci Code coming out this week, this seemed like a fitting book to read.

Esta é minha canção favorita nova.

Geração Que Dança
by David Quinlan

Tua graça nos faz dançar
Com toda força celebrar
Dançaremos, gratos por Teu amor
Tua glória nos faz cantar
Por toda Terra Te exaltar
Cantaremos glórias a Ti Senhor

Quero transbordar
Por nos perdoar,
Por Te conhecer
Não podemos nos calar

E seremos a geração que dança
Por causa da Tua misericórdia
Oh Deus
Tua misericórdia Oh Deus

E seremos a geração que canta
E que celebra a Tua glória
Oh Deus
A Tua glória Oh Deus

—-
In English this song is Dancing Generation by Matt Redman.

Sometimes we just take things for granted. Things such as going to Chuck E. Cheese’s (or Showbiz Pizza or Pizza Time Theatre) as a kid. But what is one to do if they’ve never been and they are 23? Well that’s what friends are for. Joey secretly planned this graduation party for Loraine at Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Well, the last time I had gone to Chuck E. Cheese’s it was actually called Showbiz Pizza. The place seemed much bigger when I was a kid. There was actually 8 of us total. We ended up ordering so that everyone had a drink, we had 3 large pizzas and 133 tokens. We all decided that we use the tokens to get tickets and put them together. All in all, we ended up with some 455 tickets. Loraine decided to get everyone a Pirate Eye patch and a couple of whoopee cushions.

Usually when a backpacking trip is planned, it either falls through because the weather is really bad or its not as fun as it could be because the weather is really bad. This past weekend though, the weather was actually really good. I had thought the trip was going to be to go up Mount Sterling Trail to campsite 38 and then come down Baxter Creek Trail. Instead of going down Baxter Creek we ended up doing Mount Sterling Ridge to Swallow Fork to Big Creek. It was a longer trip, but it got me a few more miles I get to mark off.

Campsite 38 is a rationed campsite. Michele had mad reservations so that we would have a place to camp when we got there. At first it appeared that all the sites were taken up. After further investigation we found a place near the horse hitching posts. It was away from the other campers and close to the bear lines. Campsite 38 is also where the Mount Sterling Firetower is located at. Unlike the Look Rock Firetower, you can climb all the way to the top of it. Since there was still daylight, that’s what I did. Here’s a picture that I took from the top. You can see just how nice the weather was.

After going up to the firetower and enjoying the views, it was time to come down and set up camp. We gathered up the firewood and started to make dinner. Hot Dogs and Bush’s Baked Beans are most enjoyed when they are cooked over a campfire. The temperature was forecasted to get down to below freezing that night. Campsite 38 is actually at about 5,820 ft in elevation. It is the highest unsheltered campground in the Smokey Mountains. It probably got down to about 30 degrees, but I stayed sufficiently warm. I was actually awoken sometime around 2:00 when I heard something that sounded like a bunch of kids playing around our campsite. It was probably just a pack of coyotes.

After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and started our 10.9 mile journey back to the Big Creek Picnic area. The first leg was along the Mount Sterling Ridge trail. The sky was actually a little overcast, but visibility was actually pretty decent. It offered some good views… also coupled with some warm weather in the previous weeks, wild flowers had started to bloom. Swallow Fork had about 3 or 4 stream crossings. We stopped for lunch at the junction of Swallow Fork and Big Creek.

After about 3 miles down Big Creek we came to Mouse Creek Falls. For those that are looking for a nice easy hike to do, I’d recommend coming up to Mouse Creek Falls. It is actually only 2 miles from the Big Creek Picnic area, and the elevation grade is really light. If you were to start at the Picnic area, hike up to the falls, and then back down to the picnic area; your hike would only be 4 miles. A great beginner hike for those that are interested in getting into hiking. It also probably won’t be near as crowded as Abram’s Falls.

Also nearby is Mountain Mama’s. If you go on your trip to Mouse Creek Falls, bring some money with you so you can go to Mountain Mama’s for lunch/dinner. You can’t miss Mountain Mama’s. Its on the road that you have to take to get to the Big Creek Picnic area. When we went, it was right around dinner time, so we also got to be entertained by the “local folk”.

I had also planned to meet up with Angela this weekend. Originally, we were gonna do something Saturday night, but after realizing it would be late and I would probably be sore and tired, Sunday would be the better time. We were talking and somehow Red Lobster’s came up, so that’s where we went. I seriously could eat at Red Lobster’s more often and not get tired of it. I also decided that its been a while since I’ve been to West End, so I would visit. Of course this would be the day they announce the resignation of 3 elders and the appointment of 3 new ones.