22 years ago (!), in what now seems like a previous life, I took my family on vacation to a cabin near the Great Smokey National Park. We shared the cabin with my good friend George and his family. Things did not go smoothly. Blood was shed on multiple occasions and I will never forget a wild ride down the mountain trying to keep the ambulance in sight. But that’s the subject for a different post. This post concerns what we now refer to as “George Moments”.

If you are familiar with the GSMNP, you will be aware that quite often there are scenic pullovers. George finds it impossible to pass these by, but rather he MUST stop at each one, gaze about and snap some photos. It makes for, shall we say, lengthy journeys.

When my bride and I went to Ireland on our honeymoon I took my new Minolta digital camera. We drove the SW of Ireland for 13 days (a different stop almost every night, which we won’t do again) and during that time I took about 1500 photos. We would be driving along, I’d see a beautiful sight and I’d HAVE to pull over to capture it. After a short ride up the road I’d see another beautiful or interesting sight and pull over again. Repeat. And repeat again. For 13 days. These quickly became referred to as “George Moments”. We’d be riding down the road and I’d holler “George Moment” and two things would happen simultaneously: I’d start looking for a place to pull over and there would be a rolling of eyes from the navigator. The sigh was optional.

I took a bunch of grief from the navigator during this trip, but when we got home we had a nice, chronological collection of our trip. Even the navigator admits, reluctantly, that it turned out pretty well. (Site here) We have since had many George Moments in many different places. On our Montana trip we took our new point & shoot and the navigator took it upon herself to chronicle them. Smartass.

Stay tuned for George Moments from Scotland.

Maggie Valley, NC, 1988

Above: George recovering from the first of several injuries sustained by multiple people during this trip. I can’t find the wider shot that includes the bottle of Cuervo next to the chair.

Below: Part of the George Moment collection.

Grand Tetons, WY, 2007