I want to believe.

My parents have been in Tennessee this week. Which is why I have been a little nostalgic about apple cider and boiled peanuts.

Mama called the other night from Pigeon Forge to give me the run-down on their trip. After telling me where they had been, what they had bought and how gorgeous the leaves are (they entered a golden tunnel of trees!) she shared with me their latest sighting.

My parents aren't into the UFO Phenomena, so when they say sighting, they mean deer and bears.

When I was little, I remember us winding around the mountain and slowing down behind a long line of cars. People were pulling over to park on the side of the road while trying to keep from falling off the side of the mountain.

It's a skill.

There's something you should know about cars suddenly pulling over on the side of a cliff. It only means one thing. A Sighting.

Daddy strategically parked without careening into the valley, and the three of us got out. We looked up and there they were.

Three baby bears up a tree.

We stayed a reasonable distance from the tree and a very close distance to the car because where there are baby bears, there is always a mama bear. And she is not ready to picnic.

I can still see the black, furry babies in a tree, high from the ground and thinking that it was so cool. It also meant that the cartoon bear on my souvenir Smokey Mountains t-shirt really meant something.

I was deep for a seven year-old.

So Mama said they had a sighting on this trip and she totally understated their experience because they saw fifteen deer. Fifteen. Deer. And Daddy added that one was a buck which is totally important.

Mama went on to tell me about the day they were winding around the mountain and the traffic slowed. They turned to each other and knew what may be ahead. Sure enough, a bear was running up the mountain.

Pretty soon the show was over and traffic returned to normal.

Minutes later, they stopped at a little store where Daddy shared their sighting with the cashier.

He added with a chuckle,"I think the bear was leaving the picnic area." And the clerk totally did not get it.

That's Okay, Daddy.

I did.

And it made it on my blog.

Now, where's my new t-shirt?