How do you make rain stop?

See, the clouds are lifting as I'm
applying the stuff!

So, as a general question, how do you make rain stop? This sounds like an extraordinary question, but it's really far more simple than you imagine.  This is how you do it.  You get up...you go to Walmart...you buy rain-x and paper towels...you apply said rain-x to all windsheilds.  Then you start driving.  Instantly the skies clear.  I swear, it should come with a money back guarantee.

Outside of Linville Caverns

So, guess what I did first thing this morning?  That's right!  :)  I made it stop raining.  (oh the feeling of power!)  After we did that, I volunteered for another shift of driving as long as I could drive to the Linville Caverns (which is backwards from where we were supposed to be going).  Betsy thought that was a great idea (her not having to drive, I think), so I drove to Linville Caverns.  I was a little worried, because we kept driving, and driving, and driving and I hadn't seen any signs in a while.  But we did find it (no u-turns required).  And boy was it worth it.  When you walked in the mine it was instantly 10 degrees cooler.  I swear to you all I will NEVER walk in front of Betsy on a tour again.  She got pictures of other things too, but a lot were photo-bombed by my ass (since I walked ahead of her).  The gift shop after was nice too, and they had a lot of stuff (variety-wise) at decent prices.  We were able to get some good pictures in front of the stream outside as well.

So, after that           (are ya'll sitting down?)        (you are?  good)      we got some lunch (before 2pm).  SHOCKER!!!!

How awesome are those clouds mixed with mountains?

And then we got on the highway and headed to Cherokee.  At this point I have to send a shout out to Patricia for telling me not to go through Maggie Valley, but to go around.  It was much, much easier to drive and it was beautiful scenery.  Unfortunately we didn't get in to Cherokee until about 3:30, so all we had time to do was the Casino.  That thing was HUGE.  It was probably as big as Wake Med, if not larger.  I walked around with Leilani and we found a rain shield that was raining from the ceiling of the casino.  It was both beautiful and amazing.  It was synchronized with a bunch of LCD panels which played something while the rain-shield changed colors.

This is a picture of the rain curtain, but no
squirrel dancers on the LCD's in the background.  Sorry

Now, I'm not sure if I can tell you how funny this next part is, or if you just had to be there; but I'm going to try my best.  On the screen pops up a (CGI animation) toad, woodpecker, and (the star of the show) a squirrel.  Now, here's the funny parts:  #1- there are no children allowed in the casino (where this was playing) except we could see it from the top floor. (hello, isn't that your biggest audience for animated cartoons?)  But there were no children around except for Leilani.  #2- There is a ridiculous hip hop beat going (thanks to the toad's croaks and the woodpecker's..uh..pecks?) and the squirrel is *ahem* dancing.  And catching some sweet front-side air on a makeshift snowboard (that happens to be made out of a twig - oh, and there's no snow).  I didn't have my camera (or my wits) about me, so you all will not get to see this spectacle, unless you go to the casino and stand there all day waiting for that particular animation to play.  Sorry.  I truly think everyone should have to see it at least once.

So, I lost 5 bucks in the casino.  Leilani was worried (how did I get such a prude?) about me spending my money.  I told her we wouldn't starve if I lost $5.  So, she eventually let me go.  Betsy won about $30, so that's pretty awesome.

Can you believe this sweet angelic creature
could fart like a truck driver? (no offense to the
truck drivers out there.)

After that we took a drive to see if we could find downtown (which I could have SPIT and hit it was so close) and then we got some dinner (nothing special).

When we got back, Leilani had a fart-fest and gassed Betsy out.  And that's how she won at UNO tonight. :)

Tune in tomorrow, when I might post about my exciting trip home.  haha.  Actually, we plan on seeing the park and downtown tomorrow and then we'll come home (unless we find something else to do).  So, I'll post if anything exciting happens.

Good night :)