Actually, the craziest memory I have from a vacation has to do with a little bit of a murder. (Yes a REAL LIFE HOMICIDE) !

About 10 years ago give or take a few, more like give a few because it's been quite a while since this has happend. My mom, me and my dad as well as my brother and his family would always go to Gatlinburg for vacation during like July or August right before School started back so we could always get our school shopping done over there because there was more places to shop at than anywhere around here. We got in Gatlinburg around 8:00 p.m. on a Thursday night and checked in our hotel at Rocky Waters Motor Inn. (My Fave Hotel by the way) -- anyways... We check in and went in and we all kind of just crashed because it was late and we were exhausted from taking the EXTRA LONG SCENIC DRIVE through every small one horse town in Tennessee. The backroads and some ghetto's - it's true.

The next morning we get up around 6:30 ish to walk up to the Shoney's for Breakfast - which was something we ALWAYS did on Vacation. We walked about a 1/2 of a mile up the street and there is like a small Italian Bistro like restauraunt on the same side of the street that we were walking on and a lady which Im assuming was the owner at the time opening up the doors to go in and get whatever she had to get done before she opened up for customers..she had a Big box of those Oyster Crackers and that's strange that I remember the crackers, but it was a huge box of those white oyster crackers that you put in like chili. She spoke to us as we went by and told us that she hoped we enjoyed our stay in the Great Smokey Mountains and we were friendly to her as well. We walked on up to shoney's .. we ate.. my brother forgot his wallet so we went back to the hotel since it was still fairly early and a lot of the shops didnt open up til 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. We walked back down the street passing this same little bistro where the lady had once stood going in with the Oyster crackers.. and I was the kid who noticed everything obviously. Mom's little investigator or instigator.. it varied from day to day .. anyways I looked through the window as we were walking by and I saw the Oyster Crackers like all over the floor .. like how you bust a bag open they were scattered everywhere so I remember telling mom that she musta busted the bag on her way in or fell or something and mom said yeah must have and we walked on down.

2 Hours later, we started back up the street and there were some people standing outside and the Police were putting up their Crime Scene Tape and this Officer was telling my brother that he had to move his family to the other side of the street that the side we were walking on was closed .. They had alreayd put up like a tarp covering the front of the Bistro and you couldnt really see a thing and before we crossed the street the Coroner rolls up in this big van that has Coroner written on the side of it .. Later on we found out that shortly after the lady walked inside there was someone who had broken in the back way and was waiting for her, stabbed her several times behind the cash register counter in the front and then shot her .. ..

The freaky thing to all of this is.. she was laying dead behind the counter when we walked by the 2nd time to go back to the hotel to get the wallet.. I noticed the oyster crackers on the floor and suggested that maybe she fell or the bag busted ...Pretty Interesting.. huh ?