Day 111

A very comfortable, quiet nights rest at Wal Mart, Chattanooga.

We picked up Interstate 24, but only for a few miles, since we don’t like freeways, and love the back country roads.

We took TN 11 north, through Athens and Philadelphia (we do get around) and stopped for a tour of a dairy farm, and cheese making plant.

This farm had over 700 milk producing cows, lots of calves, and just a couple of bulls.

The cows are milked 3 times a day, round the clock, and produce on average 10 gallons of milk per day. They are kept in a huge air conditioned barn, with unlimited food and water, and it is interesting to note that there is a social pecking order between them. We also found it fascinating that when one cow peed, several others followed suit. Typical females, have to go to the bathroom together!!

The young girl who showed us round was extremely smart, knowledgeable and witty.

About 80 % of the milk produced goes for drinking, and the rest is processed into cheese.

They have a wonderful array of flavors, and we bought some special reserve, made in 2002. Excellent tasty!!

Afterwards, we looked and looked and looked for corn mazes, but could not find any that were open. We are sure that sis in North Carolina knows of hundreds locally to her, and will be delighted to show us some!!!

We then got to Pigeon Forge. This is the home of Dolly Parton and Dollywood.

To be polite, it was not to our taste. It was another mini Vegas, or a bigger version of Branson, a long strip full of all kinds of glitzy stuff, and rides for the kids.

Great if you have family and are easily entertained.

So, we didn’t stop, but went down the road to Gatlinburg, right on the edge of The Smokey Mountain National Park.

Marlipops liked this place, it was a street lined with a thousand little shops and stores.

We drove for a few miles up into the park, and the mountains, then turned round and came back. They were very pretty, and we could see the haze from which they get their name.

We left the area, and headed onto Interstate 40, through the mountains, and the tunnels,
leaving behind a most spectacular sunset, with the blues of the mountains being topped with clouds, which had gorgeous pinks and reds from the sun backlighting them. Unfortunately, we were on a part of the freeway which was wiggly wiggly and uppy downy, so we could not stop to take pix.

Tonight, we have once again landed at a Wal Mart, this time in Asheville, North Carolina.

Wildlife watch today was a gazillion cows, and one fat 16 year old pig..

Day 110

“Pardon Me Al, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo”

Or, “ Pardon me pal, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes”

Depends on the version you know.

Once again, guess where we are??

After a fitful nights sleep at the rest area, coz of the trucks going past at inconsiderate hours, we left this morning, turned west, since that was the way the freeway went, and descended a five mile mountain, turned round, and came back up the same mountain!

We got to Chattanooga an hour later than anticipated, because there was a time zone change, and we are now in central Atlantic Bermuda time, or something eastern.

We parked the coach at a brand new Wal Mart, right by exit 174 on Interstate 24, for those of you following on Google Earth.

Lookout Mountain pretty much contains all there is to do in Chattanooga, so to Lookout Mountain we went.

Half way up is the turn off to Ruby Falls.

This place was discovered in19 something. There was a known cave system in the mountain, which had to be blocked off when it was decided to run a railroad tunnel through part of the mountain. A local man, by the name of I can’t remember, thought it would be a good idea to excavate an elevator shaft from the top of the mountain down to the cave system, and open it up for the public. The distance needed to drill down was about 450 ft, but when they got 260 feet down, there was a rush of cold air and a new cavern system was discovered. The man whose name we cant remember, henceforth known as Mr. TM, ( That Man) crawled into a hole 2 ft by 4 ft, disappeared for 17 hours, and then reappeared screaming or shouting “we’ve won the lottery”, or something like that. It took another couple of years or so, and finally Ruby Falls was open to the public.

It is named after the wife of Mr. TM.

After descending the 260 ft in the elevator, you walk for “two fifths” of a mile, in very narrow, low ceilinged paths, basically in the limestone rock fault lines, and finally come to the falls.

They are quite spectacular.

A vast cavern opens up, and water falls from185 ft above into a pool, 5 ft deep. There are multi colored lights, and “dramatic” music piped in from above, and all around, but the effect is very good.

If you suffer from severe claustrophobia, don’t visit. Your valiant captain nearly succumbed to the dreaded enclosed feeling, but managed to hold on for Marlipop’s sake.

Afterwards, we exited, through a gift shop.

We then drove further up the mountain to Rock City.

We thought that Lookout Mountain only had these two places on it, but it is a very busy place, lots of private drives and houses, stores, post office and gas station. Very normal, but just high up.

Rock City is a place discovered by another Mr. TM, back in the mists of time. He wandered in one day, saw lots of big rocks all higgledy piggledy, and decided this would be a good place to make some money, so he called it Rock City, built a few bridges and walking paths, put a fence around it and started charging exorbitant amounts of cash for people to look at……………rocks.

However, there is a wonderful part called, with great originality, “Lovers Leap’, which has a really good panoramic view over seven states.

The truth is stretched a bit here, coz they reckon that Virginia is visible, 120 miles away. The basic laws of visual physics come into play here, and together with the curvature of the earth, the haze, and where the sun is, all make this a bit too much to believe.

Anyway, still a great view.

We then came down the mountain, and wandered into the downtown area, where we visited the “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, a real old time steam train, with it’s attached carriages.

Next door was the model train museum. HO gauge railway modeling at its best. We spent over an hour marveling at the skill and ingenuity of the people who put this display together.

The room was about 300 feet long, and the display was the full length, and at least 30 feet wide. There were literally hundreds of different individual scenes, and at any one time there were a minimum of seven trains running around the various tracks and circuits. Excellent.

Then back to Wal Mart and the coach, only to find we were surrounded by vehicles!

No way out! Gridlock!

There was a Tabernacle Festival going on right beside the coach, with tents and live music and tables full of grills and hot dogs and burgers and millions of kids running round. So, we sat in the coach, and decided to stay where we were for the night! That was a decision we did not have to take long over!!

So here we are, and off to all points east in the morrow.

(Karen, we are getting closer)

Wildlife watch today was some bored looking white deer in Rock City, and a Praying Mantis.

Day 109

It must be the air, or the position of the moon or something, coz today was yet another wonderfully fascinating day.

It started with 100% full marks to Marlipops.

After two days of stewing things over mentally, she said to me at 6 in the morning, “ We are not stupid. We can figure out, between us, what is wrong with the slide room not working. Let’s get out the wiring diagrams and see if we can fix it.”

So we did, and we did. Not rocket science, but with two logical minds working together, with no arguing, we finally pinned it down to one yellow wire not doing it’s job. So, we will now go to a Cummins dealer, at our convenience, and politely tell them to put permanent fittings on the temporary ones we installed this morning.

Then, we left Whispering Pines RV park, via a field. The road we should have taken out still had a tree in the way, and the other path was too tight for the coach, so across a field we went, towing the peril, right across a drainage culvert. I did not stop until I was way across the other side of the road, in hopped the ‘Pops and we was off!!

Don’t know if the culvert survived, and don’t really care!!

We headed through Clarksville, by road, not the last train, and didn’t see a single Monkee.

We came to a tiny little village with the interesting name of Bell Buckle. It was their annual summer fair/fete thingy, and the whole town was there, all 50 of them. They had a fantastic old ice cream parlor, which we duly helped financially, and some great antique shops as well.

Also, because they knew we were coming, they had very nicely arranged for Miss Tennessee 2007 to show up!! I asked her if she would like her picture taken with me, coz we had come all the way from England to see Bell Buckle and her. (See, the accent does help)

She told me she would be delighted to pose with me, provided I stopped telling such whopping lies!

Very pleasant young lady, with a great personality. She will go far.

After that, we left, and headed towards Nashville. We did not stop, but drove past The Grand Ole Opry, and we were impressed with the size and quality of the freeway. Six and seven lanes each way, very smooth, and I was cruising at a steady 65 all the way through. Then I slowed down when I saw the limit was 55.

The weather today has been gorgeous, mid seventies and bright blue sky. There were literally hundreds of motor bikes out, with people of all ages riding them. We reckon there was a rally on somewhere.

So, on through Shelbyville and past farm and ranch after farm and ranch, with tobacco fields, and Tennessee Walker Horses. Rolling downs, all neatly kept, and miles and miles of white fences.

We then got to the little town of Lynchburg.

This is where Jack Daniels Whiskey comes from.

We took the guided tour, and our tour guide, Paul, was an absolute star. A real down to earth Tennesseean, with a dour sense of humor, and a brilliant guide.

We each got a squirt of 140 proof whiskey, from a can that looked like a weed killer can, and it was strong!!

We have learned a new word.

Functionable. Paul used this a couple of times, we are sure he meant functional, but Functionable sounds a lot better.

The tour itself was highly educational, even though we have been to breweries and distilleries before. There are only 400 workers here, yet this whiskey gets to 140 countries around the world, as well as all over the states.

It was the first still registered in the US, in 1866, and you can buy a whole barrel, 24 cases total, plus the barrel, for around $ 9000.00.

It stayed alive during 28 years of prohibition, when cough syrup became increasingly popular, and the county the still is located in is actually a dry county!! The only place you can buy whiskey in this county is right there in the company store!!

We then wandered around the little burg of Lynchburg, which is basically JackDanielstown, but still very pleasant.

We then drove on, through Winchester, and have landed at a rest area on Interstate 24, about 50 miles west of Chattanooga, Tennessee, that of the choo choo fame.

The back roads of this state are wonderful. They twist and turn, we cannot go much above 35 mph, lots of hills and valleys, but so much more interesting to drive than the freeways. Not being on a schedule has its advantages.

Wildlife watch today was some emus, turkeys and a couple of stray dogs wandering the highways and byways.

Day 108

Another one of those days that you cannot plan for.

We left the campsite in the peril at around 9 of the clocking, and headed for The Trace. This is the road which runs north between two lakes, on what is known, surprisingly, as Land Between Lakes!!

The two lakes are Kentucky Lake, formed when Kentucky Dam was built across the Tennessee River, and Lake Barkley, formed when Barkley Dam was built across the Cumberland River. Land Between Lakes is a huge peninsular, which is a National Recreation Area, full of wildlife, campsites, boating ramps, and hiking trails.

We saw deer, tortoises, turkeys and bison this morning.

After crossing the Kentucky state line, we turned east on highway 68, went over Lake Barkley, and stopped at Golden Pond. This is a historic town, with a plaque and everything, but Marlipops wandered around the area and all she found was a dried up patch of land that could have been a pond at one time. Not a Fonda in sight!

On we went, towards Hopkinsville, and we were looking for a Post Office, so we turned down a side street to the “town” of Gracey. We got to the Post Office, which was one of about five buildings in the town, and as we pulled up, a woman came out of the front door, looked at us and said ”Are you looking for me?”

She was the only employee of the Post Office, and was just closing for lunch!! Fantastic!! A U.S. Post office closed at lunch time!!

Still, the woman opened up and served us, and also gave us some really helpful info.

She highly recommended we go to Cadiz.

So, we changed plans at the drop of a hat, as we do often, and went to Cadiz.

A really neat little town.

Every year they have a Hamfest, celebrating pigs and bacon and anything porky, and the town is festooned with concrete pigs, decorated in all kinds of fashion, similar to the cow parade of Houston, or the fishes of Anchorage.

There are lots of antique stores, and of course we spent ages looking round.

In one store, Loose Treasures, we had a great time with the owner. Her name is Cher, an ex hippy, who gave us all sorts of wonderful info about Cadiz. For example, the town is pronounced Kay Deez, not Ka Dizz. Interesting.

I found a working HO gauge model train, and Pullman cars, in the Baltimore and Ohio colors, and logo. ( see report from Branson) so I bought it. I have a train set in storage in Houston, thanks to Beff, and one day, when we finally settle down, I will build a layout.

We also added to our duck collection.

After we left Cadiz, we took the back roads, and as we came around one bend, we saw what we thought was a building on fire. So we stopped, thinking to call 911, and it turned out to be a tobacco smoking/curing barn.

The owner showed up, and told us that after the tobacco is harvested, it is hung on trolley things, and put in these barns, and smoked for up to two months. It is then graded into three different grades, pressed into 800 or 1000 pound boxes and shipped off for cigar making. The US Government is involved every step of the way

Interesting that the owner person is a non smoker.

We then moved on, again, and came to the national battlefield at Fort Donelson. This was a fort occupied by the Confederates at the start of the civil war, and was attacked by ironclad ships of the Union Army, led by U.S. Grant, and basically beat the crap out of the boats, but Grant pushed ahead with his troops on land, the confederate generals made some poor decisions, and lost the fort. Interesting to note that all captured officers were allowed to keep their guns!!

The rest is history, the Union won the war, after extra time!!

Back to the campsite for an early curry dinner.

Wildlife watch today was deer, turkeys, bison, tortoises, herons, and squirrels.

Day 107

Yes, we did it. We went to Graceland.

For those of you who have lived on a desert island for ever, this is where Elvis Presley lived, and died.

After a leisurely grocery shop around a near deserted Wal Mart (we found some great

$5.00 bargain movies) we were off.

The day started with Captain Skeptical going on about the crass greed of EPE ( Elvis Presley Enterprises) with their multi million dollar merchandizing of a dead man, and The Captain’s cynicism was compounded by such things as Elvis Monopoly, Elvis blend coffee, and Elvis Reese’s Peanut Butter candies. All the things for sale in the eight or nine gift shops seemed to be made in China.

We did the tour of Graceland, his mansion, which, as to be expected, has been preserved as it was at the time of his death, August 1977. Actually, the house was quite interesting, not as gaudy as we thought it was going to be.

The downstairs collection of his gold records was incredible as well as the hundreds of costumes he used for his live performances.

There was constant mention of his charity work, and one part of a wall is decorated with 40 checks, all for $1000.00, made out to 40 different charities. The interesting thing is they were all dated November 8^th, 1962. Quite a sum of money 45 years ago. Of course, the cynic in the group (me) asked if that was all he ever gave away.

Apparently, he gave away millions.

The tour finished, and we agreed it was very enlightening.

After a look at the gravesite, we were bussed back across Elvis Presley Blvd, to the “merchandizing” part.

We went into the automobile collection, which has some very expensive collectors items, such as a Dino Ferrari, a couple of Stutz’s, and his pink Cadillac.

The exit was through a gift shop.

There were two airplanes, named for Lisa Marie Presley and Priscilla Presley, which we looked at, quaint in their early seventies décor and phones, and the exit from them was ……………..through a gift shop.

While in the gift shops, I remarked on the total lack of Elvis music for sale, something I found quite ironic, as his career started with music.

Oh was I mistaken!!

They have a gift shop solely for his music and movies, so over the top it even had a live DJ sitting in a proper “studio”, outside, playing non stop Elvis all day.

I asked one of the workers if they had any Led Zepplin, or Beatles, and her look could have killed me!!

I asked another worker how long it took before they got completely fed up with non stop Elvis music, and the good reply was they tune it out!!

Despite my lack of Elvis appreciation, I have never been a fan, we had a good time and I would recommend the experience to others.

We left, and it had started raining, so we could not wait to get out of Memphis, at least the area we were in.

We hit the Interstate again, with all the trucks and headed east towards Nashville, where we will be hammered with another one of my “Music Least Likely To Buy” types, Country.

But, all is not bad news.

Marlipops, doing her world famous navigational chores, said “turn off at the next exit”, which was ½ mile ahead.

So, we turned left, headed north towards Kentucky, and are now encamped at Whispering Pines RV park. It has only 22 sites, and we are currently the only occupants. We are in The Land Between Lakes, on the Tennessee / Kentucky border. More on this area tomorrow.

We found an interesting beer variety pack today, by Flying Dog Brewery of Denver, Colorado.

The first I sank was Old Scratch Amber Lager, very good, and the second was Road Dog Scottish Porter, and the label goes on to say “Good People Drink Good Beer. No Sh*t”

This was also an excellent little ale as well.

Wildlife watch today zippo.

Day 106

“Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee”

Every time I hear of Memphis, the Chuck Berry song comes to mind, and it won’t go away!! (and, Marlipops knew Chuck Berry many moons ago.)

Guess where we are?

Before we left, I had to go and get my pontoon deposit back, and the miserable sod in charge made me go and fill up the gas tank of the pontoon before he would give me my money!

We left Table Rock Lake around 11 this morning and headed south, down highway 13 into Arkansas. Why is it pronounced “Arc in saw”? Beats the heck out of us.

Anyway, the road south was up and down, wiggly wiggly and very roller coasterish. Beautiful scenery, rolling, wooded hills, with magnificent views of the various fingers of the lake, but very slow going. We only averaged about 30 mph, and Marlipops was feeling a bit queasy coz of the ocean type motions.

So, finally onto the freeway, Interstate 40.

Wow.

A very well maintained road, smooth and flat.

This freeway runs from Los Angeles to Wilmington, North Carolina, a distance of about four million miles.

We counted the trucks and there were on average between five and seven big trucks for every other type of vehicle. It was just amazing, they come steaming past us as though we are standing still, and I have cruise control set on 63 mph!!

Every time a big old truck went past, I flashed my headlights to let the driver know when he was clear to cut in, and probably 50% of the time I got an acknowledgement. When I did, I gave a big wave, which after a while began to get on the Marl’s nerves……so I did it even more!!!!! Such simple pleasures keep a marriage bubbling!!

The farmland on either side of the freeway was a riot of different colors, shades of yellows, oranges, greens and reds. There were even some fall type leaf colors on some of the trees we passed.

Also, some of the fields were cut into some maze sort of shapes, with no apparent method or reason. Weird.

We crossed the Mississippi River in West Memphis, turned south on Interstate 55, and promptly got lost.

South Memphis in the dark is not the best place to be, but with Captain Super Cautious at the helm, and Marli Super Navigatorpops with the maps, we finally docked at Wal Mart parking lot, on Elvis Presley Blvd!

Yes, we are in Memphis, we are tourists, and we are going to Graceland tomorrow!!! There are no excuses, but when in Rome and all that……

I never even liked any of his songs!!!

Wildlife watch today was a yellow cropduster, spraying some fields, probably the wrong ones, some miniature goats, and the first turtle we’ve seen since we left Florida.

Day 105

Happy Birthday Jamie, our little Supergirl!!

What a complete contrast today was to yesterday.

Glorious sunshine, clear blue skies and a welcome breeze keeping us to a perfect mid 70’s temperature.

We started off with a mad dash at 8 of the clock to the town of Branson, to get to the Branson Scenic Railroad by 9. We made it, of course, with Captain Throwing Caution To The Wind in the driving department, and boarded the train. What a nostalgic experience, especially for Marlipops.

There were two diesel engines and both were built for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one in 1951, and one in 1964.

This is very significant, as I will explain to my non American readers.

Marlipops’ Dad worked for many, many years for B&O Railroad, in charge of all the passenger travel. So, memories galore for the Marl, since the coaches we were in today were all old, original, restored from the 40’s and 50’s, and The Marl used to travel all over the place with her dad and the rest of her family. Apparently they used to sleep in the berths, and Melinda used to throw up a lot. The rest rooms as well as all the coaches we saw today were identical to those that Marlipops remembers, and she had a moment or two, with flashbacks.

Quite emotional.

The ride we took was a 40 mile there and back, through a couple of tunnels trip, and there was even a scenic coach, with the bubble roof so we could see ahead and behind, over the top of the other coaches. I was tempted to climb out of the window and walk along the tops, but I was not allowed.

Then, into Branson.

A pleasant little town with a Las Vegas problem.

There is a Strip, with mile after mile of clubs, and theatres and show places and food places and churches. It is a mini Vegas, without the casinos. Great for families and elderly people who like crowds and organized fun and that kind of stuff.

There was a wonderful little old fashioned candy store, with all the sweets in glass jars, and stuff like sweet cigarettes, even with the red tips, and candy lipsticks, liquorice pinwheels, and all sorts of old time candies. They even had some tiny beer bottles above the counter, which were the size of liquor miniatures. Never seen those before.

Enough said, we had lunch. Well, Marlipops had soup and a salad, I had some indescribable meat plastered with salty barbecue sauce, and fries. To make matters worse, the smiley, smarmy waitress kept asking if everything was alright, and the answer of

“ Extremely average” went straight over her head.

Anyway, we left the café and found “Dick’s Old Time 5 & 10” right next door.

We could have stayed in here all day. This was an old fashioned 5 and dime store, which was humungous. It went back and back and back, and had everything imaginable. Marbles, Pick up Stix, Plasticine, Etch a Sketch, Mr. Beard ( You remember, the face and iron filings and a hand held magnetic wand you drew a beard with the filings!!)

They had literally millions of things, that you could not find anywhere else. They even had those little cardboard dolls that you cut out the clothes for, and hung on the dolls with two little tabs. Absolutely fascinating. We bought some Pick Up Stix and some Tiddly Winks. This place was 100% nostalgia, and packed with people.

We left Branson, and went back to the coach, quickly got changed and went 100 yards to the lake, and rented a pontoon boat.

We piddled about on Table Rock Lake for a couple of hours, really cool, coz not many other boats about, a freshish breeze blowing, and sunbathing weather.

We were about to report a zippo wildlife watch but the following occurred.

Next door neighbor camper type person came out to feed the gooses, and seven ducks waddled up from the lake, and were fed as well. Then, a flock of twenty six Canada Gooses turned up to be fed, one of them chased off the ducks, and in turn, one of the gooses chased off all the Canada gooses!

Was very interesting to watch.

A really great, great day today.

Day 104

Have you ever had one of those days that just gets away from you?

We have, and it was today!!

After taking, or trying to take, pix of some lovely Red Headed Woodypeckers, we got stuck into some serious paperwork, bills and boring stuff, as it was raining all day, and while the Marlipops was doing all that, I attempted to fix the slide out room.

It has not worked since we were in Sioux Falls, when Cummins was messing around with relays and other ‘lectric stuff. So, off to the store to buy a replacement relay, and the nearest auto parts store was 10 miles away.

So, $ 3.00 later, I’m back, with a new relay. Of course, it didn’t work, coz while taking off the old one, I found some loose wires.

I needed a clip thingy, and of all the spares and bits and gadgets we carry, there is not a clip thingy.

So, back to the clip thingy store and another $ 3.00 later I’m back, again.

Change the clip thingy, change some wiring, pull and tug to check everything is secure and tight and all that good stuff. (My old physics teacher and headmaster, Jack Finney, during his gin sodden classes, would always insist that all connections must be tight. He was always tight, so I do remember something from school.)

Anyway, I digress.

So, with everything ready I yelled to the ‘Pops, “ Go”

Nothing happened. I rechecked everything, fuses, breakers, battery connections. Absolutely nothing.

So we have a slide out room that doesn’t.

Still, it’s better than having the room stuck in the out position.

We can live in slightly cramped conditions, just makes us be closer to each other!!

Did you get the seeds, Helen P?

Marlipops made the most gorgeous kebabs, from chicken and bacon wrapped shrimps and veggies, and I cooked ‘em on the Barbie, during a rainstorm. It was worth it, coz they were brill, served with wild rice. (If you had been thrown into boiling water, you’d be wild too!!)

We had an E mail from some woman in Montana, with a name I got from the local paper up there months ago, asking me to take her name off the blog.

I think if a name appears in a newspaper, then I should be allowed to use it as well.

Wildlife watch today was the gooses again, some Canada gooses, they were twice the price, some red headed woodypeckers and some as yet unidentified blue birds.