kissalostsoul

Yesterday we were all packed up, dumped, and on the road out of Defeated Creek COE park by nine in the morning.  It was a 158 mile drive through the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains to get just north of Knoxville.  Lots of ups and downs in this state of Tennessee!  One portion of I-40 was rough enough to pop the clock I have attached to a cabinet with super Velcro right off of the wall.  I’m getting kind of used to crashing sounds as I drive in this state.  This one really gave me a start though as it came crashing down on the dashboard and bounced around a bit.  Oh well, that happened just about the time I passed into the Eastern Time Zone, so I would have had to take it down anyway to change the time. About four hours later, I arrived at Raccoon Valley.  This is an Escapees Park which means you have to be a member of Escapees to stay here.  Since I’m a lifetime member, that wasn’t a problem.  The park looked pretty full, however, as...

Tried to post this last night and this morning, but no luck.  Remember that little cottage that I took a photo of yesterday with the Wedding Ring Quilt displayed on its side?  Well I returned there today since it was supposed to be open for Hand Crafted Items and Gifts.  Now granted, I’m not the shopping type, but I just had a feeling about this place located way off the beaten path in the hills surrounding the Cumberland River of Tennessee.  I was not disappointed.  It turned out to be a little gem for me. Of course, there was a welcoming committee.  Can you believe the tail on that peacock?  Sure wish he would have lifted it up for me, but apparently there were no hens around.  I later found out the girls are probably already setting on eggs.  It takes one of them to appear for the males to get all excited at this time of the year.  The two Guinea Fowl just didn’t elicit the same response.      ...

Ha Ha!  Lest you think I suddenly decided to take up the fine art of sewing, let me assure you that I have not.  Instead, Emma and I went off on a quilting party more geared to my interests and abilities.  In Tennessee there are sixteen counties where the Upper Cumberland Quilt Trail can be found.  I decided to make a road trip through two of those counties today looking for quilts.  “These painted replicas  reflect treasured family heirlooms that were originally constructed from scraps of excess fabric and made into useful, meaningful quilts.  The Upper Cumberland Quilt Trail honors local quilters – both past and present – who have contributed to this emerging cultural collection of original artwork.” I must admit that it wasn’t easy finding these quilts.  I had addresses for some, and others I tried to find using the not exactly specific maps I had of Jackson and Smith counties.  Most all were on back ...

The other day, Emma and I visited the Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Site in Pall Mall, TN.  I’m sure most of us have seen the movie “Sergeant York” starring Gary Cooper that was made in 1940.  Turns out I even recorded it over the Memorial Day Weekend, so I’m about half way through watching it again.  Of course, it’s a Hollywood dramatization of a real hero’s life. Never having been here before, I of course did the tour out of order of the way it is supposed to be done.  This is where you should start.  This building is the original Alvin C. York and Sons General Merchandise store that was also the Wolf River Post Office at one time.  If you stop here first, I would recommend the video narrated by Walter Cronkite.  It is well worth watching to get your mind straight on the life of Sgt. York.  (I’ll include a mini-biography at the end of this post for those that are interested) Across the street from the Mercantile is the home that th...

When I set things up here after arriving at Defeated Creek COE campground,yesterday, I also put out one of the Hard Rock Bird Café feeders.  It wasn’t long before a couple of tufted titmice came to visit.  It always surprises me that in some locations it only takes a little time for avian visitors to appear.  All of the numerous pictures tonight were taken from my rocker in between rain storms. The reason there are so many pictures is part of my battle that I’ve been going through with Sprint.  In my last post I mentioned that I had cancelled that air card service.  I found their customer service profoundly lacking.  So this morning I headed out to Lebanon, TN, and signed up for Verizon.  These pictures are part of a four pronged test of their coverage. When I got back to the rig, I immediately set up the laptop, and quickly had two bars of service on the air card.  I checked my email from the last few days, and then went to ch...

(This post should have published on Sunday evening.) I headed out for Defeated Creek COE campground today in the early afternoon.  It was a rather slow but smooth ride there. The pull through site is not exactly level, but there’s lots of room and as soon as I put the DISH on the pedestal, I had both satellites honed in without even having to make an adjustment.  That’s a first for me! It’s not a waterfront site, but this is my view from my rocker until someone moves into the site on the left of the picture.  With the Old Farts Pass, it’s another spot for $9/night for 50 amps and water.  I moved here hoping to improve my internet coverage.  Sorry to say, it’s still on roaming and Sprint has totally cut me off from roaming. I called my son, Daniel, tonight since the air card account is in his name to tell him I was fed up with being denied access.  I was unable to publish last night’s post, and had no access to internet at all today because Sprin...