Beautiful Eastern Tennessee, Yes Even in Late Fall

Hickory King. Ever heard of it? It was the name of a variety of corn developed in the mid-1800s used in the southern mountains of the United States. This was the preferred corn grown in the Smokey Mountains. Families would grow a few acres or up to 20 acres in the low fertile valleys. They would protect the corn crops by a zigzag fencing using native timber. On the eastern side of the Smokey, just a few miles outside the Cherokee Indian Reservation is a splendid farm maintained by the park service. The house is original and the other farm buildings were either restored or moved in to represent the typical small family ranch of the area.

John Davis spent two years building this house near Deep Creek North Carolina. It was completed about 1900. A careful study of the logs which constructed the house, Davis split Chestnut logs in half along their length and “matched” the halves on matching positions on opposite walls.

Barns are of a different construction than we have seen elsewhere in our travels. The hay is stored up, wagons are riden and stored through the center and sides of the structures. The design is quite efficient with the least amount of timber exposed on the exterior weather. Quite ingenious.

Here are some other photos from the west side of the national park, including some very historic church buildings from pre-civil war times and cemetery gravestones.

Two sisters, through the good graces of their well-to-do father, lived in this home. They were both school teachers

Grist Mill powered by a local stream. Popular thought would suggest backward mountain people of the Appalachia in the 1800s, but to the contrary, the settlers were quite progressive and many traded widely and they were devoutly religious.

Beautiful rivers abound through the park. Although it had recently snowed here, it didn't slow down the outdoor recreational enthusiasts.

Notice two doors on the front of the church building. Building plans were used and not altered from previous colonial churches which required separate entrances for men and women who sat on opposite sides of the sanctuary. This congregation co-mingled, yet the plans were not altered. Each church had its own cemetery, the gravestones telling of life's sorrows and faith's hope in the epitaphs.

North Carolina Militia, Revolutionary War Veteran!

Amateur carving of natural gravestone rock

Dad enjoyed each church we visited and he was also quite impressed by the early gravestones found. Churches were critical to the life of the community. We visited three in all, the later was a break away from the Primitive Baptist, which did not believe in mission work, thus the Missionary Baptist Church.

Gatlinburg Tennessee was a nice, active, tourist-oriented town full of shops, restaurants and motels. The authentic art produced by regional artists are concentrated about three miles outside of town, due to the pricey costs of downtown, and it was a real treat to find shops full of locally made items; this being a rarity in this day and age of Made in China. Even the local deer are homegrown!

We did experience some wildlife on our tour. Deer were abundant and we found the bird feeding on red berries, the color of its head.

After spending a few days in the Smokey Mountains my dad, Floyd, my wife, Louise, and I headed east toward Cape Hatteras and Rondanthe on the outer banks of Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island. Our first stop was Ashville and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
One last picture of the house built by John Oliver around 1820. I love this place imagining how it would have been to live there.

Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Beyond

Did I mention that when we were in the Kansas City area my dad, Floyd, fell ill. He was admitted to the hospital in Independence with pneumonia. He was release nine days later needing oxygen at least for a week or week and a half. Before he was released Louise and I discussed what our options were - go back to Denver and hunker down for the winter (probably renting a small apartment and storing the trailer), or, shortening our trip by heading due south to the gulf coast of Texas and then go back to Denver when it warmed up, or, continue our planned trip. Well, we decided to hang around Kansas City and give a few days for dad to strengthen first. If he had marked improvement we would then continue on. Fortunate for all concerned, he improved quite rapidly and a doctor follow-up gave him a clean bill of health! So, off we ventured, destination Branson, Missouri. I have never been there, heard about it (from friends and wife, Louise) and I wanted to experience it myself. Branson is located in the west part of the Ozark Moutains, riddled with streams, occasional lakes and lots of hills, and more hills.

Artisan etching wine goblets at Silver Dollar City, Missouri

We stayed at the Pea Patch RV, a smaller RV park maybe 500 feet of the main street. Branson boast over 50 entertainment shows every day of the week. We selected two shows, one staring mimics of great, Elvis, Tammy Wynett, and Garth Brooks. The other show was put on by a family of four, all very talented in dance, song and general audience allure. We also spent a day at Silver Dollar City, shopped, ate and took in an old time bar musical.

We were told that this is the second largest skillet in the United States

I lucked out gaining this photo first try. When one of the roller coaster-type ride takes off, a gas explosion comes out of the stack. The first time you experience it, the blast startles you!

Pea Patch was run by a very warm and inviting couple, who, for the most part prepared a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings and pie, for RV park guests. It was one of the more unique Thanksgiving weekends we all had individually experienced. And for you travelers, off-season has it's advantages economically, with the nightly fee reduced at least $15 off the in-season price. Show discounts also seem to be steeply reduced. For some reason I didn't take pictures of the town. I intended to, particularly one scene, the reenactment of the famous King Kong movie scene; a building with miniature skyscrapers and the monster size gorilla, King Kong, holding the bi-wing plane while hanging onto the top of one of the skyscrapers. I even saw life reindeer out in front of the Titanic museum, built as a scale-down front half of the famous ill-fated cruise liner. For Sunday church, Louise and I went to a Cowboy Church on the main drag. Dad decided to rest. We were treated to more country cowboy music with a mix of Christian teaching.

Well after a few days of all that excitement, we head east, stopping at West Plains, Missouri one night. West Plains and the Richards family has a short history together, very short. About 28 years ago, Louise and I and our fourth child, Kristin, traveled to West Plains with interest in the possibility of moving into the area. I had had a job interview set up with a pastor of one of their churches. He was looking for a youth pastor, part-time. When we were there we also looking into the possibility of purchasing a Christian bookstore. Fortunately, our hearts and minds led us to decide we were not going to move our young family of four children to Missouri. Well, we said our "goodbyes" to West Plains and proceeded south east to Memphis, Tennessee. This was a large metro area that we could dispense with the oxygen tanks and the oxygen concentrator that dad had, but was no longer using.

On our way to Memphis we enter Arkansas and we were delighted by being greeted by Mammoth Spring, Arkansas; the "instant" river flows at a rate of over 9 million gallons per hour.

As soon as we could drop of the equipment, we headed out of the city, electing not to stay and see Elvis's estate. What we soon experienced, that took us through the entire length of Tennessee and most of North Carolina, were scenic settings, wood, farms, cute properties and estates of every shape and size. We stopped at one town, Hardy, to look at some of its antique shops, get a bite to eat and have my dad get a hair cut at an old timers barber shop. We happened upon the Shiloh National Military Park, just outside of Shiloh, Tennessee and even the National Bird Dog Museum. There seems to be a museum for just about everything.

We also visited the Tennessee River Museum that spoke to its history with native tribes, tribal mounds in the area, its commerce and also the use of it during the Civil War. As we traveled to eastern Tennessee, we enter the Blue Ridge Mountain (for a few days), then proceeded to Asheville, North Carolina, the southern portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains Parkway and visited the Eastern Tennessee Craft Guild museum and shop. Well, I skipped over a bunch and now it is time to show the pictures with short titles. I hope you gain the flavor of the experience...

The old timers barber shop where Floyd got a much needed hair cut. The men enjoyed being photographed!

In the same town of Hardy, each store we visited we heard of the delicious homemade soup down at the store. The proprietors set up a table and chairs for us, so we could "eat in." Clearly, this was small town hospitality, and yes, the soup was good too!

This panoramic shot deserves to be expanded. Right click and open it in a new window and then left click on the picture.

Civil War Battle Scene, Cemetery and Museum - Shiloh National Military Park
A solemn place, a place to reflect. The tall grave stones are known and named soldiers, the short ones are unknown and only cataloged by number. Many a brave soldier fallen, but not forgotten.

Next posting will bring us to Gatlinburg and the Great Smokey Mountains. I think you will enjoy the pictures I took of the many historic buildings in the park and the beautiful sights we experienced. No wonder it is such a well traveler park.
The Korean War Vet, Floyd, giving honor at the site of battle

World War I Memorial Museum

Answer to the question in the preceding blog: Smokey Mountains National Park. Over two million visitor come and enjoy its beauty each year. Many folk ride the Blue Ridge Moutain Parkway to get down the the Smokeys, a road that spans close to 500 miles and has a total of zero traffic signals. I will do a future blog concerning our time there, but first I need to do more catch up on our travels, so stay tuned.

Panoramic view of downtown Kansas City from the World War I Memorial Museum

My former work with the State of Colorado allowed me to travel to conferences and meeting a couple of times a year. I would suppose that in my tenure with the State I traveled to Washington D.C. eight times. Most of those times, after the conference and before the later plane departure I would try to pick up one Smithsonian Museum. That way I could cover many over a longer period of time.

Well, what I saw in Kansas City, Missouri rivals the Smithsonian. The City boasts the only World War I memorial museum in the country. World War I was the war that my paternal grandfather fought in as a private. He was stationed in France.

Estimates are that there were a total of 65 million soldiers, 9 million military deaths and a total of 35 million casualties overall involving 36 countries. The United States sent two million soldiers and suffered around 116,000 dead. And yet, this is mostly a forgotten war since WWII overshadowed it in scope and bloodshed.
One museum employee told me that WWII is really just part two of the Great War, as it was known.

I wanted to attend this museum to educate myself and to more fully understand what brought about the conflict and what the aftermath did to lead up to WWII. Their displays, explanations of the history of the war were very interesting. I realized that I need to read a lot more about this conflict to help me understand the underpinnings of WWII.

This was a war of the trenches. Many a soldier on both sides of the conflict died of disease and the elements. I know little of my own grandfather's role in this conflict. I suspect he, as a private, served his time in the trenches, but during times away from the frontline he visited various sites in the french Alps and Paris. I know this from some postcards and souvenirs held in family trust that I got a chance to review and photograph earlier in the season.

Someone viewing tiles of veterans fallen.

There was a room set aside toward the end of the museum self-tour for those who wanted to study more of the history of this terrible war. Perhaps it also allowed a time for reflection...

A picture of my grandpa, taken in France. He served with the 8th Infantry, 8th Division. Through some internet search just this evening I discovered that by the time the 8th was trained and deployed to France, the war was over! He was one of the lucky ones. The picture was taken in 1918. His unit was disbanded in 1919.

I like this picture also taken at the museum when I was at the top of the tower looking down over 250 feet. You can tell it is Autumn by the leaves in the pool of water.

My next blog entry will take us from Kansas City heading further into Missouri and Tennessee to National Military Park at the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War.

If you would like to personally communicate with me shoot me an email at 2horsesoutback@gmail.com and feel free to share the blogspot with others if you find it to be interesting. Until next time...