Another day in heaven

Wednesday was another sunny and warm day and we were going to Johnson City. I had found on the internet an opened museum with several buildings dated from the Civil war. This was the home of Landon Carter Haynes.

Since our departure from the North, it was the first time that we took the truck without having our house hitched!

We left at around 09:15. On our way I saw a sign for David Crocket’s birthplace park. We just had to go and investigate what this was about.

There was a small museum dedicated to his life. I don’t think that they had anything on display that belonged to him but they had displayed items that were from that époque.

I didn’t know much about him, In my childhood, I only read some cartoons where he was the character. Did you know that he was a congressman at some point. He died in Texas at the Alamo battle.

After this short un-planned side trip, we continued. It was close to noon and before the next visite, we decided that lunch would be our next stop.

I saw a place called Sonic, it is a drive-in, you park the car, choose what you want on the menu and then you press a button to order. I chose a Fried Chicken burger with fries and Christiane got chicken popcorn with taters. It’s great to know what you want but… it is not easy to order with the music blasting out of the speakers while trying to order using the intercom. Because of the southern accent, I couldn’t understand one word that the waitress was telling me, but I ordered any way.  

You have to pay right there and then, so I used my credit card… Oh no, they asked for my zip code! I don’t have a zip code, so I pressed the button again and the same lady/same accent answered asking me if I wanted anything else (I assumed that is what she asked me)…  I explained to her (trying not to cry haha) what my problem was but then I saw on the display “Approved”… I am not sure if it was the waitress' intervention or something else but I told her thank you and waited anxiously for the food to arrive.

I didn’t know if any of what I ordered would arrived as ordered but, miracle… everything showed up!!!

By 13:00 we were at the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site. What really got me thinking was a small documentary about slave. One of the slaves who was working on this farm was the son of the owner.  –Just as a side note, being Canadian we know about slave in the US, but personally I didn’t know much until I saw the TV series “Root” when I was a young adult. I have no idea how people could deal with knowing that one of the slaves was their own son or daughter… just can’t imagine that. What I learned was tha those slaves were assets, and as such, could be used as collateral against debt!  Can you imagine using your own child as collateral? I am not judging, this was another time and other ways… it just keeps me thinking.

There was also a cave you could visit. I was surprised that we could go explore it by ourselves, they even provide you with a flashlight to go in.

Dangerous, blood hungry, cave man!

At the entrance, you could feel the colder air. The caves were justa couple of chambers but I found it interesting. Because of the camera’s flash, on the pictures, you would not guess it but it was dark even with some “windows”.

Gentle cavemaker (she was not good at it, there was dust on the walls!) 

Sorry have to go...

Total distance: 206 km (123 mi)

 

Thursday was another sunny and warm day (I know I repeat myself but it is just the way it is :-) )

In the morning, we cooked our spaghetti sauce. See it is not all vacation, it’s a lifestyle!

I decided that I had to get rid of several dead bodies… The front end of the trailer was a “crime scene”. I got the ladder out, the soap and proceeded with hiding the evidences! I started with a shirt but it was sooo hot (the weather not the guy haha) that I removed it.

W-o-r-k-i-n-g

I also did a quick cleaning of the bikes, oiled the chains and inflated the tires. Since the bikes were no longer on the bike rack… we had to go and do some exploring in the vicinity. If you asked my wife, we were going up and down the whole time. I think that there was a little hill at one point… all in the eyes of the be-holder folks!

 

 

We didn't see any Walmart nor McDonald's, but I wouldn’t expect to find those in a town of about 500 people. Baileyton is really small, but it has a pizzeria, a post office a school and several churches and gas stations. It is out in the middle of nowhere but it is really serene. We are surround by mountains and we can hear birds singing the day away…

While riding the bikes, everyone we saw driving by, would wave at us… really friendly. I think that back home we get waved at as well but with only one finger up… it doesn’t take much more effort to have all fingers up at the same time, no?

We even got homework... tonight we should be skyping with the girl for 20 minutes :-).

 

After a hard day work, it is important to relax.

Extreme reading!

Total distance - Truck 0 KM (0 mile) - Bike 15 KM (9 miles)