Visiting Family in Tennessee

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We left from Virginia after I got home from work on Wednesday. Like last year, we hoped to get away early, but didn’t. Add to that some strong winds that were gusty and we did not travel as far as we hoped. But one of the biggest drawbacks was our reliance on technology.

For Christmas, I bought Trish the Microsoft Streets and Map software for the laptop. We had used the software a long time ago to plan trips, but this updated version had GPS built in. I had worked hard the previous trip to Gordonsville to master the software, and after reading directions and creating a cheat sheet on “how to” felt under control. To get to Tennessee, the program sent us down I-95 to Richmond and west on I-64. Not the best way. I tried changing preferences. Next it sent us NORTH almost to Manassas before routing us south. Again, I’m smarter than that. So I put in an intermediate stop on Route 3 (the way I really wanted to go) and the route was perfect, or so I thought. Trish was driving and I faithfully followed the GPS directions and the next thing we knew, we were on a back road that was narrow, winding and very slow. So much for being smarter than the program. After losing over 40 minutes, we finally got on I-64 and over to I-81. I shut down the computer and navigated the old fashioned, way, good old common sense and map reading.

After spending the night in a very noisy Wal-Mart in Salem, VA, we were up early the next morning and drove to Fairfield Glade, TN. We stayed at the same campground we had before, Spring Lake RV Resort and had a lovely spot. We set up camp, showered, and rested before calling Trish’s brother to come pick us up. We got to Dick and Pat’s house and relaxed until Pat got home. Then we had a delicious meal of hamburger on the grill, potato salad, coleslaw and beans. Dick and Pat had tickets for us to all go to the Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville to see the musical Shenandoah. Trish and I had seen the show in 1976 as a Broadway road show with a touring cast. The cast was small then and all professionals. This was community theater and we were thrilled to see it again. The cast was wonderful, the director used a full cast of women and children and the music was well done. But what caught us by surprise was the emotion we felt in seeing the story of a farmer in the valley who wanted no part of the war, kept his family out of it, and ended up being consumed by the forces that enveloped the nation in the years of the Civil War. By the end of the show, we had tears running down our cheeks. Maybe it comes from living in the middle of four of the worst battles of the war: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse. Maybe it comes from having walked the battlefield at Gettysburg with a retired Army Colonel who made the battle come alive. Maybe it is all the reading of the war we have done. Or perhaps it is the feeling of the departed spirits we have all around us. But this time we felt the impact of the emotion and the internal conflict the people felt back then more than we ever thought possible.

Friday we spent time with Dick and Pat and enjoyed catching up on family news, discussing family history, and just relaxing. That evening we were going to dinner (our treat) and went to Cumberland Falls State Park. This was a park created during the Depression (the previous one) and the lodge/dining hall offers a marvelous buffet each night. Friday the specialty was fried cat fish. How sweet and tender! We sat overlooking the small lake and stone bridge and after the main course sampled the famous banana pudding and chocolate cakes. After a marvelous two days, we had to leave Saturday morning and head south. We said good night and early the next morning struck camp, cleaned up, and headed south. We chose to avoid the interstate as long as possible so went south from Crossville on SR 28 all the way to Jasper, and I-24. The trip down the valley was beautiful with high bluffs of granite on one side and rounded hills on the other. How we wished our friend Carol Gatzke had been with us; whenever we traveled with her in the past, we always learned the geological history of the area.

After thumping along on I-59 through Georgia (about 12 miles) and into Alabama, we decided to get off the road and take state routes again. Bad choice. The Alabama interstate from the GA line south is worse than any Pennsylvania turnpike segment. If you have never driven in PA, that is a horrible insult to AL. The seams on bridges were thumps, the concrete segments not well connected, and pot holes in concrete patched with asphalt do NOT stay patched. As bad as all this was, the state roads were worse. They were narrow, had no berm, dropped off to the side, and were twisty. We took an extra hour and a half to cover what should have been an easy trip. Eventually we reached our destination, the Deer Run campground north of Troy, AL.

The next day we would head to Florida and our goal for the first week, camping at Mexico Beach.

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Photos

Spring Lake-1
Our campsite at Spring Lake RV Resort (formerly Roam and Roost), Crossville, TN

Spring Lake-2
View of new campsites on small lake

Dick mowing lawn
Brother Richard is mowing the lawn on his riding mower.

Dick and Pat
Trish's brother, Richard and sister-in-law, Pat in front of their home. Both seem to be in good health and we enjoyed sharing food and the theater with them.