Cumberland Gap, KY and Knoxville, TN -- Now With Pictures!

On Monday we spent the morning with DD, loaded up and drove through the Cumberland Gap where Daniel Boone blazed the trail so that the pioneers could move west.  It was beautiful with those little mountains on every side and lightening shades of blue in the distance.
Robert, the GPS, takes us right to the door of our destination.  I love it.  We drove around the city in a lot of  afternoon rush hour traffic to the motel and checked in, then went to the Cracker Barrel next door for supper.  DD recommended the chicken and dumplins; we both had them and they were pretty darned good.  Durwood turned in pretty early, like I said before driving's tiring, but I stayed up knitting and listening to an audiobook until nearly midnight.  (I keep looking at the time and then subtracting an hour to see what time it is at home and then living like that's the time -- what's up with that???)

Tuesday found us at the Visitor Center looking for driving tours of Civil War sites and there was an awesome trio singing in there.  Seems there's an indie radio station in the same space and they offer groups passing through an hour venue.  It's free to go and the group gets invaluable exposure as they go from here to there.  The one I heard was called Three Little Rules (I think, the paper I wrote it on is in the van) and are a daughter as the lead singer, Mom sings, Dad plays guitar and sings.  They were good.  Very good, nice harmonies, kind of folky, kind of country.  I need to look them up.  Anyway, I also asked for a restaurant recommendation for local food but I don't think the young woman got was I was saying as she sent us to a trendy bistro called Tupelo Honey that she said had great biscuits but Durwood wasn't interested, and neither was I really.  I'd love a great biscuit but we're more in the market for a place that looks like it's made out of reclaimed wood, truck parts, and has a hound dog sleeping in the gravel lot, so we just struck out for Fort Dickerson via Robert the GPS.  He got us there in good time,

we stopped for an Arby's sandwich (not exactly what I had in mind but oh well) and then went to the fort.  That wasn't what we thought it'd be either.  The fort had been an earthworks on a promontory overlooking the Tennessee River, not a wooden stockade, so it's pretty much eroded away, but there are still 3 cannon and there are markers where things were and signs describing what happened from where.  Interesting, and the weather was gorgeous--70s and sunny.

Next we headed to Volunteer Landing where the Federals had intercepted a message of an attack by fishing a note in a bottle out of the river (!!!) in time to forge and stretch a chain across the river to foil the Confederates.  We followed Robert's directions but didn't see a historic marker or site so we asked a young lady who sent us out and around and down to the riverbank (that took us 2 tries to manage) but we never did find it.  (turns out it's just a riverside park, no marker, no historic signs)  What we did find was a stone commemorating the house/birthplace of Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of The Secret Garden, my favorite book as a child.  It's free for Kindle so even if you don't have a Kindle you can download a Kindle Reader for your PC and then you can read this lovely book to yourself or a kid of your choice.

Then it was time to find a yarn shop.  I asked in a riverside restaurant for a phone book since Robert the GPS didn't know where one was but they didn't have a phone book in the restaurant because their phones only call out.  What????  So we went back to the Visitor Center and used their phone book and found one.  The drive there was an adventure since it was like Robert was braiding us -- "in 300 yds. take the left exit and then stay on the right; in 200 yds. exit right and then stay on the left...).  Each move one way was followed by one the opposite way, but soon enough we found loopville and there was yarn--and 2 couches of smiling knitting women.  I found the off-white superwash wool I wanted in the right weight and they were having a bag sale wherein the more skeins in the bag the higher the discount.  I found 10 skeins of nice wool & silk yarn in a charcoal which was 75% off.  Sold!

We stopped at Kroger for some coleslaw and macaroni salad, then came back to the room, in rush hour traffic of course, to heat up our leftover bbq ribs from Lexington to have with our salads for supper.  It was good.

Today we're off to Greenville, SC to visit with Durwood's brother RJ and his wife KM for a few days.  I hear tell there's a llama farm with a yarn shop nearby and there'll be a hot air balloon festival on Friday.  Should be fun.  Time for breakfast and packing.  Later, dudes and dudettes!
--Barbara