We have been blessed weather-wise. Friday we decided to play tennis instead of riding our bikes or walking. Perhaps we should say we played "AT" tennis. We didn't keep score, just tried to get the ball back across the net and somewhere close to each other. It's a good thing all 4 courts were empty, as we played across 3 of them-just started up wherever the last missed ball landed. We did manage one long volley of 6! We were glad no one was around to capture award winning "Funniest Home Video" clips. After 30 minutes of our version of tennis, we decided to toss the Frisbee. We are much better with the Frisbee than with our tennis rackets.
We went for an hour long dinghy ride back to the entrance of First Creek then down to the boat launch. Mary made a batch of white chicken chili, John drove to the store, and we decided to leave for home Saturday, to give us time to drive more of the Natchez Trace.
We had a difficult time getting to Meriwether Lewis' grave site. He died in a small inn near here (depression is nefarious) and was buried in this small pioneer cemetery. The reason we couldn't drive directly to the site is:
This craft fair is an annual event. The small building in the picture is a replica of the stand (inn) as it would have appeared when Lewis stayed there. We saw 4 Tennessee State Troopers directing traffic, 4 National Park Rangers supervising handicap parking, 2 rangers guarding another driveway, and 2 rangers in the vendor area. There was no indication where the grave was, except signs at roads that were blocked. We drove around once, then stopped to ask a ranger guarding the handicap lot if there was any way we could pay our respects to Lewis. He was so delighted that there was someone visiting who was actually interested in history that he stepped back and indicated we should drive right in past him and take a short walk to the little cemetery.
This little lady is too used to people. She stood as we passed her, backed up to take her picture, rolled down the window-the i-pod was playing-took off the lens cover and aimed the camera. She only moved back about 4 steps when the camera clicked.
The Birdsong Hollow bridge, completed in 1994, received the Presidential Award for Design Excellence. We usually plan a fall color tour-New England, the Blue Ridge Parkway-but we're enjoying this one, even though unplanned!
A small home seen from the Trace. Mary won the "Zip" game here, although the horses do not appear in this picture.
We took 3 days to get home. We could have been here Sunday, but John didn't want to arrive at 9:00 pm to a cold house and go down in the crawlspace to turn the water on. We arrived Monday a little after noon, after stopping in Alma to choose new glasses for John, who has an eye exam scheduled during this sojourn. John shopped for a few groceries-there's not much food in our house- and picked up the mail from Jo, while Mary took care of things we don't need anymore on the trip and started laundry. It only took a couple of hours to sort the mail-most of it we didn't need to pay any attention to. A couple of items made us smile-a birthday gift for Mary from her friend Jo in California and thank you notes from our niece Amber for her birthday and Christmas gifts. Our lawn service arrived while John was out and he stopped to talk to the woman who was weed whipping the ditch. Something about her seemed familiar-sure enough, Rose was a year book editor for Mary in her early teaching days way back at Sacred Heart. Rose is retired and now works with her husband in their business. Mary and Rose had a great catching-up visit and John arranged for leaf pick-up and eaves trough cleaning. He had planned to do those chores himself, but it's early in the leaf fall and would have to be done again later, so it's a relief to know that Chris will take care of it.
Tuesday we got much-needed haircuts and had a good visit with Orval, who has been cutting our hair for 34 years. Mary bought a furnace filter and a few more groceries, while John picked up a prescription, bought an ink cartridge for the home printer, and located a new battery for the dive computer. We can't wait to return to the relaxed pace of boating!
You were so near here and didn't stop.
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