expedition56

Tennessee – Monday, May 20

I had stayed at the same place in the Knoxville area for the last couple of nights, and I was listening to the news on TV one of the nights (in an effort to not be totally ignorant of what is going on in the world – but I think that effort is only semi-successful!), and there was a plea for help for the Mobile Meals programs for the senior citizens in the Knoxville area. I went to their website and read a bit about them. Over 60% of their clients are in their 80s, and they also have many people who are in their 90s! There are other requirements the people must meet to be eligible for the program, but the bottom line is that it helps many of these people stay in their own homes longer, where they’re the most comfortable. And it gives them a dose of daily human contact too, which is helpful. (When my aunt in South Dakota fell and broke her hip last November, it was a Meals on Wheels person who found her). So I have always liked the meal programs for the older generation, and I was happy to mail them my donation-of-the-day.

Today is my last day in Tennessee, so I packed up and headed north out of Knoxville. Since I had done a little extra walking both Saturday and Sunday, I only needed about 5 1/2 miles to finish off my 56 miles in Tennessee. And I drove up to the Norris Dam State Park to do my walking. There was a big reservoir and I drove across the dam itself – water was only trickling out of the reservoir today. There were several school groups on field trips, but the park was big and I barely saw them. I walked across the dam first, then walked on the pretty 2 mile Songbird Trail down along the river itself. It was very peaceful and shady. There were numerous signs warning if the sirens go off to seek higher ground – I’m guessing that happens when they release a bunch of water. And then the sirens did go off a couple times, but people seemed to ignore it. I asked one local couple about it, and they just said the sirens might have been some sort of signal if some fishing boats were getting a little too close, and nothing seemed to happen. Then I crossed back over the dam, and found the 3.2 mile River Bluff Trail. That was a trail with a lot of climbing up and down hills – I could see the river part of the time, and then the trail moved up into the mountains. Everything was green and leafy and I saw some strange looking colorful caterpillar-type things, and it was a pretty trail to hike to finish off my Tennessee walking.

So, with my walking all done, and all 7 donations given (Chattanooga Community Kitchen, Graceworks, Support our Troops Foundation, Nashville Rescue Mission, Smoky Mt National Park, Bridgemont Camp, and Mobile Meals), I was ready to get in the van and drive out of Tennessee, and into State #34. I’ve been to all the eastern states now, and was using the state of Tennessee as my “gateway” state to the midwest and beyond. At this point in time, Ohio is now the easternmost state to tackle, so I pointed the van north, drove out of Tennessee, through Kentucky, and stopped right at the Kentucky/Ohio border so I can begin State #34 first thing in the morning!

Tennessee – Sunday, May 19

Knoxville isn’t too far away from the northern entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so I headed in that direction, knowing I would also be making a couple stops along the way. The first place I stopped, which is sort of unavoidable when entering the Smokies from the north side was Pigeon Forge. I’m not sure why I wanted to stop there, but it was one of the most awful, commercial places I’ve seen! Although I’m sure if I was a kid, it would have seemed like some sort of magical place. I think it exists only to grab money money from people, especially families with kids, with the inevitable Putt-Putt Golf! Go-Karts! Arcades! Indoor Skydiving! Jungle Rides (indoors?)! Laser Games! Souvenirs! T-shirts! Ice Cream! Merry-Go-Round! etc etc. Some of the touristy towns at least have some kind of charm or character, but not Pigeon Forge. Tula and I walked for nearly 2 miles, but that was enough.

A few miles down the road we came to Gatlinburg, another toursity town, but this one had some old-style charm and was very enjoyable to walk all around. And it is right at the entrance of the national park, so its backdrop was the green mountains, which helped make it pretty. We walked over 3 miles here, and I enjoyed it much more than Pigeon Forge!

Then I drove into the national park and stopped by the visitor center. I showed my picture of yesterday’s snake to one of the rangers, and he identified it as a rat snake – they get up to 6 feet long, and are very, very harmless, but he agreed they can be a fright to stumble across! The 2 kinds of poisonous snakes in the area (copperheads and rattlesnakes) are very elusive, and that made me feel better. The Smoky Mountains are full of bears – I think they said there’s an average of 2 bears per square mile, and I’m guessing that’s the reason dogs are only allowed on one trail in the park. But that’s the trail we took and enjoyed a pretty 4 mile round-trip walk along a stream. And the trail was wide enough that I didn’t worry about hidden snakes, so I felt better about being in the woods than I did yesterday! I will indeed continue to walk in the woods – for now! I also have new admiration for the Civilian Conservation Corps from the 1930s. Not only did it provide jobs for thousands of people back then, but lots of the buildings and trails in the national parks, and campgrounds and roads were built because of them, and we continue to enjoy the results of their efforts to this day.

It was a pretty cloudy day, but when we were done with that hike, I wanted to drive through the park to the North Carolina border anyway, up to Newfound Gap. It took about a 1/2 hour to drive up there, going up the mountains most of the time. I encountered a bit of fog, and at one overlook, I was able to look down on a big cloud that had settled in the valley. It was really pretty to see it from above. I kept going, and was either driving through light fog or a cloud, and although visibility was reduced a little, it wasn’t too thick. I got to Newfound Gap at the TN/NC border where there was a big parking lot. I wandered around the area a little, and it was pretty, even in the fog. I just couldn’t really see any mountains! But I did notice a sign with a bear on it, explaining a bit about the park, and directing people to a donation box. There are no entry fees to get into the Smoky Mt National Park, and it’s one of the most visited national parks in the country. I decided to make a donation there – there was something very appealing about putting a donation into a box outdoors, high up in the mountains, in the fog, where it was still pretty despite the lack of a view. I didn’t figure I’d be in those kinds of circumstances again. So I wrote a note and a check and dropped it into the box, and poof! the fog began to lift! Within about 10 minutes, I could see the Smokies and get some pictures – to compare with the ones I took in the fog. Talk about coincidental timing! I was happy to be able to see the view, and then I also noticed the Appalachian Trail passed right through the parking lot, so I walked a little of it in both directions. It was early evening, and the trail was steep and muddy, so I didn’t walk on much of it, but it was fun to at least walk a little in both directions. I must say I wouldn’t want to be camping on a damp night near a muddy trail!

After I had my fill of the view, I drove back down the mountains to the Visitor Center and left the park. I thought I might just have enough daylight to go find a summer camp that Linda had told me about. It wasn’t too far away, but the miles take a little longer to drive in the mountains. The camp she told me about was called Bridgemont, and her kids attended for several summers, and Jim also helped them with some electrical work. They used to bring in some inner city children to the camp for a week at a time, and that’s what I wanted to support. I have fond memories of summer camps – both as a camper, and as a counselor. I had a little trouble finding the camp – it was in a remote area, and when I drove down the street it should have been on, at first I didn’t see anything that looked like a summer camp. I saw cars, and buildings and homes with lights, and it looked like it was all private property, and I certainly didn’t want to park in someone’s yard on a Sunday evening! I turned around and drove by again, and still didn’t see anything that looked like a summer camp. I almost left the area, but I didn’t want to give up that easily, so I thought I’d drive past one more time (a little worried about people wondering why I was driving back and forth!). It was getting kind of dark, but on my 3rd pass through, I saw a small sign that said Bridgemont, only a foot or so off the ground. It was by a parking area with quite a few cars, so I decided to pull in, and get a picture of the sign if nothing else. It looked like there was a small stream or river and I was going to look at that, and that’s when I met up with Stacy, who runs the camp with her husband Dwight. They live there year-round now. I explained why I was there on a Sunday evening, and she showed me all around. It’s not a big camp as far as acreage, but they can accommodate a lot of people in several tidy large cabins with lots of bunk beds, and separate areas in the back of the cabins for leaders or counselors. There’s also s big lodge (a men’s Bible study group was meeting there, which was why there were a bunch of cars) with a kitchen area, and there’s a swinging bridge over the stream to access a pool and a nature area. The swinging bridge is in the process of being replaced. Stacy told me they loved having the inner city kids out, but they tend to stick to programs closer to their homes now, and now Bridgemont frequently has mission groups stay in the cabins, and Stacy finds local people/programs that need help, and she matches up the mission groups with the people who need the kind of help they can offer. And they still have their regular summer camp programs too. In the future they would like to build an arts and crafts center and bring in local artists to teach the campers about their crafts. Lots of people, and lots of plans! It was fun to see the camp, and it brought back a lot of good memories. So I made a donation – $56 won’t go far for a camp, but like Stacy said, every bit helps! I couldn’t get too many pictures because it was dark by this time.

It was a very full, good day, and I absorbed it all while driving back to the motel.

Tennessee – Saturday, May 18

After homemade pecan waffles, it was time to pack up again. I checked my computer once more and it seems to be working wonderfully. I knew I didn’t have time to head any further west in Tennessee, because I wanted to make sure I had a chance to see some of the Smoky Mountains. But I couldn’t leave Nashville without seeing the Grand Old Opry House! Despite the fact that it was on the other side of town, Linda was game to drive out there too and walk around a bit more. I followed her out there, and it took quite a while and I began to wonder where exactly we were going, but Nashville is simply a really big city!

We pulled into the Opryland area and it was very crowded. Gone are my days of easily getting in and out of different places during the off-season. Like everyone else, I’ll now be dealing with crowds and heat! We stopped to take a look at the General Jackson, a big paddlewheel boat that still takes people on excursions up and down the river. They were getting ready for a trip this afternoon. Then we drove over near the Opry House. We couldn’t go inside, but we could walk around the grounds, and look at all the country music artists pictured on the front. When Linda’s boys were growing up, there used to be an amusement park here also, but that has been torn down and replaced by the giant Opry Mills Mall. We decided to go walk a lap around the mall, so I left Tula in the car with the a/c, and we went and walked around the whole thing, and then we got a gyros sandwich and some baklava for lunch. From there we wandered back over by the Grand Old Opry House and I popped into the gift store for a quick look around. Then we got Tula out for a few minutes, and decided to go see a couple of the conservatories that are part of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel complex. This area reminds me just a little of Las Vegas, since there’s a big glitzy show place right next to a hotel complex that is so big people must get lost in there all the time! The conservatories were spectacular – trees, ferns, flowers, formal gardens and even a big pond with a boat that took people for rides. And yet it was all indoors – kind of hard to believe. I think there are 4 conservatories and we walked around 2 of them. The Meharry Medical School was having their graduation there, which was part of the reason for the crowds – lots of proud and happy new young doctors and their families all dressed up for the special occasion. Between the mall, the Grand Old Opry grounds and the conservatories, we walked almost 5 miles.

Then it was time to part ways – 2 old school friends had an awesome 4 days together and it will be a very special part of my adventure. Thanks again for making the Tennessee leg of my journey so wonderful, Linda!! Linda ended up walking nearly 26 miles with me – 9 of them in the rain! I’ve been very spoiled these last couple of weeks, having my sister Christy walk with me in the Virgin Islands, and now Linda walking with me in Tennessee!

Then I headed east. I didn’t get very far when I saw signs for the Cedars of Lebanon State Park, and I decided to stop there for a little outdoor walking. I ended up choosing the 5 mile trail since I had enough time for that. So Tula and I set off – it was a bit muddy from all the recent rain, and although it started out as kind of a wide trail, it soon narrowed down so it was little more than a footpath. But, mud and all, I decided to continue on – it was a pretty afternoon. We had to detour around quite a few huge puddles, but I could tell some people had been ahead of me. There were lots of sinkholes in the area with little fences around them – they looked like bottomless pits – it’s pretty amazing to look down into them. Things were fine up until about 4 miles into the walk, when I nearly stepped on a huge bluish, black snake right by the edge of the path. Tula had already walked by it, so it was now between me and Tula on the leash. I must have screeched or something because Tula turned around and was going to come back, but I didn’t want her walking past the snake again. I have no idea what I did to get around it – jumped, circled, ran around it?!? I don’t know, but if someone had had a video camera, I’m sure it would have been funny to watch. But it scared me – it was so long. I got to a safe distance so I could get a picture because I wanted a ranger to identify it for me. I was worried about it being a poisonous snake. I worried about snakes until I was back in the parking lot, and I was sure there were others waiting to sneak up on me! I told myself I was never going to walk in the woods again (that didn’t last though!). I think what scares me the most about snakes is being startled by them – some of them move so fast. I know they’re there – I just wish I knew when I could expect to see one, then they wouldn’t scare me so much!

I was very, very happy to get back into the car, and felt good about walking almost 10 miles today. I drove to the west side of Knoxville, where I stopped for the night, ready to see the Smokies tomorrow.

I didn’t run across any good donation opportunities today – weekends can be a bit more challenging. But I would run across 2 tomorrow, so I’m still on track!

Tennessee – Friday, May 17

We were out of the house early today, after taking some pictures, so that we could enjoy breakfast at the yummy Loveless Cafe before Jim headed to work. Their son Chris joined us too. They make huge scrumptious breakfasts, and diners can go see the biscuit lady at work. (And there’s homemade jam to go with the homemade biscuits!) This place is worth driving a little out of the way for a good meal, and I’m happy to have had the chance to eat there.

It was turning into a drizzly gray morning, but Linda and I decided to head back to Graceworks to get some photos since I totally forgot to when we were there on Wednesday. We also shopped in their thrift store for Abercrombie and Fitch clothes – after hearing the horrible remarks that the CEO of A&F made about marketing their clothes to only the “cool” people, and not making ladies’ sizes in L or XL because he thought those sizes were too big and unattractive for his brand, someone on Facebook had mentioned buying A&F clothes to give to homeless people and shelters so they can be “cool” too. So, with the help of one of the workers, who liked what we were doing, we found 4 pieces of A&F clothing, and I will find a good place to donate it. And I hope Abercrombie and Fitch rethinks their marketing strategy – not that I shop there anyway. Then we stopped by the Veteran’s Cemetery where Linda’s mom was laid to rest in January, and of course I had good memories of her from my childhood. We walked nearly a mile and a half around the cemetery, under a light drizzle, but we had umbrellas so we stayed dry. There were a lot of workers out getting everything spruced up for Memorial Day, and we asked one them how big the place was. He said there are about 11,000 people buried there, and they were getting ready to place flags on each and every marker. That would be a sight to see – I’m hoping to visit another veterans cemetery right around Memorial Day so I can see what it all looks like. Our walking there made up for the shortfall on Wednesday.

I was thinking I’d be heading out of Nashville today, and we headed back to Linda’s house where I got all packed up. Our plans were to go to Warner Parks to walk a 3 mile trail before I headed out of town. But my computer was still plugged in and doing some auto updates and stuff that neither of us recognized, and her son Christopher suggested I give it enough time to make sure everything is updated and re-loaded and working properly before I leave. He would be back again to check it later. So we took Tula out to walk the trail in the park, and we somehow managed to get a little lost, and our walk turned into 7 1/2 wet miles! And yes, we had a map – an embarrassing turn of events for 2 former Camp Fire Girls – ha! We had our umbrellas though, and Tula never minds getting wet, and it can be fun to walk in the rain when there’s no thunder and lightening. Combined with our earlier walk in the veteran’s cemetery, we walked nearly 9 miles today – all of it with umbrellas in drizzle and rain. Linda now holds the record for the most miles walked with me in the rain – a record that no one will be in any hurry to break, I’m sure! At this point I knew I wouldn’t be leaving Nashville today, so the Compson’s were stuck with me for another night!

I didn’t do a donation today since I did 2 of them yesterday.

By then it was late afternoon, and we headed back to the Yazoo Brewery to meet up with Jim and Chris and sample another beer, and then we went back to Linda’s house for dinner. We went and picked up her dad, who owned the Bay’s English Muffin bakery in Detroit back when they were in Michigan, and it was fun to hear a few stories about those times. Bay’s English Muffins are my favorite to this day! And my computer seems to be working like a charm – new hard drive, new software and he even got some dog hair out of it! Thanks again, Christopher!

Tennessee – Thursday, May 16

This morning Linda and I started off the day by walking nearly 3 1/2 miles all her pretty neighborhood. They had a bad flood a couple years ago and she pointed out some of the high water marks – it’s hard to believe the quantity of water that must have fallen to reach some of the places that got flooded.

Then we left Tula in the comfort of a cool house while we headed to downtown Nashville. We stàrted by walking down “lower Broad” – Music Row – and seeing all the old neon signs, music stores, Elvis statues, bars, BBQ joints and lots of people wearing cowboy boots! The street was lively even on a weekday morning. We walked past the Ryman, which is “the mother church of country music”. Although a lot of the big country music shows take place at The Grand Ole Opryhouse, the Ryman is still used a great deal. We continued our walk along the river, passing an old wood fort that is under renovation and walking on part of the Cumberland River Greenway.

As we were walking back, we passed a big “Support our Troops” display table, with various things for sale to support the troops, and a donation box with quite a few donations already in it. One of the things I had been thinking about doing today was taking care of my military donation at the USO which was at the Nashville airport (nowhere near us). But this was a very nice Nashville-based organization, so I made my donation to them instead. It was an unexpected find, and those are always fun to run across. And then, there was another new donation opportunity which I had never seen before. Linda had pointed out several old parking meters which were painted blue and set off the street. Those meters were used to collect money for the homeless – an organization called The Key Alliance collects the money and uses it to link homeless people to organizations which can help them. I hadn’t seen anything like the before, and we had to go find a bank so I couple get a roll of quarters – I was going to use the extra $8 from friends’ contributions to put some quarters in those meters!

Then we thought about getting lunch, but first we stopped by to make the donation I’d really been planning on all along today. That donation was going to the Nashville Rescue Mission, an organization for the homeless that Linda told me about, and she and her husband also make a monthly contribution to them. We found the place, and went inside to find the person who handled donations. Despite making donations and dropping off clothing for the thrift store, Linda had never been inside the rescue mission. We were taken upstairs and I gave them my donation, and they also recognized Linda’s name from her contributions. They asked if we wanted a tour if the place and when we said yes, they found us a person who took us on a tour that lasted more than an hour! We were both surprised at how big the place was, and how extensive their programs are. It’s a huge place, and they can accommodate several hundred men on a nightly basis (the women’s shelter is in a different part of town). They never turn anyone away – if the beds are full, they simply bring cots into a large empty room where they can accommodate even more people. There are numerous dorm areas – some for new people to use while they figure out their plans for the future; others for older/disabled men who can’t manage bunk beds; others for men who are working and getting back on their feet etc. The sheets and blankets are washed daily and set out on the beds every afternoon. There’s a thrift store for clothing, and counselors and business people to offer guidance on getting their lives back on track. They have a huge wall of photos of people who have successfully moved on to self-sustaining lives. The rescue mission cooks and serves 3 meals a day, and a lot of local food businesses are generous about giving them food. The kitche. Smelled good! There are rules and requirements for all the people who stay – and the biggest one is that everyone attends chapel every night at 7pm. They cannot spend the night if they do not attend chapel. It was a very informative tour, and we never expected someone to take so much time to show us around!

It was getting late in the afternoon and we had missed lunch, so we decided to just grab a quick snack wrap at McDonalds, and continue on – and go out to dinner instead of lunch. We headed to Centennial Park so I could see the full-size replica of the Parthenon. This was not something I expected to see in Nashville! It was set in a beautiful park with trails around some ponds, and we finished off our 8 miles of walking for the day.

Then we went back to Linda’s house to let Tula out, then headed to the Yazoo Brewery where her husband Jim looks after all the software programming for the local brewery. I got a little tour – so many shiny vats of beer in various stages of production! We sampled a couple different kinds – the brewery is only open for limited hours so it doesn’t compete with the business that sell its brew, and it seems to be a very popular place when it is open. Then we all headed to Rotier’s for dinner – where we originally were going to eat lunch, and got stuffed with burgers, sweet potato fries and milkshakes! A good way to end a day that was packed full!

Tennessee – Wednesday, May 15

I stayed in Murfreesboro last night because I wanted to get a little walking in at the Stones River National Battlefield. It was close to where I stayed, so I stopped at the visitor center, and got a map and set off on the 2 1/2 mile loop trail. The ranger suggested sticking to the paved path instead of the dirt path due to recent rains, and that was fine with me. This was a smaller battlefield than some of them, but it made for a nice walk on a warm morning – except for all the mosquitoes! I’ve been lucky – this is the first time mosquitoes have been a problem. They were out for blood, and they got mine! There were a few memorial plaques at the park, and one honored the soldiers from Michigan.

Then I drove to Franklin, where my old friend Linda and I had agreed to meet at a grocery store. Linda and I met when we were 9 years old in 4th grade, and were best pals all through school until her family moved away to Florida when we were in 11th grade. But we stayed in touch over the many years, and have seen each other once in a while, although it had been a really long time since we last together. My donation today was going to Graceworks Ministries in Franklin, which runs several different programs, and the one I was going to shop for was the Fuel Bag Program. This program benefits school children who get food assistance during the week at school, but may not have enough to eat during the weekend, so every Friday the teachers discreetly put a bag of food into the backpacks of the kids who need a little help. There are 550 students who get these “fuel bags” every Friday, and they are always in need of individual serving type snacks. I had called in the morning to make sure the critically-needed list on their website was current, and it was, and that’s what I was going to shop for, and Linda met up with me at the store. The years fell away, and we quickly fell back into our old friendship, and Linda decided to match me item for item with my food donation, so the Fuel Bag program is got double what they were expecting! We shopped with their wish list and ended up with tuna and chicken salad packs with crackers, raisins, fruit snacks, pudding cups, applesauce, Jif To Go (individual peanut butter containers), peanut butter crackers, vienna sausages and granola bars.

Then we drove over to Graceworks and dropped off the food. This is the first time someone has shopped with me and matched my donation 🙂 They were happy to get the food, and it was just kind of surprising that in what appears to be a relatively affluent area, there are still 550 students who need some extra food for the weekend so they can eat. One just never can predict where families are struggling. By then Linda and I were hungry, so we got some salads for a late lunch, then went to the town of Franklin to do some walking. Franklin was a fun town for walking, and we covered 4 miles all through the town and out into a couple of the adjoining neighborhoods. Then we stopped for frozen yogurt.

It was getting to be early evening, so it was time to head north to Nashville, where Jim and Linda live, and I was going to be staying with them for a couple days. On the way back, we got on the Natchez Trace, which I had first encountered in Mississippi – everything is so beautiful and green. It makes me want to drive the whole thing from end to end! There was a spectacular bridge along the trace, which was partially designed by one of Linda’s former Florida classmates. Once we got to their house, Linda showed me around, and also showed me the professional-looking home brewery that Jim has in the basement – it’s quite a set-up! Linda had made a chicken casserole ahead of time (the sort of thing I never get on the road – yum!) and we enjoyed a home brew while we waited for her sister and dad to arrive – it had literally been 40 years since I had last seen them! That hardly seems possible! It was fun to reminisce a bit.

It was kind of late when everyone was gone, and I was going to do a little computer work before turning in. When I turned my computer on, I got a pop-up message telling me (again) that it was time to renew my Norton Anti-Virus program, and I made a comment about that to Linda. Apparently “Norton Anti-Virus” is a dirty word in their household, and their son Christopher, who is a wonderful computer genius, came out to tell me that there were better anti-virus programs. He then sat down to look at my computer which has been very sluggish lately, and there were also the major problems in the Pacific territories, and dozens of pop-ups show up all the time, and it needed some major TLC. Christopher told me he could install a new hard drive (one with no moving parts, which means nothing to me, but is apparently the way to go), clean up bad files and other problems, install a Microsoft version of anti-virus, and he ultimately installed Windows 7 instead of Windows Vista which I had. He told me he could take care of those problems, and get my laptop running the way it should – all for a very reasonable price. I took him up on it! Most computer talk goes right over my head, and it was no different now, but it’s nice to be able to trust someone to do what was necessary for the laptop to get it running efficiently again.

Tennessee – Tuesday, May 14

I finished the drive through Georgia, and entered Tennessee by way of Chattanooga, and I hit the ground running! I had already done my homework, and had read about Chattanooga’s big soup kitchen, which was called The Community Kitchen. I had talked to someone there this morning, and had already shopped for items on their wish list. Since they’re a big organization, they asked for the big #10 size cans of baked beans and vegetables, and big sizes of oatmeal and grits since one or the other is served every morning. And that’s what I had shopped for. I found the place pretty easily, and a pleasant young man helped me carry in the bags of food. The Chattanooga Community Kitchen first opened as a feeding program in 1982, and over time has grown to cover a city block offering other services for needy people, such as showers, laundry facilities, clothes, and help in trying to move forward. The volunteers at the community kitchen provide 3 meals a day, every day of the week, 365 days a year, and their mission is “to work to lessen the struggle and despair of the homeless and needy without expectation of recompense, but out of love and compassion for human kind.”

The soup kitchen was only a couple blocks away from the Chattanooga Veteran’s Cemetery, so after I made my donation, I started my Tennessee walking there in the shade of trees. There were lots of workers out – I imagine they’re sprucing the place up for Memorial Day remembrances.

Then I drove to Chattanooga’s riverfront, where we got out for more walking. There was a nice riverfront walkway, but it wasn’t real long, so we continued on the sidewalks, and found a long pedestrian-only bridge across the Tennessee River, into the north shore part of town, where there were more parks to walk in. The Delta Queen riverboat was tied up at one of the docks and is now a hotel, and they let visitors on board in some of the front rooms. Between the riverfront walk, the pedestrian bridge, and the parks on the north side of the river, I was nearly able to finish off my walking for the day. It was a pretty city for walking since both sides of the river had good things to see.

Then I wanted to figure out what the Chattanooga Choo-Choo was. It seems to be a historic train station and hotel complex, with old train cars parked on the tracks behind the hotel, and it looked like some of them might have been converted to hotel rooms. Chattanooga has some interesting hotel options with the Delta Queen River Boat hotel and Chattanooga Choo-hoo hotel! I wandered around that train complex a bit and finished my walking.

On the way out of town, I stopped at Hillbilly Willy’s to get a BBQ pork sandwich. And I talked with my old childhood friend Linda, who lives in Nashville, and we made arrangements for meeting up tomorrow. Then I headed out of Chattanooga and admired all the green mountains and bluffs as I drove toward Murfreesboro, where I stopped for the night.

Saturday, May 11 – Monday, May 13

I had to say good-bye to Christy and the US Virgin Islands early Saturday morning, and start making my way back to the mainland. I turned in the rental car – relieved that the week of driving on the wrong side of the road was finished without incident. After driving for a week in Puerto Rico with signs all in Spanish, and then driving for a week on the wrong side of the road in the Virgin Islands, I think I’m done with driving in “foreign” places!

Christy’s flight was more than 3 hours after mine, and I had dropped her off early back at the beach – she wanted to enjoy her last few hours there. Later she told me she walked another 8 miles on the beach and took a final dip in the ocean, so she ended up walking 64 miles – more than I’ve ever done in a state/territory!

The first leg of my return took me back to San Juan where I had a long layover, but I had a good book, and since I seldom have time to read, I didn’t mind the layover. Then a flight to Miami and then back to Gainesville, where Toni picked me up, and then I was reunited with Tula.

Tula’s doing well – due to unexpected travel plans, both Toni’s dog and Tula had to be in the kennel for the first 10 days while I was gone, and Toni noticed some blood in Tula’s urine after picking them up, so she had to deal with a vet visit, which indicated a bladder infection, plus they took an X-ray to make sure if wasn’t more serious. So she’s been on antibiotics, and is doing well, and was a happy puppy to have me back!

Mother’s Day was wonderful. Toni took me to the Flying Biscuit for a yummy brunch, then we went and got pedicures courtesy of Taryn, and then we went and watched the new Great Gatsby movie and ate lots of popcorn. Fun day! And good timing to be with one of the kiddos on Mother’s Day – it just worked out well!

On Monday morning, I had a dentist appointment scheduled for a cleaning, but that had to be canceled, so I will have to make another appointment elsewhere. I finished laundry, reorganized the van, did some computer work, walked both dogs, and caught up with a few other details. And I got my new camera! When Toni had a break in her schedule, we went out for an early dinner to celebrate her 28th birthday a couple days ahead of time.

Then I hit the road to continue my journey. Tennessee is going to be State #33. All of the eastern seaboard states are done, and Tennessee will be my “gateway” state to the midwest. But I had to drive through Georgia to get there, and I made it to the north side of Atlanta before stopping for the night. The Tennessee border wasn’t far away!

Virgin Islands – Friday, May 10

With all my donations for the Virgin Islands done, today was a sailing and snorkeling play day – a treat from my sister as thanks for giving her a place to stay for a week! We didn’t have to be at the marina on the east side of the island til 9:45, so Christy and I got up early and drove down to the Magens Bay Beach so we could get some walking in – we knew we’d be too busy snorkeling to do any walking on the beaches we’d be near today. So we walked 4 miles back and forth – barefoot along the pretty beach. There was a cute little rowboat we saw last time down here called No Mo Trouble, and I wanted a picture of it that time, but the glare of the sun was so strong, it was hard to see what I was trying to take a picture of and all I got was sand. So I tried to take a picture this morning, and once again, my camera didn’t work. Chris and I decided I’m just not supposed to get a picture of that boat – because it’s taking all potential future troubles of my trip and storing them in the spirit of the boat, and I can’t get a picture of that! Logical early morning reasoning! It was quiet in the early morning, although we weren’t the only ones down there. Some families with babies were down there – avoiding the heat of the day.

Then we drove over to Red Hook again, and to my surprise, my camera started working again. We ran across a Kitten Kabana in the parking lot, and Chris fed those cats too – yes, she had cans of cat food in the car! Our sailboat was called New Horizons, and Chris guessed it was about a 50 footer. There were 20-25 people on it for today, and although the boat used a motor to get out of the harbor, she hoisted her sails when we were on the open ocean, and we sailed for about an hour over to a cove off St. John Island. The day couldn’t have been prettier – a lovely way to end our stay in the Virgin Islands. Chris and I were up near the bow enjoying the breeze and the sails, and they brought everyone juice and muffins and started passing out snorkeling gear.

Our first stop was at Honeymoon Beach (and there was a couple on their honeymoon on board), and most of us got in the water quickly – we had an hour to swim around there. We hadn’t been in the water more than 5 minutes when Chris already spotted a nurse shark (the captain said they were around and that they were harmless) and a barracuda. We followed the nurse shark for a bit – it was swimming near the bottom, and then looked at the barracuda who was hanging out near the boat. I didn’t have my underwater camera this time because of the probable little leak problem (but I took it out in the next bay). Then we headed for the rocks by the shore and spent time swimming along all of those – admiring tons of colorful fish and lots of different kinds of coral.

The time went fast and we made our way back to the boat where they had a big lunch set up – big meatballs in tomato sauce covered with tons of cheese, pasta salad, green bean salad, sliced fruit and veggies and brownies. The sun was really really hot on the water, and people either stayed under the awning or kept covered up with towels and all. When lunch was over, one sail was raised (the other couldn’t be because of the awning) and we sailed over to another beach area. As we were getting close to where they were going to anchor, we began to see lots of stingrays flapping their way along the bottom. The water is so clear we could see down a long ways. As we anchored, a big puffer fish appeared, and there was another barracuda hovering around. They actually anchored a little too close to another yacht, so we lost some snorkeling time as they re-anchored. But we got in the water as fast as we could, and I took my camera with me this time, and headed over to the rocks to see the fish. I didn’t see any sting rays once I was actually in the water, but I got good close-up looks at the puffer fish and some other weird looking fish and the barracuda, who had fierce-looking teeth! It seemed like we had no sooner gotten in the water than they were calling us in – the time just goes so fast! There’s a whole new world to see under the water!

Christy and I loved our day out on the boat – it’s so peaceful to be out in the wind and waves, and it was a special part of my journey to have her around for a whole week – we don’t usually get a lot of time together. Someone took a picture of us up by the bow at the end of the day, and that was the last the camera worked – it needs some repairs. Luckily I had ordered a new camera to arrive at Toni’s apartment by the time I’m back there.

Once we were back in the harbor, we drove back to the Magens Bay Beach to walk 4 more miles – I leave bright and early in the morning, and this was our last chance to finish up the walking. And we did! We actually bumped into a couple people we had been sitting near on the sailing trip, and they couldn’t believe we had walked 4 miles both before the trip, and then again afterwards! But we finished the 56 miles!

Since it was Friday night, we had made reservations at the Hook, Line and Sinker restaurant for our farewell dinner, which was my Mom’s treat – a day full of treats for me 🙂 We made our way over there, and were seated once again by the big windows that opened up to the marina. But they had to be closed soon because a ferocious thunderstorm came through, with lots of lightening and a torrential downpour. No one was able to go anywhere for a while. But we enjoyed a wonderful meal along with the storm – glad we weren’t out in it, and glad it hadn’t stormed like that during the day. When we were done eating, it began to let up, and we wondered about all the boats in the marina that now had a lot of water in them, and sure enough, we saw one guy arrive and start to bail out his boat.

Then it was time to head back and start packing up. Christy now has the record for most miles walked with me (all 56 – yay!) and we did all 7 donations – the Animal Care Center on St. John, the Women’s Coalition on St. Croix, the Bethlehem House and the Soup Kitchen that are part of the Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, the St. Thomas Reformed Church, and the American Legion. I’ve been spoiled having Taryn and Jared around for a week in Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, and having that overlap with Christy’s time here – a good chunk of family time!

Virgin Islands – Thursday, May 9

Christy and I decided to do a little driving tour this morning, partly to check on the possibility of another snorkeling outing. It seemed we had to go to a big Marriott resort on the south side of the island to look into different excursions. It was a rainy morning, and it took us a little longer to get there than we thought – the southeast side of St. Thomas is also very steep, and the roads are narrow and curvy. I’m feeling comfortable driving on the left side of the road now – although the one thing that still seems confusing is that roundabouts go the opposite direction of what I’m used to, and fortunately there aren’t too many of those. We finally got to the Marriott resort, and it’s on such a steep hillside that there’s an elevator for guests to take to the pool! We found the person in charge of activities and boat excursions, and ended up getting on a sailing/snorkeling trip for tomorrow. We were happy things hadn’t worked out for today since the weather wasn’t very nice.

As long as we had come this far around the island, we decided to go back to Red Hook on the east side since we hadn’t had time to walk around there on Monday. Some of the brochures say that Charlotte Amalie is the only town on the island, but Red Hook seems to be a decent size town too. We did a couple miles of walking, but the town just wasn’t big enough to have sidewalks going very far, and we walked on everything we could. None of the streets in the interior of the island through the mountains are suitable for walking since there’s no shoulder and they’re narrow anyway – it just wouldn’t be safe. But at least there is a long stretch of good walking in Charlotte Amalie, and we got a few miles in Red Hook to add a little variety. I’ve done repetitive walking on all the island territories! We stopped in a few cafes trying to find a place with wi-fi service, and those seem to be few and far between on the island. A couple days ago, I had used my computer back on Magen’s Bay, but it was using someone else’s “hot spot” from their phone. The resort does not have wi-fi. And the few cafes around here that sometimes have it didn’t seem to be working today because of all the recent rain. But at least the rain seemed to be over for now! So, since I need wi-fi service to be able to add photos to my blog posts, that’s where I fell way behind on those, and I’m now working to catch up!

We shopped around a bit in Red Hook and Chris found some good things, then we stopped for a quick bite to eat. There’s a pretty good size high school here, and the kids were getting out as we were doing a little more walking. Like the students on Puerto Rico, the kids all wear uniforms here too – maroon and pink plaid skirts and pink shirts for the girls, and maroon pants and pink shirts for all the guys. It seemed like kind of a strange color choice for everyone. A bunch of the kids walked over to the ferry terminal – there must not be a high school on St. John (which is 2/3 national park land anyway) so they must have to ride the ferry every day instead of taking a bus.

We headed back to Charlotte Amalie, and browsed through the blue-covered tourist tents again, and a couple other stores – Christy was on a quest to find Bob Marley t-shirts for a couple of her boys, and hit the jackpot at the last store. We walked back to the Catholic Charities place to get some pictures since my camera hadn’t been working that day, and ran into Mick the director again. So we chatted a bit more – he had liked my story and had told his wife, who is a free-lance writer, and she wrote about it in the on-line newspaper for St. Thomas and St. Croix. Then we continued our walking some more by the ocean, and went back to the marina to look at all the boats again. There are iguanas all over the place, and only once were we startled by one – the tail sort of looks like a snake. We walked all the way down to the Pueblo supermarket, where Chris bought some cat food for the resort cats. As we walked several miles back to the car, I was once again struck by her walking in flip-flops (wearing the broken ones again!) and we thought how the store employees would think she’s crazy for buying cat food and walking for miles with it, especially since there were lots of taxis waiting for people at the market – everyone assumed we needed a ride since we were on foot!

My donation today is for the American Legion, which will cover the military-related donation for the week. Like on Puerto Rico, they organize Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day activities, and Flag Day observances, and they support veterans and their families and are involved with community projects. I just mailed it in since we couldn’t find the post.

We walked a total of 10 miles today, which only leaves 8 for tomorrow, so we got all caught up. We had noticed a place called the Greenhouse Restaurant earlier in the week, so we went in there for dinner, and they had working wi-fi (all I needed to do was upload some photos!) and then we headed back to Magen’s Bay.