14 October 2014 - Lovely Tennessee

For the first time on our trip we awoke to heavy rains, lightning and thunder.  A major storm front formed in the Mississippi Valley when a cold air mass from the north and moisture from the gulf met.  Strong winds, huge storm cells and tornado warnings were spawned by the storm.  It began to move east and north and marched over our area during the night.  The thunder was deep and throaty and the flashes of lightning woke us up.  When we started driving, it was with the wipers going max  for a while.

As you can see, when Mom took a photo while we were driving, the rain was heavy.  I was able to negotiate the roads and traffic without any problems, but it did slow us down a bit.   We had to pay close attention to exits and freeway choices.  We drove in this heavy weather until about noon and then things started to improve. We knew we were driving through the storm but that it was moving east and we went northwest.   We drove through it and moved into better weather.  We rolled out of Georgia and into the lovely state of Tennessee.  It is a beautiful, lush green place.  We stopped at the visitor's center and got information and a map.  As we looked at things, we identified the "Pie in the Sky" scenic byway, and took off the freeway for a 30 mile drive through this scenic area.  The leaves were starting to change for fall, but only in the early stages.  We looked for a place to photograph Freddy the Falcon so the school kids can follow him out of Georgia and into Tennessee.  We stopped along the byway and found a nice spot.

Mom took a photo and sent it off on Instagram and an e-mail to Sami and Ali's class.   Here Mom is fixing the Freddy photo.

We stopped at the South Cumberland State Park to find the foliage.  We saw a lovely tree with red berries and changing leaves.  The ground was littered with acorns from large oak tress and fallen crab apples. The air was much cooler now and quite refreshing.






We passed large stretches of deciduous forests and small homes and mysterious lanes, stretching into the woods.  It felt so nice to be away from the crowds and into this hill country.  I expected to run into Hillbillies at every turn.   We passed interesting signs such as Johns Bones Lane and Fiery Gizzard Road.  We drove past cute houses,  small farms and horse country-like mansions.

This home had large, manicured fields on either side of the lane leading to the home.  Most attractive and welcoming.

 
Along the street, these white fences marked the edge of the property.  They should have had horses feeding in the fields, but these fences just ended and really did not enclose the pasture.  We also passed places right out of the "red-neck" instruction manual, true "white trash" homes, cluttered and looking like a disaster in process.  I wish we had stopped to take some pictures of them to set a visual comparison.

Some lanes were so intriguing that we drove one and it was quite, peaceful, with thick surrounding woods and the colors becoming more intense. Autumn is in the air and the feeling nice.  We continued on past Nashville and are staying on the Tennessee/Kentucky border in Clarksville, TN.   I don''t know if we will make it back by the weekend or not until Monday. We will see how much ground we can cover and still see some fun things.