Report on our Tennessee Trip

I am happy to report that our trip went largely without incident, though we had a few "interesting" moments, weather related. It took us about 9 hours to get to our campground next to Nickajack Lake from Houma. The campground was sandwiched between a freeway and a railroad, but a nice enough location on its own merits, not far from the lake. Thursday evening it rained very hard, and our camper met the test, staying completely dry inside.

On Friday, we spent the better part of the day at our ultimate destination, which was to check out lots on the property of Grant Miller, who we met online. Grant and his wife, Becky, live near Tracy City, and have purchased about 750 acres of pristine land in the Cumberland region of Tennessee, of which 500 acres cannot be further developed. They are developing 30 acres for themselves, and have subdivided another 70 acres into 18 lots of varying sizes (2-7 acres) under the name, Sewanee Creek. Their vision is to emphasize self sustainability and "green" in the development of these lots and are looking specifically for people who have the same vision. We enjoyed our visit with them, and they seemed happy to spend whatever time . We expected to see much more building and activity occurring than what we saw, which was a bit disconcerting.

We visited the neighboring towns of Monteagle and Sewanee. As we approached Monteagle, we stopped at a National Park site to get a better understanding of the Cumberland region. Immediately after going inside the building, fierce winds and strong rains followed by marble-sized hail descended on us. It got very dark, even though it was around 2:00 p.m. The lady hosting us told us that we were under a tornado warning; she was obviously anxious about what was going on outside. We were very thankful to be inside a sturdy building. We later learned that a very damaging tornado hit the city of Murfreesboro, only 50 miles away, during this period. We visited The University of the South in Sewanee, a well-endowed university, with impressive buildings on the campus, and tough admission standards. They are able to attract the likes of T. Boone Pickens, who will be talking about energy on their campus tomorrow.

On Saturday, we went toward Chattanooga with the intent of visiting one of the many caves in the region. We ended up going to the top of Lookout Mountain that overlooks Chattanooga. There, we visited Ruby Falls and Rock City, both of which were well worth visiting. Ruby Falls has a spectacular waterfall at the end of the cave to climax the whole experience, and Rock City is literally a city of gigantic boulders with crevices between boulders that one can barely fit through, creating the effect of a City of Rocks with avenues and streets. The owners have built overpasses, underpasses, and hanging bridges on the massive boulders, have added overhangs and waterfalls, gardens and trees, strategically placed gnomes and elves, and other features to make for an incredible experience.

>>>>>On Sunday, we visited the South Pittsburg, TN branch that the Millers attend. They meet in a Phase I building (like Julie's and Matt's). They were very happy that Judy was there to play the piano. In fact, after the 3-hour block, some of the members gathered around the piano, mostly young women, and encouraged Judy to keep playing hymns so that they could keep singing. It was really a cool experience.

>>>>> After church, we returned to Overlook Mountain, to learn more about its significance in relation to the Civil War. There are only four Civil War military battlefields that have been preserved like the Chickamauga/Chattanooga, the other three being at Gettysburg, PA; Shiloh, TN; and Vicksburg, MS. All four were pivotal to the outcome of the Civil War.

>>>>>Sunday evening into Monday morning, strong winds kept pounding us, making me wonder at certain times if we might get flipped over. Apparently, there were reports of gusts that exceeded 60 mph in the area. Monday, we returned home, encountering some heavy rain in Mississippi. We learned that there were more devastating tornadoes in the general region over the weekend. It was a fun trip, and we definately learned more about the camper, and a few things we need to do between now and the next trip, whenever and where ever that will be.