Finally I had convinced my country music fan Lori that visiting Nashville would be a great idea.
On the way into Nashville we stopped on the shore of Old Hickory Lake to see Rock Castle SP showcasing this home built in 1784 and still in great shape. Then it was on to Nashville, then Chattanooga, and Knoxville before heading back into Kentucky looking for more Barn Quilts. Tennessee now has a lot of Barn Quilts and I have a trail map but we have not taken the time to follow up on then yet.
Etowah is another wonderful bump along US411 which runs well to the east of the I75 interstate ditch. Heading from Chattanooga to Knoxville it was a great rest stop along the highway as well as a stop for excursion trains from Chattanooga on the Tennessee Valley Railroad. Originally founded in the early 1900s as the halfway point on the Louisville and Nashville Railway line between Louisville and Atlanta it remains about halfway between Chattanooga and Knoxville. We did not get to ride the train on this visit although it remains on the list for a future visit if we can ever get a round TOIT.
This year Tennessee could be referred to as a cris cross state. The end of February we crossed north from Atlanta and we probably stopped for gas and a meal in Chattanooga.
The end of March we crossed south through Nashville with a stop to see the Cheekwood Botanical Garden on our way across this new bridge to the Natchez Trace again hoping to see a two month change of seasons in two days of driving.
Later in November we passed through just the northwestern corner as we took the Western Kentucky Parkway on our way back to see dad in Shreveport, Louisiana
Again in 2009 Tennessee was primarily a pass through state although I did manage another visit to the Memphis Botanical in the spring when all the flowers were just coming out and the cherry trees were blooming.
Like I said elsewhere we were starting to wear a rut between Columbus, Ohio and Shreveport, Louisiana which almost always meant passing through Tennessee somehow. In March I did manage to get to the Memphis Botanical before closing and included those pictures on this other page.
Again in 2007 Tennessee was primarily a place to cross to get to someplace else. In the beginning of March we returned from the photography seminar in Auburn, Alabama to Columbus, Ohio passing through Chattanooga and Knoxville on I-75 at high speed. Our first full trip on the Natchez Trace started just southwest of Nashville and down to Jackson, Mississippi. Finally, in October we stopped for a few days in Chattanooga which I split into this separate page because we keep coming back and it's on the bucket list for another longer visit.
A little northeast of Chattanooga we stopped for a day in Louden, Tennessee to visit the nearby Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. He was the only illiterate to have ever perfected a system for reading and writing a language. This is also the area beginning the infamous Trail of Tears and the forced removal
of Native Americans to the west. This is a very emotionally charged subject which we have investigated much more mostly in Oklahoma. The United States is often referred to as a melting pot
not because of our different backgrounds but because of the heat they have and continue to generate in blending us together.
Wrapping up 2007 we spent a week in Memphis which incidentally is the name of one of John's grand-nephews. I continue to promise a lot more about Tennessee in later years.
Like several other states in 2006 Tennessee was the road to some place else primarily getting to John's dad in Shreveport, Louisiana. Promise, I will be adding a lot more later about the Natchez Trace and Nashville among other places.