I made it to Dollywood!

My first week back on the road was definitely eventful. I tried something new this time … instead of waiting until the weekend to make my way to the next destination I drove after work mid-week. I left on a Tuesday late afternoon, drove for a few hours, when I made a stop for gas I looked on the Bonvoy app for a hotel about an hour or so ahead when I was ready to call it quits for the night. It took me two after work drives to get back to Sevierville/Pigeon Forge … the scene of the evacuation! I didn’t stay on a mountain this time – but did stay in another cabin. This time my friend Meg met me – it was really nice to have someone I know to hang out with. As I’ve made my way through NC and TN over the last two months I’ve met some great people, but there’s nothing like hanging with an old friend. Thank you Meg for meeting up with me to go to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge!!! Heeeellllloooo!!!!!

I arrived in TN the night before Meg and went to a Civil War Theater in Pigeon Forge … a two person show that felt more like a lecture than a show. I don’t know how to even describe what the 12 of us in the theater saw that night (actually nine since three people in front of me left after 20 minutes). I’ll leave it at, different people have different perceptions of history … or maybe, different people have different versions of history. One statement from the show that I believe to be true is “A fool judges history, a wise man learns from it.”

Meg arrived on Thursday and then we spent the day at Dollywood on Friday. It was fantastic

- we had a great time. I’d say The Wild Eagle was my favorite roller coaster.

After that I moved on to Franklin, TN. Franklin is a cute town just south of Nashville. I chose Franklin because when I was in Nashville there were a few touristy things I didn’t get to do and my gym has a location in Franklin. As luck would have it my very chatty neighbor there told me there was a fair on Main Street in Franklin that weekend. (Yes, I did go to the gym. I did four barbell and two yoga classes last week.)

It rained one day while I was in Franklin, but for the most part, it was light sweater kind of weather. It’s amazing how the weather goes from 45 to 80 in a few hours. I visited/toured three Civil War Museums – Lotz House (www.lotzhouse.com), Carter House, and Carnton Plantation (The Battle of Franklin Trust (boft.org)) while there. The tours were very compelling. Especially, Carter House. During the Battle of Franklin, the Lotz family went across the street from their wood house to their neighbors the Carters who had a brick house to hide out in the cellar during the battle. The tour of the Carter house included going down to that cellar to see where they hid during the battle. One of Mr. Carters sons was a soldier in that battle and when it was all over he found his son on their property, still alive but he had been shot nine times. He died two days later and is the only soldier from the Civil War who died after a battle in the same house he was born in. You’ll see the farm office house in my pictures – it’s the one full of bullet holes from the battle. There were 10,000 casualties in that battle. At the time the population of Franklin was about 750 people. So after the battle every house in the town had a red flag hanging in front of it to show that house was now a hospital. The historian who does the Lotz House Tour also does a women of the Civil War tour, that I took as well. I learned a lot about the women of that time, including, there were about 400 women who fought in the Civil War while posing as men. Taking pictures was not allowed in any of the houses. I think what stands out for me are the blood stains you can see in the wood floors. Since those houses were used as hospitals surgeons did a lot of amputations there. There was one 3X3 blood stain that was the result of the pile of amputated limbs. They know this because of soldiers' letters.

I also had some fun in Franklin ... I went to a show at the Grand Ole Opry! Wow! I chose the right night to go. I went to the country classics show that was hosted by Larry Gatlin and featured The Oak Ridge Boys and The Gatlin Brothers. They are all in their 70’s & 80’s and boy did they put on a great show!

I’ve also started finding alternate places to work from ‘home’ just to get out during the day. I spent some time working from the café at the gym and a couple days at Starbucks. I’ve met some great people in Franklin, including a Yankee Fan at Starbucks!

And the best thing that happened this week … I discovered with my MLB subscription I can not only listen to Yankee Games but I can watch them too! Woohoo! (so far I was able to watch two)

And now, I’m back in Chattanooga staying at my favorite Airbnb so far – it’s the last one I stayed at in March when I was here. The weather here has been beautiful 85 and sunny! I’m happy to be back!