Faith, Folklore, and Friends

The Foothills Parkway is the oldest unfinished road construction project in Tennessee.  Congress authorized construction of the road in 1944, and they are still working on it some 74 years later.  Fortunately for all of us, a 16.1 mile section was completed on November 10 of this year.  It takes you from Walland to Wears Valley. We drove on it last week, tired after driving all day.  It was a gloomy, dark day, and we really didn't know what to expect. It was awesome, literally breathtaking. I don't know if I have ever seen anything so beautiful. That is Townsend, Tennessee in the valley. Below is Wears Valley, just before the end of the parkway.  We had planned to watch the sunrise on our way home, but because of snow and ice, the parkway was closed that day..  You can be sure our next trip to the Smokies will include some time here.

I really wasn't that excited about the solar eclipse, but the mountains were calling me.  We went to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee,  for a few days, including August 21. Pigeon Forge was just outside the northern boundary of totality. On Monday, attempting to get a better view, we drove south from Pigeon Forge on Wears Valley Road to the Church of the Cove, a place where we have worshiped before on our mountain trips.  It is about two miles north of Townsend, and traffic was bumper to bumper on that curvy road more than two hours before the eclipse.  When we got to the church's picnic area, some of our new best friends were already there, and some came a little later. We were from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and Alabama.  Some of them had guitars (could we possibly be more blessed?) and we sang every eclipse-related song we could think of-- Don't let the Sun Go Down on Me, I Feel a Bad Moon Arising, etc. We ate snacks and talked and waited....

While we were at the Music Festival in Townsend last Saturday, there were craft demonstrations, including this one about making wood shingles.  Using very primitive tools, this fellow made some beautiful shingles and made it look easy. He started with a piece of a white oak log that had been cut to the proper length.  That piece of wood was split into 8-12 pieces, and he carefully made the shingles from those triangular pieces of the oak. He worked at a steady rhythm, and I didn't want to interrupt his work to ask questions.  You could tell he had done this before.  I was impressed that he was handling those splintered shingles without any gloves. These were the shingles he had completed. I wonder how long it would take to make enough for a roof? I can understand why the people who settled these mountains stayed busy all winter, when everything had to be made by hand. These wood shingles are on a barn at the Bud Ogle place in Gatli...

Last Saturday, Hub, my lil' ole Sister, and I attended the 22nd annual Townsend, Tennessee Fall Heritage Festival and Old Timers Day. There was a lot going on, and thousands of people there to enjoy a perfect fall day. We had heard about this festival for years, but this was the first time we have been able to attend.  It did not disappoint. Mr. Allen Collins was doing a little whittling while he is taking a break from picking. This booth had farm animals, and the kids loved it.  They had several baby goats and a hungry baby pig. She was not kissing this one.  It was squealing and she was trying to calm it down. The people in front of the stage were clogging. We encountered some long food lines, but it was worth the wait. There was a good arts and crafts show, but all we carried home were some ideas and a four pound bag of fresh ground yellow corn meal.  I see muffins in our future. There were g...