Tennessee

Monday we were doing a fair bit of driving and saw what I thought was a barn quilt... like in the Ohio River area

We managed to head right back into the very corner of Virginia

We were at the Daniel Boone Visitor Information Center on the Tennessee (but really, Virginia) side of the Cumberland Gap

We decided to drive through the tunnel which goes under an awful lot of mountain!

Hello Kentucky!

We stopped over at the visitor center there for a minute. The hike from one side to the other is only about 2 1/2 miles long. To think we zipped through the tunnel in 5 minutes or less and those early pioneers had to toil up and over the mountains!

Also interesting to note that although there are 2 lanes going each way, the tunnel is pretty wide and tall, if you are a hazmat truck, you have to wait for an escort and they clear the tunnel and take just the hazmat truck through by itself.

Back to Tennessee!

On our way, we passed this vintage gas station. I keep looking these up, I guess I'm intrigued because there really aren't any vintage gas stations, even just if museum pieces, out West!

A quick stop in Knoxville to see the Sunsphere

And the World's Largest Rubik's Cube!

Tuesday we were in Oak Ridge, it used to be called Secret City during WWII

Because it was part of the Manhattan Project!

There is a pretty interesting exhibit about Oak Ridge's role in the Manhattan Project and WWII inside the children's museum

If you were over age 12, you had to have a security badge. Even if you didn't know what you were doing at your job, you knew you were working on a war effort project and you were not allowed to tell ANYONE.

We headed to Big South Fork after this. Beautiful area, up in the mountains, lovely and secluded

I mean, doesn't that river look inviting?

Not too far away was Obed, another beautiful place

The visitor center is in what used to be a bank, when I walked in, the ranger was just coming out of the vault, which I guess they use as a storage room!

We went for two short hikes at Obed--the boulder trail...

This tree is literally growing around the boulder!

The second hike was to Lilly Bluff, overlooking the Obed River. Another beautiful vista.

Saw these flowers on a tree while we were hiking, not sure what they were, other than beautiful!

Wednesday we went to the courthouse where the Scopes Trial was held

There was a museum in the basement about it

Upstairs we were able to see the actual courtroom. The case was broadcast on radio, and got a lot of press coverage!

We headed to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park next

We dipped down into Georgia for this, although it goes into Tennessee too.

We've seen quite a few battlefield films at the visitor centers, more than one has had a disclaimer. This one though was warranted. Nothing horrid, but this film was a little more realistic than some of the others and there were a couple of close ups... S had to hide behind the Junior Ranger booklet a few times, but otherwise, neither kid blinked.

Also at the visitor center there was this impressive gun collection

There were three aisles like this, on each side of the hallway, cases just full of guns.

Back to Tennessee for a minute!

We went to Whitwell Middle School to see the Paper Clip Project. A documentary came out on it about a decade or so ago, it's well worth a watch. The memorial is housed in a rail car that was used in the Holocaust.

Either end of the rail car had a display case, just FULL of paperclips. There are 11 million in the car, they've collected over 30 million.

There are also a lot of other artifacts in the car

This beautiful mezuzah was on the doorframe.

There were also lots of butterflies depicted all around, a symbol of beauty and also of life

Even the gate to the school had butterflies and paperclips on it!

Then we headed into Alabama for a minute

We went to see Russell Cave National Monument

It is an archeological site, ancient peoples used the cave

Still some archeology going on

We saw some wildlife too

Thursday we went to Stones River National Battlefield, a Civil War battlefield

This is the oldest Civil War monument, it was built and dedicated not too long after the battle at Stones River

Nearby are the graves of a former slave and his grandson

Then we headed to Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

Your tour ticket includes the introductory film, the museum, the grounds and all the buildings there, plus an audio tour. The kids tour stops were pretty entertaining to listen to on the audio tour, as were the audio tour about Rachel Jackson

The Hermitage itself is surrounded by trees. This is looking down the path toward the front door

This was right at the front porch. Hard to get a good photo of it!

The graveyard is nearby, a lot of Jackson descendants buried there

This was the tomb for Andrew and Rachel Jackson.

We headed over just to see the Grand Ole Opry

It was NOT what I expected! There was a huge mall right next to it, you had to drive past all of the mall to get to the Grand Ole Opry and there is a major freeway running behind it!

I guess we're not "real fans", we did not pay to take the backstage tour...

Friday we briefly went into Nashville. At 11 a.m., the bars and music joints were in full swing, as were several of these contraptions: drink and pedal your way around the city!

We drove past a Woolworth's

And headed up to the Capitol

The capitol is situated on a pretty impressive hill in the middle of Nashville. We were looking down at this plaza, see the Tennessee shape on depicted on the ground? People were lunching under that railroad trestle--it was an in-use trestle too, we saw a train go by!

The capitol building was interesting, not big, not small, definitely a different kind of design than most

We peeked in the House

And the Senate

There just didn't seem to be a lot to see at this capitol, pretty clean lines, straight forward floor plan

James K. Polk's tomb was located on the capitol ground. There were also a lot of busts, statues and other tributes to famous people in and around the building.