Tennessee - Day 7 - Andrew Johnson and David Crockett

Warriors Path State Park, Kingsport
Thursday, 7 November 2019

today's route

We had decent weather to begin our next trip, but the forecast was for rain to begin around noon, so I wanted to get on the road.

On the road
As I crossed the Pigeon River, I saw a historic marker that said the area was the site of one of the last battles of the Revolutionary War.  I don't usually think of that war as having been fought so far west, but of course back then this was part of North Carolina.

I also crossed the French Broad River, a name that when I see it on maps always always looks to me like the French Bread River.  I guess times have changed since it was named.

We've been passing a number of fields with cattle grazing and I finally realized what was wrong with this picture I've been seeing all along my travels: no Cattle Egrets hanging around with the cows.  The bird book shows me that they're strictly a southern bird.  They only make it as far north as Maryland during spring migration.  In Tennessee, they may breed in the far western part of the state, but they don't hang out here full-time.  Which all explains why I didn't see them in Michigan or Wisconsin or anywhere else I've been seeing cows.

Greeneville
Greeneville's claim to fame is having been the home of Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the US.  I spent a fair amount of time at the National Historic Site here and will write about it separately.

One of the National Park rangers told me that bit about TN originally being part of North Carolina.   She said back then there were locals who managed to pull this area out of NC for about 5 years, forming the State of Franklin.  But as far as she could tell, too many people wanted to be in charge and too few wanted to be followers, so the "state" finally got reabsorbed.  It wasn't long after that that the State of Tennessee was constitutionally formed, which she thought a good thing as the alternative would be a re-e-a-l-ly long State of North Carolina.

The border between TN and NC was established along the ridge top of the Smokies, which is also where the Appalachian Trail runs, it being a ridgetop trail.

Back on the Road
For some reason, the farther east I went, the more open the road became.  I was still seeing mountains, but the road was somewhat flatter and wider (2 lanes each side much of the way).  Colors were dimming.  What I saw I guess were the foothills on my right (south) side.

view from the RV

David Crockett Birthplace State Park
I spent some time trying to find the David Crockett Birthplace State Park, which wasn't at all where Google said it was.  I found it only by following the state park's signs.

I'd also intended to stay at the campground there, but when I tried to make a reservation, the state park system told me they had 2 Davy Crockett state parks and it was the one in the west where they had a campground.  Once I got there, though, I discovered there is indeed a campground there, but by then I already had reservations somewhere else and didn't want to try to change them.  Weird, though.

I also found, to my sorrow, that the Visitor Center closed for an hour for lunch, only I didn't realize that in time.  Instead, I stopped to walk the dogs and eat some lunch ourselves, and it was just after noon that I went to the Center and found it closed.  So what I learned about Mr. Crockett is from the website for the other D. Crockett State Park.  In case I don't get over there, I'll put some of it here.

He was born in 1786 near the small town of Limestone, just down the road from this park.  (It's not exactly the mountaintop the song says he was born on, but it is in the mountains, and I guess they took poetic license.) When he was about 30, he moved to Lawrence County, (now south of Nashville on the Alabama border).  There he served as a justice of the peace, a militia colonel, and the local representative in the State Assembly.  He established a multi-purpose business: a powdermill, a gristmill, and a distillery (food, booze and explosives pretty well cover the necessities).

His business was flooded out in 1821 and he moved to western TN.  From there he was sent to Congress.

This sign that I saw at the state park basically says he spent his time in Congress fighting for the rights of the settlers to retain the land they were farming.  Apparently he wasn't very effective, but he made a name for being colorful.  If you can blow up the text, you'll see some of his frontiersman talk.

He died at the Alamo in 1836.

This claims to be an accurate depiction of what he actually looked like, though I have my doubts.  If for no other reason, they say he had piercing light gray or blue eyes, and the ones in this painting are clearly brown.  I also don't see the "obvious" cleft in his chin he's said to have had.  Which goes to show, we should all get our portraits painted now before we die so when we become famous later they'll know what we looked like.

I actually learned as much about Mr. Crockett by going up to the closed Visitor Center as by anything else there because I found this memorial:

He was a Mason.

Although I didn't learn as much about Crockett as I'd hoped at this place, I did learn more about Nature than I expected.

How many turkeys can you see?

The dogs and I were walking along minding our own business when suddenly we heard a loud racket.  It was a turkey flying in very near where we were, so Dexter of course got very interested.  Gracie was more unnerved by the noise than interested in the birds.  Because there was more than just this one.  When we knew to look for them, we saw several.  There are at least 4 in my photo.  It was kind of neat, though I had trouble dragging Dext away.

After walking a little farther, I found I was having trouble keeping my footing because the ground was covered with these green balls.

I've been seeing them - stepping on them - since Ohio County Park back in Kentucky.  They were everywhere in that park and it was hard to avoid them.  They're about the size of tennis balls, which at first I thought they were.  Then I thought they were small horse apples, but they didn't look like that either.  I just couldn't figure it out and couldn't find anyone to ask.

But here at this park I saw a park ranger nearby and accosted him so I could finally find out what they are.  Walnuts.  The brown ball is inside the green ball, and inside the brown ball is a walnut.  The ranger tried cracking them open but they were too tough for him to do it without a tool.  I had no idea walnuts came packed inside anything like this.  And now I know.

Back on the road
I passed a field full of pumpkins and other squash types.  A pretty sight, all those orange balls against the brown dirt.

It started raining while the dogs and I were walking in the park, and by the time we got back on the road it had really started to come down hard.  My main regret was that it made it harder to see the view through the rain.

Tennessee drivers often pull out of side roads in front of oncoming traffic with no apparent recognition of the inherent dangers, either to themselves or to other drivers.  I've seen it happen every time I've been out on the road in this state.  Odd how behaviors like this vary from one state to another.

I passed the turnoff for Roan Mountain and wish I could be there in June.  Roan Mountain has 600 acres of wild rhododendrons - the largest natural rhody garden in the world, they claim.  And these bushes grow in a lovely location - on a 6,200' tall mountain along the Appalachian Trail.  There's more information and some photos at this link.   www.onlyinyourstate.com/tennessee/roan-mountain-summer-rhododendrons

I deliberately routed myself through Johnson City, home of East TN State University, just to see what it's like.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see all that much partly because of the rain and partly because of the traffic.  It has about 66,000 residents, and it seemed like at least half of them were out on the roads at 1:30 on a Friday afternoon. 

I had read that the university has a museum that includes collections of toys and musical instruments from Tennessee, but when I looked at their website, it seemed they only had small rotating exhibits, and I couldn't see any reference to either toys or musical instruments.  Maybe if I'm here when I have more time I can check with them directly.

For a short stretch I was on the Bobby Hicks Highway before the roads split.  Not having heard of him, I looked him up to see why he got a highway named for him, and I'm still not sure.  Wikipedia says he was born in North Carolina, learned to play the fiddle when he was 8 years old, got so good at it he played with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, and then played with Ricky Skaggs for years.  I can't tell that he spent much time at all in Tennessee so, as I say, I don't know how he ended up with a road just for him.  He must be one heck of a fiddle player.

When I passed the city limits of Kingsport, I saw a sign saying it had been settled since 1791 and was incorporated in 1917.  When I looked it up to see what took them so long, I found out it was the Civil War.  They'd actually been chartered in 1822 but lost their charter from having been ruined by the War.  They rechartered in 1917.

I was actually sorry I looked it up because I also learned that Kingsport citizens were responsible for an elephant being put to death by hanging in 1916.  I wouldn't have given them a charter a year later, but I wasn't consulted.  Here's the link if you're curious.   en.wikipedia.org/Kingsport_Tennessee

It was still raining when we got to our campsite, though not quite as heavily as before.  It was due to stop altogether during the night, though it was also due to be the forerunner of a cold front.  I think I'd rather have 50° rain than 38° not-rain, but it's November so I should get used to it.