Andrew Johnson National Historic Site

Andrew Johnson National Historic Site

Greeneville is proud of its hometown boy

There are 5 locations, spread out around town, that constitute the entire site.  I went to Johnson's pre-Washington home and the Visitor Center, the locations where they had the most information about his presidency, which is what I was interested in.  But I got some additional basic information.  The first thing I learned was that where Andrew Johnson came from was integral to understanding his presidency.

Early career
He was born in 1808 in Raleigh, NC, to poor, uneducated parents.  His father died when he was three.  His mother, even more impoverished without his father, apprenticed Andrew (age 9) and his brother to a local tailor to learn a trade and pick up some education.  He never forgot the poverty of his early years

When he was about 17, the family moved to Greeneville, TN, where he lived most of his adult life.  He quickly became the town's tailor, married, and learned to read and write with his wife's help.  He gradually became deeply interested in politics and developed a skill as a debater.

In 1829 he was elected Alderman, then Mayor.  In 1835 he began 2 terms in the State Assembly, followed by one in the state Senate.  Beginning in 1843, he served 5 terms as US Representative, followed by 2 terms as Governor of Tennessee, and then was elected to the US Senate.  A remarkable political trajectory, when you think about it, particularly given his background.

Johnson's principles
One of his driving principles was belief in and support for the working folks.

As you can see, some of his positions would be greatly in favor today.

At least partly as a result of his faith in the traditional American concept of self-reliance, he was a fiscal conservative.

Again, some of these positions would be popular today.

Thomas Nast cartoon

But Johnson's bedrock principle was his belief and faith in the Constitution.  He was a strict constitutionalist and saw that as including a strong boundary between what the federal government could do and what powers were left to the states. 

With these positions, you can see why he was a good representative of Tennessee.  But in these principles are also the kernels of the forces that brought him to the presidency.

Political party development up to the 1850s and '60s
By the time of the Civil War, the US had 3 major political parties, each with a distinctly different background.

Democrats gradually became regional

Whigs were focused on finance

Republicans weren't as much for something
as they were against slavery

Path to the presidency
Andrew Johnson, being from Tennessee, was a Democrat.  The records aren't clear but, beginning shortly before he went to Congress, he seems to have owned as many as 8 people who worked around his house.

On the other hand, he saw secession as being unconstitutional and thought the South was much better served by trying to work out their problems within the Union.  However, once TN had seceded, Johnson was technically no longer a member of the US Senate.

TN was the site of the second-most battles of the Civil War (VA has the dubious distinction of being first), including one of the war's bloodiest: Shiloh.  However, Nashville, the state's capital, came under Union control as early as 1862 and Lincoln appointed Johnson as military governor, seeing him as a pro-Union Southerner. 

In his tenure in this role, Johnson first tried peaceful means to bring people into compliance but, when those didn't work, he resorted to threats and intimidation.  As an example, he required an oath of loyalty to the Union before a person could be granted a business license.  Actually, that seems moderately reasonable to me, but Southerners saw him as harsh and tyrannical.

It was his performance here that led Northerners to believe he would be the right running mate for Lincoln in 1864.  It might seem odd (it did to me) that he'd be chosen since he was a Democrat, but the wartime Republicans were forming coalitions with Whigs and Democrats who supported their position.  They called themselves the National Unionist Party and put up the ticket of Lincoln and Johnson.  And with Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Southern Democrat Andrew Johnson became the Union's 17th president.

Post-war presidency
As sometimes happens, the Union after the Civil War was more dis-unified than it had been during the war, even before the southern states rejoined.  Our divided government, set up by the Founding Fathers to be inefficient, was further beset by 2 radically different views of how reunification needed to be handled.

The differences were oddly exacerbated by the fact that Congress wasn't in session for the first 7 months of Johnson's presidency (unlike today's never-ending sessions).

Without Congress, Johnson was able to begin implementing his view of Reconstruction.  Because the Constitution makes no allowance for secession, Johnson believed the southern states were still legally part of the Union.  His idea was to bring them back into the government as quickly as reasonably possible.  In fact, what he tried to do was implement Lincoln's own plans, modified of course by his own belief in constitutionally limited federal government.

Johnson's Reconstruction plans:

Republican Congress's Reconstruction plans:

Since Congress has the authority to write laws, they wrote them consistent with implementing their views.  Johnson vetoed 29 of them; Congress overrode his veto 15 times.  Johnson said almost every time that his veto was based on his belief that the laws were unconstitutional.  Here are some of them.

In many of these cases, Johnson may have been right about the laws not following a strict construction of the Constitution, but he was dead wrong about leaving these things to the states; his way wouldn't have brought about a reconciliation any more than Congress's.  There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the southern states, left to their own impulses, would never ever have granted any rights whatever to the formerly enslaved people.  And this was, in essence, what had brought about the Civil War in the first place.

As a result of the utter lack of a coordinated vision for Reconstruction, and an utter lack of Republican impulse for compassion, the South was left to deal on its own with the resulting mess that was imposed on them.

post-war Southern economy

carpetbaggers and scalawags

Between these realities and the requirements of bills such as those shown above that became law over Johnson's veto, there should be little wonder that the South emerged from the Reconstruction years with their views about the former slaves unchanged and with bitterness toward Northern attitudes that are still seen today.

Because the Northern and Southern views were so diametrically opposed that a war seemed reasonable, it's also reasonable to suppose that no person has ever existed that could have resolved the post-war continuing conflicts.  It's doubtful Lincoln himself could have done it.  But Andrew Johnson was not the right man in the right place.

He had always been stubborn, and in no way was he as stubborn as in his adherence to the letter of the Constitution.  For this reason he was completely unable, let alone unwilling, to compromise on these issues.  And for this reason, he has gone down in history as an ineffective president.  But the one thing he was not was wishy-washy.  Instead, he was unyielding.  And that led to his impeachment.

Impeachment
The historic site begins with what they call a common misconception about impeachment.  Note in reading these exhibits that they were written quite a few years ago when today's circumstances were never dreamed of.

what's impeachment?

the rationale for Johnson's impeachment

the articles of impeachment against Johnson

The National Park Service seems to be presenting these articles in a way that supports Johnson.  On the other hand, Wikipedia's detailed article about it seems to support the Park Service.  You can decide for yourself at this link.  en.wikipedia.org/Impeachment-Andrew-Johnson

Senate trial

Senate vote

what could have resulted

I thought the result shown here was a real overstatement, because the information they'd presented seemed to be more than political unpopularity.  But Wikipedia's account supports this version by listing in detail the articles of impeachment which really were all revolving around the Tenure of Office Act, which general consensus (let alone the Supreme Court) now agrees was an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers.  And then there was Johnson's rationale at the time that Stanton had been appointed by Lincoln in his first term and never reappointed so didn't fall under the protection of the act in the first place.  A much more involved situation than I'd expected.

The rest of Johnson's presidency
Even during the Reconstruction battles, other matters of state were being conducted.

Alaska purchase in 1867

transatlantic cable completed 1866

Despite all my years of living in Alaska, I never realized it was Johnson who was president when the US territory was established.  In my defense, statehood is more what's emphasized up there, as in most states that started as territories.

Post-presidency

Johnson died of a stroke not long after this speech (above) in 1875.

I talked to 2 Park Service rangers about their opinions of Johnson, given what they know from working at the site.  One said she thought he was a weak president and that the displays they had were out of date and needed to be revised according to modern historians' views.  The other said she thought he'd done the best he could under the circumstances - given that he had rigid ideas and was up against a Congress that had equally rigid and opposite ideas.  She thought that even Lincoln couldn't have succeeded Lincoln, given the myths that had sprung up around him and given the attitudes arrayed against him.

I think they may both be right, though I lean more toward the 2nd.  Johnson in essence took a my-way-or-the-highway approach, which has never been a winning position in politics.  On the other hand, a lot of what he was adhering so rigidly to was purity of the Constitution, a position I have to support.

But I personally am not a strict constructionist.  I believe the Framers created a Constitution that they envisioned as being a living thing and, as such, needed to be flexible.  After all, they allowed amendments and started with 10 of their own.  For this reason, I think Johnson's failure to achieve a reasonable compromise for Reconstruction was his adherence to the idea of limited federal government (and therefore an expanded view of states' rights) without any regard for the results to the African-Americans in the southern states.  I think he was blind there.

The Historic Site has a couple of exhibits that relate to his slave ownership and, as seems to be usual, they show him to be admiring of the people he owned and quick to free them from slavery during the war, before the Emancipation Proclamation.  Maybe all that's true, but I think his true view of the place of black people in this country is shown by his stance embracing the right of southern states (run by white men only) to make any laws they chose about them. 

I suppose as ghastly as Congress's version of Reconstruction was, things might have been even worse if Johnson had prevailed, because it might easily have led to a second civil war - if the South could have figured out a way to pay for it.

I learned a lot here.  And one of the things I learned most was that events - and people - are always more complex than they seem.  My simplistic summary is that Johnson was in many ways an admirable man who tried his best for the country.  And my further takeaway is that stubbornness (one of my own less attractive traits) can produce good, but it can also create far more havoc than it's worth.

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.

Tennessee - Day 6

Newport KOA
Wednesday, 6 November 2019

I spent the day in the campground but didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, even though I wasn't as lazy as Lily (see below).

It took a lot of time to locate a campground for tomorrow night and then to convince Google to give me the sort of route I wanted.  Google adores interstates and tiny side roads, apparently in the belief that they're faster.  But when I ask for changes, it rarely ends up taking more than a few extra minutes, if any, and is often a shorter distance.  But I finally got everything set up for tomorrow.  I hope.

What didn't get done is the laundry, but that's why God made laundromats, so this isn't my last chance.

We were lucky to have beautiful sunshine all day - after the very heavy morning fog had dissipated.  The dogs and I walked all over the campground and down the road a ways, trying to get in enough exercise. 

There's a doggie play area at this campground and I've taken them there several times.  But for some reason, they find that area boring and after only a few minutes are standing by the gate to leave.  It looks like a nice area to me.  It's all gravel, instead of grass and dirt/mud as most of them are, but there's a beautiful tree in the middle and plenty of room for them to wrestle if they want to.  Not being a dog, I don't know what's so wrong with it.

standard TN license plate

Most people use this style, but TN claims to have 100 specialty plates available, not counting personalized plates.  I guess they do it as a fundraiser, because I'd think specialty plates would be a major nuisance for the police.  I've seen a number of them around but, for my money, Florida still holds the prize for most specialty plates in circulation.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to going to the birthplace of Pres. Andrew Johnson, who followed Lincoln into the White House.  I've always thought of him as a relatively weak-minded person which may have been unfair.  Next to Lincoln, anyone might seem weak-minded.  Johnson may have just been an ordinary person who simply wasn't up to the stunning task of reuniting a disunited country after a 5-year civil war.  I sure hope they tell me tomorrow.

Tennessee - Day 5 - back to Newport

Newport KOA
Tuesday, 5 November 2019

I spent several hours early in the morning planning a route through far eastern Tennessee, figuring out where I really wanted to go and separating those places from those I'd like to go sometime but probably not this trip.  See, I looked at a weather report and saw that we've got predictions of nighttime temps in the 20s coming up, which I translate to possible ice on the road in these mountains.

It's hard for me to plan sensibly because I'm not familiar with TN's roads yet (you know - are they more like West Virginia's or instead like Kentucky's?) so don't know how far off the main roads I can go.

I figured out a route that skirted the borders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park - not sure whether to trust their roads that looked, on Google's satellite, like narrow mountain roads (which makes sense).  And there are some sights I want to visit in this part of the state.  So the only constraint seems to be campgrounds.

I realized that the Newport KOA that I'd just been staying in is the perfect distance from this campground and from the next ones, and then decided to just up and go there today.  I know they've got wifi there, so I could catch up with my blog, and I know I can do laundry there, so I quickly battened down all the loose items in the cabin, gave the dogs a quick walk, and off we went.

today's route

I decided on the scenic route today and, because I once again took the wrong turn, I saw a lot more scenery than I'd intended.  That's what the extra orange line is that seems to head nowhere at the bottom left of that map above.  We went at least 40 miles round trip the wrong way, but I saw a part of the state I might not have seen otherwise.

attractive county courthouse

Maryville
The first leg had me driving down a winding road to Maryville, which is a decent sized town.  In addition to being the county seat, it has the national HQ for Ruby Tuesday.  Who'd've thought a relatively obscure town in rural Tennessee would have the headquarters for a nationwide chain of restaurants?  Momma really liked going there for lunch.

There's also Maryville College and Pellissippi State Community College.  I'm finding the word Pellissippi all over this area, on street names and all kinds of things.  Because it was so common, I tried to find out where it comes from, the answer to which is that nobody knows for sure. 

Wikipedia says it carries the meaning everybody around here seems to believe: it's taken from a Cherokee word meaning winding waters, referring to the Clinch River.  But it turns out the Cherokee language doesn't have either a "p" or an "s" sound.  After some searching, I found this explanation.  Even if you're not curious about the name, you might want to check this link out for the pretty pictures and very old French and British maps of this area.  http://www.pstcc.edu/blogs/marketing-comm

I passed 5 road workers, all standing with their arms folded, all wearing those yellow safety vests, and all with long grey beards.  I wished I could stop and take a photo of them.

And not far down the street, I found a couple of other guys working on something in the median; one of them was sitting on a little Bobcat with a shovel attachment.  This guy was so big he seemed as wide as the Bobcat, and he was focused intently on texting something.  It was just another funny photo op I couldn't grab.

Countryside
And here is where I made the wrong turn.  I went back later to see what the directions actually said, which is that I should use the right 2 lanes to turn left.  No wonder I turned right instead.  And went more than 20 miles out of my way.

I passed a sign saying WARNING - Live Artillery Fire, and wondered what on earth was going on there.  Fortunately, I came back by once I'd gotten turned around and learned that that is the Friendsville Artillery Range.  Which seems a contradiction in terms, but Friendsville is the name of a small town here.

At this point I was heading southwest and finding not much color on the leaves - mostly green and brown.  Still pleasant but nothing like as glorious as I'd seen yesterday.

I passed Deb's Little Donkeys.  I think she raises them.

I was all the way to Lenoir City when I stopped to see why I wasn't finding roads that said the things I expected them to say.  And turned around and went back again.

I saw a sign that said the Dallas String Quartet will be playing in Maryville in November.

As I drove down the right road I suddenly started seeing much more color in the leaves and a lot more mountains.  Amazing the difference.

Cade's Cove
I passed the turnoff to Cade's Cove, which is a place the reception person at last night's campground told me I should be sure to visit.  He said it was wonderful there and the place he'd live if he were able.  So I looked it up.  And learned that it's an 11-mile loop of one-way and one-lane road through an area of the Smokies where a driver is very likely to see deer and turkeys and possibly bear. 

But many people commented online that the road is heavily trafficked (more than 2 million visitors a year) and many idiots stop their vehicles in the middle of the road (instead of pulling over) to view wildlife, and some complete idiots get out of their vehicles to view bears up close.  One woman wrote that she saw people doing this with a bear cub and she was hoping the mama would come along and knock some sense into them.  Others wrote that it took 3 hours to make the 11-mile loop because of being forced to stop and wait for idiots.

I've seen lots of deer and turkeys just in my campgrounds, and I saw bear in Alaska (though I'd like to see them again) so I was just not interested in taking 3 hours out of my day for that.  Too bad.

Townsend
I passed a sign for Tuckaleechee Caverns.  Having never heard of them, I looked them up and am now sorry I didn't know about them before.  This sounds like a place I'd definitely want to put on my list for a return trip to the state.   www.tnvacation.com/local/townsend-tuckaleechee-caverns

These caverns are in Townsend, which bills itself as The Peaceful Side of the Smokies.  Making me wonder what's going on in North Carolina on the other side.

Townsend is a tiny town but has a lot going on.  I passed a peloton of cyclers riding along the road, which was fortunately 2 lanes on each side at that point.  I met them again coming back after I'd stopped for us all to stretch our legs and have some lunch.

Townsend has a dulcimer shop.  It also has something they call Grains & Grits, a Festival of Southern Spirits and Gourmet Grub.  It was just this past Saturday and was probably fun, but the tickets were $75 so I'd have given it a miss.  The price is high because they've got a multitude of distilleries represented, from Jack Daniels down to local folks, plus 2 breweries and 1 winery.  I don't know what they had for grub but it was probably great.  You'd just want to have a designated driver if you were going to this shindig.

The road from Townsend to Pigeon Forge was almost all s-curves and switchbacks and 90° bends, going either uphill or downhill but rarely straight or flat.

Headrick Chapel, est. 1902, and cemetery and view

I pulled over into the church parking area to let folks go by me and enjoy the view.  This view is modest compared with those I saw a little later.

Immediately past this church I saw a field of horses (almost as many as I'd seen the whole month in Kentucky), all with their backs turned to the wind.

Pigeon Forge
As I came into Pigeon Forge, I saw a sign saying it was established in 1962.  That seemed odd to me so I looked it up and learned that pioneers and farmers had been living in the area for 100 years but they hadn't incorporated until 1962.  It was still a sleepy little place until tourists discovered it somehow in the early '80s.  Then Dollywood got built in 1986 and they never looked back.

What the town reminded me of was resort towns, like Atlantic City and Las Vegas without the gambling.  Every single building seemed to house tourist attractions of one kind or another - shops and hotels and rides and Ripley's Believe it or Not and all kinds of amusement places.  All very wholesome, I guess, and all designed to part people with their money as quickly as possible.  There was even a Thomas Kinkade Gallery.  My conclusion is that, like other resort cities, this place must have a stunning number of jobs available.

Pigeon Forge, by the way, was named for the forge that used to be here on the Pigeon River.  And the river was named for the Passenger Pigeon which, sadly, is extinct.  But they were here because there was lots of food for them here.  Just not anymore.

Gatlinburg
There's only about 8 miles between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, but it's a lovely 8 miles.  For part of it the road splits with northbound and southbound divided by what might be Pigeon River.  Trees hanging over the roadway with yellow leaves, emphasized by the sunshine.  Really pretty.

The large parking lot for the Gatlinburg Visitor Center looked completely full, with more cars turning in as I drove by.  I wondered if I was missing something.

Like so many towns I passed through today, Gatlinburg is putting up its Christmas lights display.  I thought they solved their separation-of-church-and-state situation in an interesting way: they have a huge display of an American flag with the words "Old Glory" - all lit up in lights.  Celebratory without celebrating a religion.  Unless, I guess, you're a serious nationalist.

Salt & Pepper Shakers Museum
I saw this online and had trouble believing it was real.  So I stopped.  Admission $3.  But I just had to see.  And you'll get to see too.

turkeys and pheasants

turn the knob and the shakers pop up

vegetables

transportation

fruits

frogs

left handed shakers 

"Americana" they said

from Occupied Japan

Bakelite and Lucite

This was all the work of one woman who collected more than 20,000 pairs of shakers over many years.  There were far more than I've got here - rabbits and dogs and cats and various foods (bread, e.g.) and Native Americans and Amish and some made of wood or of metal or of porcelain.  There were some with gold all over them.  She had a whole section that she'd picked up in other countries.

My daddy used to collect salt and pepper shakers.  I guess he had maybe 15 or 20 pairs.  And I didn't see any here that looked the way I remember his looking, so this clearly isn't a complete collection.  She sure did her best, though.

More countryside
From here I saw wonderful views of the mountains.  At one point I saw 3 tiers of mountains like I did yesterday, but these mountains were close enough that I could see trees on all 3 tiers.  Then the road took me past one tier and - surprise - I saw 3 tiers again.  I guess the first one had hidden the view of a 4th.  Since I was driving in the foothills, each tier was taller than the ones in front of it.  It was a really great view.

And I realized how much I've missed seeing mountains.  They relax me somehow.  I guess because they seem so permanent.  Which of course they aren't at all, having been formed by tectonic plate upheaval that could upheave again I suppose.  But they look pretty solid to me.

I passed a sign advertising Smoky Mountain Llama Treks.

I turned north and noticed in my side mirror a beautiful mountain range of dark blue in the distance behind me.  Like a good-bye from the Smokies.

And back to the Newport KOA.  I didn't remember until I drove in that this was the campground that had food everywhere, but I picked out a different campsite that apparently is free of food - at least, the dogs didn't find any.

Tennessee - Day 4 - errands in Knoxville

Southlake RV Park, Knoxville
Monday, 4 November 2019

Today was mostly about running errands, but it was also one of those odd days where things kept going wrong.  Still, I got everything done I'd planned to, and that was the point.

It started as one of those irritating moments: the zipper of my padded vest got stuck, and I couldn't unstick it until I'd pulled the vest off, which was not an easy thing to do.  I saw that the seam by the zipper wasn't completely straight, so parts of fabric could easily (and did) get caught in the teeth.  But I managed.

it was near freezing outside
 and the dogs are sitting in front of the heater
(on the right behind the bench seat)

you can see Lily's ears sticking out of her carrier -
this time she got in voluntarily
but she resisted when it came time for the vet visit 

route in more detail

today's route

Banfield
Lily had a 10:30 appointment for nail clipping at a Banfield in what's called West Town, on the west side of Knoxville.  Online routing programs said the drive would take me an hour, so I figured that'd mean an hour and a half with me not driving 70 mph on the interstate.  Which meant I left last night's campground at 8:30.  Turned out to be a good thing.

As I was coming into town I saw highway warning signs saying the interstate was blocked by an accident ahead and we should all use another road instead.  Not knowing where that road went, I was going to ignore the signs until all traffic came to a complete stop right at the exit for that road.  So I took it and quickly pulled over into a Walmart parking lot to look up new directions.

Because I misread the directions, I ended up several miles in the wrong direction and had to turn around and go back.  In a different parking lot, I tried again and realized my problem the first time was not realizing the program was telling me to leave the Walmart by the back door (I swear) and drive half a mile on a road that, in reality, didn't have the name they'd said because it was part of the parking lot.  No wonder I'd misunderstood the directions.

Once I'd figured it out, I took off again, ignoring the dogs telling me they wanted to go for a walk because I was afraid we'd be late to Lily's appointment.  We got lucky and found no more detours, and I had about 15 minutes to walk the dogs in.

Lily objected to going into her carrier, which as you can see she loves when it's not my idea, but I got her there without a scratch.

Then Banfield told me their computer was refusing to download her file.  After a while, the nice person at the counter ended up calling corporate IT people, who put her on hold for another half hour or so.  By then I said how about just pretending we've never been to a Banfield before since she's only here for a nail trim and flea medicine application.  So she created a new file for me and took Lily into the back room.

After a while they brought her back and said she'd been very unwilling to participate in the nail-trimming operation, and that it had taken 2 people (as I'd warned them it would) with one of them being an expert cat-holder.  Lily'd apparently fought hard but they got her nails clipped and her flea meds applied for another month.  As I told them, the $17 they charge me for this is a cheap price for the service.

By this time it was nearly 11:30, so I walked the dogs again and fixed us all some lunch before continuing.

CVS
One of my prescriptions has no refills left, so I bought the over-the-counter version as the doctor had been suggesting I do.  But I also wanted to check into help for the asthma cough and other symptoms and didn't want to do it without consulting the pharmacist.  He made some suggestions which I followed.  I couldn't believe how expensive Allegra® and Delsym® are but have hopes that either or both will help when the asthma symptoms strike again in some remote campground.

Liquor Store
Tennessee allows both beer and wine to be sold in grocery stores, but I stopped in a nearby liquor store because I wasn't sure when I'd be back in a big city.  Knoxville seems to have a lot of liquor stores, possibly because it's the home of University of Tennessee?  McScrooge's Wine and Spirits had a surprisingly good selection of everything and helpful staff.

Recycling
Different recycling stations around town accept different items - one, for instance, refuses to accept glass.  But I found one that wasn't far from where I was and they took everything I had.  Always such a relief to get rid of that stuff, and get it out from the tiny space behind my toilet, which is where I store it.

Grocery Store
I guess I'm back in the South because there are several Publix grocery stores here in town.  I've thought this was a great chain ever since I ran across them in Florida, so I drove an extra 5 miles to go to one, realizing later that there'd been a closer one I hadn't seen on the computer.  Oh well.

Back on the road
From there I ended up taking back roads to avoid another possible interstate road blockage.  Knoxville has a very high traffic level at almost any time of day, I found.  I'd wanted to do some sightseeing, but that'll have to wait for another day.

At one point today I was on what I thought of as a regular city street, though it was also a highway route: state highway 11 and US highway 70.  I passed a sign saying it had an older name - State Route 1 - because it was the first state road, built in 1915.  I looked it up and found it runs from Memphis (far southwest) to Bristol (upper northeast) and is still Tennessee's longest highway at 539 miles.  Pretty long for a state that's only 400+ miles wide.

I'm finding driving in Tennessee somewhat wearing as the roads seem to be rough everywhere.  It doesn't matter if they're interstate, federal, state, or local roads - they've still got a lot of broken pavement.

But the scenery is stunning in places.  At one point I noticed 3 layers of mountains: the nearest were covered in trees, the ones farther away appeared dark blue, then even farther away others looked light blue.  In the sunshine it was a beautiful sight.  I was headed south toward the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, one of America's beauty spots.

My campground was built on multiple levels, and any gravel they'd spread had been beaten down into the dirt, so the roads were somewhat muddy.  They gave me a decent spot, though, where I could almost get level.

Tennessee - Days 2 & 3

Newport KOA
Saturday, 2 and Sunday, 3 November 2019

Campground time
I spent both these days here in the campground.  The whole first day was spent pulling my drafts out of the word processing program and trying to make them fit as blog posts.  I still haven't figured out how to make the font behave, other than to retype all of them.  And as wordy as I am, that's not a time-saving option.  Anyway, I got caught up.

The second day I spent reading tourist handouts I'd picked up at the Visitor Center a couple of days ago and figuring out what I wanted to see.  Of course, that list isn't at all the same as where I'm able and willing to go - but it's a good place to start.

I saw weather reports about that storm and cold front we dealt with in the Kentucky campground and felt very lucky.  I saw that many parts of this general area had tornadoes and downed trees to deal with, and all we got were some high winds and rain for a while.  I'd take that option any day.

What we've had here is nights just below freezing and sunny days up to about 60°.  I filled up with propane as soon as we checked in here and have had to run the heater most of each morning because it's been so chilly.

Campsites
When I got to this campground the other day, I found a pickup truck parked in my designated campsite.  When I told the manager, instead of making the guy move his truck, he told me to take another site.  That site had me sitting at another angle - and it didn't take me long to decide I wasn't going to fight gravity for several days at the rates they're charging.  So he gave me yet another site, which was somewhat more level, though I had to work at it.

I see that many campers have little blocks they put under their wheels to help level them, but that's not something I want to try by myself.  I never see anyone else setting that up by themselves so don't know how I'd do it without help.  And for me, that wouldn't be very useful anyway because I so rarely stay in one place for more than a night.  Most campers are being parked for days while the owners go off in separate cars.

Food litter
For some reason I can't imagine, there's food lying on the ground all over this KOA.  The very first time I took the dogs out once we'd gotten settled in a site, Dexter found some chicken still on the bones right here in this site.  I didn't see it until I was prying it out of his mouth, and I threw it in the firepit, which already had some garbage the previous people had left.

But we've hardly had even one walk in all these days where Dext and/or Gracie didn't find any food.  And this isn't Dext's usual eat-anything sort of food, but instead I'm getting real food out of his jaws.  (Thank goodness he lets me do it without a fight.)

But there was one ghastly incident Sunday afternoon when, once again, Dext found something he was crunching on and, because I was afraid it was a chicken bone or something that'd hurt him, I pried it out of his mouth only to find it was covered in feces.  Which then my fingers were, too.  Fingers on both hands, and I was smearing it on the leashes too.  The smell was awful and I was almost in shock from the ghastliness of the situation.  I pulled the dogs back to the RV and barely got the door open with my little finger (undefiled) and started disinfecting everything.

I had to clean my hands 3 times with disinfecting wipes, wash them 4 times with soap (rubbing and singing the alphabet song twice each time), use a nail brush 3 times, and then do it all over again before I could get rid of the smell.  Given that my nose isn't a surefire indicator of cleanliness, I have no idea whether I got rid of the contamination.  And somewhere in there I also used disinfecting wipes on the leashes.  It was an awful episode.

Otherwise
I got an appointment for Lily to have her claws clipped Monday morning in Knoxville, and brought out of storage her new carrying case.  I set it up in the cabin so she could get used to it and twice I saw her climb into it and lie down for a while.  I think she really likes the mesh sides that let her see around her.

I gave the dogs their monthly heartworm medicine.

I looked at my winter clothes, stored in duffel bags, but it's just not cold enough for them yet.  I only brought out my winter shoes (no breathing holes like my summer shoes) and the winter vest I bought in Connecticut last November.  I imagine I'll be needing the rest in a couple of weeks, but not just yet.

I came up with a plan for Monday, which turned out to be entirely errands and no sightseeing.  I just have a lot of chores that piled up while I was in rural eastern Kentucky.  Since I'm hoping to go from Knoxville into rural far eastern Tennessee, I figured I'd better get things done now. 

I found a campground to stay in Monday night that's much closer to Knoxville than I am now (more than an hour away now).

And I made what seems to be a realistic plan to see the Appalachian area of Tennessee later this week.  We'll see what happens when reality shows up.

Tennessee - Day 1 - getting here

Newport/I-40/Smoky Mountains KOA
Friday, 1 November 2019

today's route:
 eastern Kentucky to eastern Tennessee

Driving through Kentucky
When the dogs and I went out this morning - both at 6:15 and again at 8:00 - it was really cold.  There was still some wind, so I'm sure the wind chill made a difference, but it was more of a breeze than the heavy winds we had yesterday.  Thank goodness, because I wouldn't have much liked driving in those.

After we'd been on the road a bit, I heard on the radio that it was then 28° in Frankfort - a fair distance from where we were and a little farther north, but still a likely indicator of what we were feeling: chilled.

I started noticing a lot of kudzu draped all over the bushes and trees, which I hadn't noticed in other parts of Kentucky.  It's becoming increasingly obvious that I'm heading farther south.

In an area of very heavy road construction I saw a highway sign saying, "Drive like you color - slow and between the lines."  Humor might win folks over where orders won't.

I passed a sign saying I was driving through the Daniel Boone National Forest.

I passed another sign saying I was entering Clay County, "Land of Swinging Bridges."  Thinking this was worth looking up, I found this website complete with photos.   www.exploreclaycountyky.com/swinging_bridges

As we drove, I noticed that far more trees were bare of leaves than I'd seen in the last few days.  I finally figured out that the cold front that blew through yesterday had winds strong enough to shake down many of the beautiful leaves that I'd been enjoying.  Too bad, but I'm glad I got to see them when I did.

I passed a sign saying I was entering Manchester - "City of Hope."  I was curious about what they were hoping for and found this really odd story online.  This website clearly has a church-based point of view, but I couldn't find any online explanation for the nickname that was from a secular website.  So here's an unusual story.   https://greatawakening.blogspot.com

Welcome to Tennessee

Tennessee - my 20th state

And I came to Tennessee.  By this point, I'd been driving for almost 2 hours, so we were all ready for a stop at the Visitor Center.  I got tourist information, we all had lunch, and the dogs got a couple of walks.

You can't tell because I don't have enough state pieces in my map, but Tennessee is unusually laid out.   TN borders on 8 different states: KY and VA on the north; North Carolina on the east; Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi on the south; Arkansas and Missouri on the west. 

And TN is almost 4 times longer (440 miles) than it is wide (120 miles).  Its northeastern corner is closer to Canada than it is to its southwestern corner.  Because I'm now in eastern TN where the border slopes northeast, my campground is only about 20 miles or so from the NC border, along the Appalachians and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Back on the road

A semi that was ahead of me on the road was shedding ice off its top.  At first I couldn't figure out what I was seeing.  And when I did figure it out, I wondered where it had spent the night.  It was cold in Kentucky - below freezing, obviously, given Frankfort's temperature well into the morning - but I wouldn't have thought chunks of ice would have formed.

I passed a sign saying that section of the interstate was named in memory of Sen. Albert Gore, Sr.  I'd forgotten the Gores were from Tennessee and, because I didn't really know much about the VP's father, I looked him up.  This link -  en.wikipedia.org/Albert_Gore_Sr. - gives some basic information, including his startling solution for ending the Korean War, which I'm glad Truman didn't adopt.  But for a different perspective entirely, including a view into Jr.'s behavior, there's this link.  slate.com/was-albert-gore-sr-a-crook

The interstate started some serious climbing - enough so that I saw Dexter yawn to pop his ears.  I could feel a little trouble with mine.  When the road was running along a ridge top, we had a wonderful view of the mountains with the leaves changing colors.  Really pretty.

I passed the road to Oak Ridge, TN, where (surprise!) the Oak Ridge Boys singing group are from.

And I passed the road to Rocky Top, TN, which made me want to start singing the lyrics.  "Rocky Top, Tennessee" is one of the 9 official state songs.  Yep.  Nine of them, a list that also includes "The Tennessee Waltz."  I guess this state just inspires music.  I'm a little surprised they haven't yet added, "All my ex's live in Texas  (that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee)."

Actually, songwriting was designated in 2003 as the official state art form.

Tennessee really likes designating official state things.  It has 2 state fish, 2 state birds, at least 2 state flowers, 2 state trees and no fewer than 4 state insects.  It's enough to make you wonder if the State Assembly has time to do anything else.  They only meet every other year, and then only for 90 days.

I've been seeing a truly surprising number of Ohio and Indiana license plates.  I just never thought of Tennessee as being all that close to either state, or it being on the way to somewhere else for that matter.

One lane of the interstate was blocked by the entire rear bumper from someone's car.  Not the narrow piece of chrome that used to constitute a bumper, but that whole piece of body that goes across modern cars.  I noticed it just in time and fortunately had the lane next to me clear so I could swerve into it.  Otherwise I'd probably still be back there on the highway with a real mess on my hands.

I passed a sign for the Seven Islands State Birding Park.  I might have wanted to go there but some really helpful person wrote on Trip Advisor that the route is a winding road so narrow you have to pull off the road when meeting another vehicle.  I've had enough of that for a little while.

I passed the road to Pigeon Forge, a tiny town that Dolly Parton put on the map with her Dollywood amusement park ($76 entry fee + $18 parking for my RV = no thanks).  As far as I could tell from the brochures at the Visitor Center, there are now any number of other attractions in Pigeon Forge.  

One that I saw several billboards for is called The Shroud Museum.  As far as I can tell, what they offer is a full-size replica of the Shroud of Turin, and a great deal of information that claims to prove the original shroud is truly the burial cloth of Jesus.  I'm skeptical of such claims, despite the purported proof, and won't bother paying the $12 entry fee.  Although most Trip Advisor comments were very positive, I lean toward the person who said, "I hope the Rapture doesn't happen in Pigeon Forge.  Jesus would walk on past this place.  Overpriced and just sad."

I'll stay here in the campground a few days to get caught up on my blog and oriented for my month in Tennessee.