Rutherford County-the 'B's

Did the B's today for Rutherford County. Only the ones that I haven't been to, the ones I am only giving basic info on. There are TONS of Bs in our county! Hopefully the next few pages go faster! I think I will get all those pages done before I go back and redo all the pages with photos. Because that means I will have to go back and fix all the photos to better sizes and with the website name added to them.

So much to do, so little attention to keep at it.

Argh though writing about these places makes me want to get back out and find them!! At least a few of them. Sigh....

Rutherford County Tombstone Photo Project

I have finally re-added this page to my website. Shame I don't really have anything linked there yet. Over 700 cemeteries to add either basic info or a full page with photos and transcription. It's a LOT of work. And having to go back and re-do a lot of the photos to add my name to them so people will stop stealing them. Stinks but it has to be done. I just wish I could set myself down and FOCUS and get it done. I drift too easily, check message boards, check Google Earth, check Worldconnect, get distracted trying to find just the right info and spend too much time on something else.

And now its snowing. But not sticking to the ground. Bummer. But it did snow enough last night for the kiddo to get a snow day.

Nathan Bedford Forrest

We had a bit of time last week where I was able to visit the grave of Nathan Bedford Forrest. It is in a small park in downtown Memphis. This was the only part of downtown we had time to see. We also visited Elmwood Cemetery. There are 2 Tennessee Governors and 14 Confederate Generals buried there. Unfortunately only a few are listed on the map that we paid 5 bucks for. Now I don't have a problem paying 5 bucks for a map, but I was hoping it would mark more of the important people. It only had one TN Governor, and we never found the other. It only marked a few Generals, and we actually noticed Gideon Pillow by chance and he wasn't on the list! I need to do lots more research on that place before we go back. And hope for a sunny day-use up less batteries and the pictures look so much nicer on sunny days.

Need to work on my website now, Warcraft is down for the day. :)

Ruby Falls in Chattanooga

Photo of Ruby Falls included. I believe it is the world's tallest underground waterfall. Impressive. It is not easy to get a photo of it either, especially when you are using a small digital camera with no tripod and loads of other people walking around. In two trips, this might be the best one turned out for me. I consider myself a bit claustrophobic but I haven't had a problem visiting these caverns. I certainly can't imagine going in this cave as small as it was when they first discovered it though!

Back from short trip...sort of

Ok, so we took sort of a vacation. We took the week and went to the Smoky Mountains(Gatlinburg, Newfound Gap); Chattanooga(Tennessee Aquarium, See Rock City, Ruby Falls); Fall Creek Falls; all over Nashville(seeing stars homes, Parthenon, downtown, Opry Mills); and Memphis(Elmwood Cemetery, Nathan Bedford Forrest).

You want more details? Ok, well I will try to give a few. Some family members came in for the week. We wanted to show them Tennessee. And we did. We could have showed them more.

We went to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. We walked some of Gatlinburg, but weather chased us away. Ate dinner at Great American Steak Buffet(or something like that), it was good. Next day we drove up to Newfound Gap. Couldn't stay long as the Park Rangers were closing off the parking lot due to about a dozen cars in the lot that had been broken into overnight. Back down the mountain and off to Chattanooga. Shame we saw so little.

Got to Chattanooga, went to Tennessee Aquarium. It was nice, unfortunately the kiddo got sick and by the time we got to a restaurant she had a migraine and threw up her dinner. And I got to spend my dinner time in the car with her. And when they brought my dinner back to the hotel, I had no utensils to eat it with(try eating Cracker Barrel food with no fork!). Oh well. Next day she felt better and we hit See Rock City. It was nice as always, quite cold-which wasn't too bad, and completely empty-which was excellent. But we got through it so quickly. Oh well, we've seen it before. Then to Ruby Falls. I've seen that before too, but it is nice to see again. Then onto Fall Creek Falls, though it looked empty when we arrived, as we walked to the overlook several dozen EXTREMELY RUDE teenagers showed up, hogged the overlook and were general morons and assholes. Shame. Though I always enjoy the ride, the countryside, some just don't and we should have never went here.

Around Nashville, we stopped by the homes of George Jones, Alan Jackson, Ronnie Dunn, Vince Gill, and maybe a few more that I can't remember. Went to Centennial Park to see the Parthenon. Went downtown to show the Arena and Coliseum. I think we did too much driving around though. Then to Opry Mills, which I personally hate-mainly because I hate shopping. But we spent like 2 hours there. Thursday was a bad icy day. We saved Memphis for Friday.

Friday and leaving very early. We got to Memphis and dropped them off at Graceland(no interest in that from me), and we went to Elmwood Cemetery to find Tennessee Governors and Confederate Generals. We managed to run downtown and see the grave of Nathan Bedford Forrest, but we weren't finished when we had to run back to Graceland and pick them up. Oh well, next time. We had planned on hitting Paris, TN and Hurricane Mills on the way back, but we just didn't have time.

And that was the week. They flew out Saturday morning to go to Vegas, I hope they have more fun there than we were able to show them. Oh well.

Photos to come, the ones I was able to get anyway.

Yep

No, no I don't want to turn this into a political blog. Just want to state my point of view. Move along now.

Country Music

I came to see her daddy for sit down man to man
It wasn't any secret i'd be asking for her hand
I guess that's why he left me waiting in the living room by myself
with at least a dozen pictures of her sitting on a shelf

[Chorus;]

She was playing Cinderella
She was riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
In her eyes i'm Prince Charming
But to him i'm just some fella
riding in and stealing Cinderella

I leaned in towards those pictures to get a better look at one
When I heard a voice behind me say "Now, ain't she something, son?"
I said "Yes, she quite a woman" and he just stared at me
Then I realized that in his eyes she would always be

Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
In her eyes i'm Prince Charming
But to him i'm just some fella riding in and stealing Cinderella

He slapped me on the shoulder
Then he called her in the room
When she threw her arms around him
That's when I could see it too

She was Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
If he gives me a hard time
I can't blame the fella
I'm the one who's stealing Cinderella

That song really gets me. My little Cinderella will be there someday. She is growing up so fast. Oh and that is "Stealing Cinderella" by Chuck Wix. Awesome song!


I'm really in the mood for Brad Paisley! I hope I get his new album, 5th Gear, today! His songs are so great, and this one has "Ticks", "Online" and "Letter to Me", they just keep getting better! I can't get enough and it drives me crazy waiting for the radio stations to play his songs! More Brad!!

Historic Wynnewood severely damaged in storms

This photo was taken of Wynnewood in September of 2006. Wynnewood was built in 1828 as an inn, it served travellers between Knoxville and Nashville. It is located on Old Hwy 25 in Castalian Springs, which is just east of Gallatin in Sumner County, Tennessee. It was one of the largest log buildings ever built in Tennessee, and by some accounts it was the largest historic one remaining in Tennessee, perhaps in all of America.

Last night a severe weather including several tornadoes ripped through Tennessee. One of the buildings hard hit was Wynnewood. As the sun came up this morning, News Channel 5's helicopter began showing the devastation. As soon as they showed Wynnewood, I knew what it was. It wasn't until later in the newscast that they went back and showed it again to tell of its significance. Some of the outbuildings are damaged or destroyed. The inn itself is a mess. The roof is gone(one that was being redone when I visited in 2006), and most of the second floor on the left side of the photo is just gone.

Not to put more emphasis on a building than human lives, seriously here, there were also 5 deaths(so far known) in the vicinity. There was a mother found dead, her infant found nearby, unharmed. So sad.

Luckily, my neck of the woods only got some very noisy rain and wind-that I know of. When and if I find or get a photo of the damage to Wynnewood, I will post it here.

Super Bowl

However I would LOVE it for Eli to be able to win this game, just to SHUTUP all those nay-sayers. That would be sweeeeeeeet.

As written from below, on Jan 29. Nice. I know I said I like the Pats too and wouldn't mind them winning, but I think Eli winning is so much better! It felt so awesome watching Eli hold up that trophy. Awesome.

I've downloaded the trial version of Lord of the Rings:Online. It is similar to World of Warcraft, but so far it's so much better. None of the stuff that I despise about WoW is in this game! I hate PvP, there is no PvP except in staged areas where you play playervsmonsterplayer. Not interested, and it doesn't have to affect my every day play. With that, there are 4 races and all are on the same side, so no faction-hate and no stupid town raids or players from the other faction taunting you or calling you names. There is no pressure to be 'uber' or 'leet' and I don't see the players standing around the mailbox in their 'leet' gear calling anyone without full epics 'noobs'.

So far I haven't seen anywhere near as many players as you do in WoW, which also so far means no jerks, no horrible chat talk, no duel spams from much higher levels, none of that crap. And the scenery is awesome, gorgeous. The quests are fun and there are tons of them. The little goals to strive for alongside the quests, like getting titles, is very cool. I really like this game.

Here is my problem, I don't really need another thing to get addicted to!! I have pulled myself away from WoW enough right now to not care about playing until the next expansion comes out. I need to spend the time to work on my website. I would love to go back to taking small road trips once a month(though gas prices still suck). Games are fun when you have time to play them, but when you are paying $12 a month(for WoW, or $10 a month for LotRO) then you feel **obligated** to play as much as possible to 'get your money's worth'. I would prefer a home game, where you pay for the game ONCE for each computer and then you play when you want and don't feel the need to play because you are paying more and more each month. I also would prefer something where it is just hubby, kiddo and me playing together without outside interference or even the slightest chance some idiot will come along and ruin your gameplay. I am SICK AND TIRED of it. I just don't know what to do now. Sigh.

Enough for today.