Road trip

It's the little things that make me happy. Really, all I need is my husband and daughter in the car headed someplace I've never been(or even someplace I've haven't been since I got my new camera). After sitting in our den for a week, missing my kid at camp, feeling like I've never felt before, we got out Saturday to get some Vitamin D from that big shiny thing in the sky.

Our trip took us down I-24 towards Chattanooga. We exited in Manchester and picked up State Route 41 South. This is the Dixie Highway and was the north/south route prior to the Interstate coming through. Along this little stretch, near the small towns of Hillsboro and Pelham, I got photos of 2 "See Rock City" barns. The road then climbed up onto the Cumberland Plateau and we were in Monteagle. We drove east a bit, but then backtracked towards Monteagle and points west.

Just past Monteagle is a town called Sewanee. Located here is the University of the South. We stopped and walked around and took tons of photos of one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The gothic architecture, the towers, the stained glass windows, it was amazing. And then we got hungry. There isn't much in Sewanee(not that we could find anyway), so we headed down the road. The road meanders down the mountains towards the west. The first town you come to is Cowan. They have a nice little Railroad Museum(we didn't have time to go in, but we stopped and I got several photos of the train and downtown area). But no fast food here either. Finally, a few more miles down the road we come to Winchester, county seat of Franklin County, and a Burger King(which thrilled the kid, she got Pokemon cards).

Unforunately after that hubby's back started to ache and my stomach started to ache, so we headed up towards Tullahoma to catch I-24 home. And I spent the rest of the day on the couch in pain watching D-Day shows on the History Channel.

Hopefully will post some photos soon.

Lonely, I'm so lonely

My baby is at camp this week. I've never really been away from her for this long. Oh sure she spent a week with Grandma when she was about 5, but she was with Grandma! She is 10 now and she is spending a week over 2 hours away with nobody I know!! I know she will be having so much fun, she won't even miss me. But I worry. She is going to be doing things I wish I could watch her do. Swimming, canoeing, archery, ping pong, arts and crafts. And I am thinking about her with nearly every waking moment. It's been a day and a half and I feel sick to my stomach most of the time and I had trouble sleeping last night.

I am sure she will be fine, but is it so wrong that I jump every time the phone rings? I know it's quiet, really REALLY quiet around the house-just the way I like it-but I just can't wait until Friday gets here!

Civil War bones found in Franklin

While I am extremely interested in this story, I'm scratching my head over the news stories I've read so far.

This one from ?Columbus, Ohio? actually says...

About 2,000 soldiers died in the 1864 Battle of Franklin. Nearly all who died were Union soldiers.

Uh, what? Let's try 10,000 casualties*-7,300 were Confederate! Nice try yankee.

Then there is this one from Fox News 17 in Nashville(you'd think they get the facts straight) that says this:

Historians believe the body belongs to a Union soldier, who may have been killed around November 30, 1864.

That's when the Union Army was pursuing Confederate soldiers as they retreated from the Battle of Nashville.

Yes, the Battle of Franklin was November 30, 1864. But the Battle of Nashville was December 15-16, 1864. And if they meant "Battle of Franklin" from the date, well this guy was found at the base of Winstead Hill, which is where the Confederate higher-ups(namely Hood) watched the slaughter unfold. It is just over a mile south of the Union's line of defense.

So this soldier could have died as the Union made their way north from Spring Hill and was quickly buried where he fell(most likely of an old wound or disease) before the trenches were built near the Carter House. Or he died on the way South after December 16.

Or is it possible that this soldier was killed during a cavalry skirmish that occurred on April 10, 1863 when Confederate troops moved north from Spring Hill just to scout whether the Union held Franklin or not. Forrest was one of the cavalry leaders here and he was moving north along the Lewisburg Pike, which is just east of this site. There were Union pickets in the area and there were roughly 100 casualties on both sides.


I'm not an archaeologist or a certified historian or anything. My guesses on when this soldier died are just that, guesses. But they are educated guesses. How do these news sources get away without any fact-checking? Oh wait, they do that every day, why should I be surprised?


As to the site where the remains were found, I am ambivalent. On one hand, yeah they are going to stop the construction and do more searching, and yeah another golf course built on battleground bites the dust. But for what...more townhouses and shops. I'm already disgusted at the site of that Target sitting next door. And not to mention the Pizza Hut that was allowed to be built on top of a known mass grave. What a sad thing to see. To see the difference between such historic places like Gettysburg and Franklin. Yes, yes, we lost. That's no excuse to forget what happened and act like it never did happen. What a shame, Franklin, what a shame.


*want to clear up "casualties": "casualties" are listed as dead/wounded/captured. For Franklin, Union had 189 killed, 1033 wounded and 1104 captured. Confederates had 1750 died(or died from wounds within a few days), 3800 wounded and 702 captured. There were more Confederates killed in this 5 hour battle than the whole 2 days at Shiloh(often called the Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War).

Too much rain

We just haven't had the chance to get out lately-it seems like it is always raining. The cemetery that I stopped at a few months ago on Old Hickory-the one I could barely see the headstones from the overgrowth. It was mostly lots and lots of dead bushes and bushes with massive pickers on them. I could see the headstones, just not get close enough to read them. Drove by it on Saturday and it looked like a jungle. The green growth was so thick you couldn't even see the fence around the cemetery. I'd wager many graveyards look like that about now. Just no time for anyone to cut the grass and weeds.

We did go see "Star Trek" Saturday-a good indoor thing while it rained. The movie was awesome! And I loved Karl Urban. He was fabulous as Bones.

The kiddo's cast comes off in 2 more weeks. Just in time for camp!

Working on my website a bit more. Found a good new look for the new pages-need to get more motivated to "git 'er done"!

Bad days

Posting from my husband's computer. My computer died this morning. But that isn't the worst thing. My daughter fell from a swing at recess yesterday and broke her wrist. I'm feeling lower than dirt right now. I'm so numb I can't even cry. I don't even know what to do now.

EF 4 Tornado

That is what the National Weather Service has deemed this tornado. Wow. They have also added EIGHT more miles of damage to the length of the tornado making it a 23 mile path. It also puts some other cemeteries in our county in the path. Most notably the Rocky Glade(Downing) Cemetery. I will wait a few weeks before getting out to check on these places(more bad weather forecast for this weekend).

One of the homes near Medical Center Parkway.

Hazens Brigade Monument. The tornado went right over the monument. From other photos I've seen on Daily News Journal, some tree branches ended up in the small fenced graveyard, but it didn't appear there was any damage to anything. The Stones River National Cemetery did receive damage though, a tree fell over and took out a section of the southern wall. I could also see some other trees down inside the cemetery, but I couldn't tell if any markers were damaged.

Tornadoes here in Rutherford County

It was a scary Good Friday. This is the closest any tornado has hit since we moved here in 2002. As the crow flies, the Blackman area that was hit hard is about 5-6 miles south of me. I thank God for sparing my neighborhood. I pray for the family who lost a mother with her 3 month old baby.

As the news broadcast the weather warnings live, and with the weather alert radio going off every ten minutes(seemingly), my daughter and I huddled in the bathroomt(yes, with the cat too). I could tell eventually that the worst of it would pass south of us. And then WKRN, news channel 2, showed a TDOT video of the huge tornado passing just north of Hwy 96 across Interstate 24 I breathed a small sigh of relief. For us at least. The worst was past and "big one" was at least 5 miles to the south.

And then I started figuring out what would be in its path. I knew it would cross Stones River Battlefield(and sure enough there are reports of many trees down there now). It took a diagonal path and headed towards the VA Hospital at Compton Rd and Hwy 231. There are so many homes destroyed. As much as the photographer in me wants to document this, I will heed the call of the Sheriff and PD to stay off the roads.

We had planned to travel some backroads to do some grave hunting tomorrow, but I'm not certain that will happen now. Perhaps next weekend we can get out to check on the status of any cemeteries in that path.

Oh, and now I find out that Rutherford County has had more reported tornadoes than any other county in Middle Tennessee since tornadoes began being tracked. Yikes.

Just adding in: cemeteries possibly in the path of the tornado:

Stones River National Cemetery, Old Nashville Hwy
Wade Cemetery, Thompson Lane
McFadden Cemetery, Van Cleve Ln
Mitchell Cemetery, Haynes Dr
Green Cemetery, Sulphur Springs Rd
Watkins Cemetery, Hwy 231
Rucker-Pitts Cemetery, Compton Rd
Emery Cemetery, Compton Rd

I hope to get out and check on them as soon as possible.

Weekly update

I've been working on getting the Rutherford County Tombstone page re-done and completed. So far I've completely re-listed the entire county, alphabetically(which also means numerically). Over 700 cemeteries, so it took me a few days to finish it. One thing bugged me though-there is a small cemetery in Murfreesboro that I had found a few months ago but needed to revisit when the weeds wouldn't be so bad(and threat of snakes). And from descriptions in the new Rutherford County Cemeteries and Graveyards book, I figured it could be one of 2 different cemeteries, since both descriptions showed them to be near each other(and if I found one, where was the other?)...

Note to self...read the ENTIRE cemetery description including names when thinking two are awfully close to each other in location!

One cemetery was the "Kirk"(#368) cemetery, the other was "Nisbett"(#491). We went back out to visit it on Saturday. I didn't bring the book along with me, but when I got there and started reading the names on the headstones I found both Kirk AND Nisbetts there! When I got home I checked the names for those I had found....yep, sure enough the exact same names are listed in BOTH cemeteries in the book! So there are Kirks and Nisbetts, so this will from now on be the Kirk-Nisbett Cemetery.


Wanted to get out more as Saturday was a gorgeous day, but I wasn't feeling well and we had things like yardwork that REALLY needed to get done before it rained again on Sunday.

More country music awards on Sunday night. I can never remember which are which but I love watching any of them! Especially when Brad Paisley won for Best Male Artist!! I let out a huge scream! And he's at home here in Nashville(well, Spring Hill) waiting for Kimberly to have their 2nd baby any day now. Awwwwww! So sweet! Carrie Underwood won Entertainer, which is fine by me, as long as it wasn't Kenny Chesney again. And the song that Trace Adkins sang with the military choir, my goodness I was in tears from the start of it. The opening lyrics are:

I was there in the winter of '64
When we camped in the ice
at Nashville's doors
Three hundred miles our trail had led
We barely had time to bury our dead
When the Yankees charged and the colors fell
Overton hill was a living hell
When we called retreat it was almost dark
I died with a grapeshot in my heart

Oh man that hits home. And of course anything moving like this makes me cry like a baby. I also cried when Jamey Johnson sang "In Color" even though I've heard the song a thousand times. I just love it so much. And I was sooo happy when it won "Song of the Year". It was an excellent field with some really great songs this year, but I was thrilled that it won even though it meant that Brad didn't win that one. And finally, the performance that got me off of the couch to clap and cheer at the end of it was John Rich's "Shutting Detroit Down". It says so much. I love John Rich.

Nashville Zoo

This is probably one of my all time favorite photos that I've taken!

The Nashville Zoo has new Bengal Tiger cubs, born December 2008. They are only at our zoo temporarily, but we had to take the opportunity to see them. Honestly, I could have stayed all day and watched them! They are just like any other 4 month old kitten you have ever seen. Very playful and hysterical to watch! We must have sat and watched them for half an hour, I took around 114 photos of them(well, I took over 500 total at the zoo-great subject matter!)! At this moment, one was chasing the other and suddenly her little front legs just tumbled out from under her and she did a face plant! It was so funny and I couldn't believe I managed to capture it!

Benwah and Taboo will not be at our zoo for long, so if you can you should jump at the chance to go and see these 2 adorable tigers!

Weekly update

This past week has been pretty good. My kid has been off for Spring Break and my husband got the week off from work. So we took a little trip to East Tennessee to visit my mom and see some sites.

On Sunday we took a scenic drive north of Knoxville, called by some the "Devil's Triangle". The route to the road takes you through Oakridge, site of the Manhattan Project-where the nuclear bombs from World War II were built. You can't really see much from the main road, and that is just fine with me. The "triangle", on Route 116, starts up near Frozen Head State Park and Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary . It winds northeast through the mountains before turning southeast near the town of Stainville. When it reaches the southeastern corner, the road connects with Route 330 and heads back towards Olive Springs. However, we followed Route 116 as it headed back northeast through a long valley full of coal mining towns. We passed Briceville and stopped at the cemetery to see the memorial to the fallen miners of the Cross Mountain Mine Disaster that took place December 9, 1911(84 miners lost their lives). As you continue a few miles up you pass through Fraterville, site of an even worse mine disaster, where 216 miners were killed on May 19, 1902. Another few miles takes you to the town of Lake City, where the Leach Cemetery holds the memorial for the Fraterville disaster and 89 of the deceased. Going across Interstate 75 brought us to Norris Dam, one of TVA's many projects; and then on to Hwy 441 and back to Sevierville and my mom's place.

Monday saw us take a long way home. From Sevierville we followed Hwy 411 to Maryville, and then turn south on Hwy 129. Once you get to the Little Tennessee River, the road turns east towards North Carolina. When the road leaves the river, you have entered the "Tail of the Dragon"! It is touted as 318 curves in 11 miles, and they aren't kidding. You need to take extra caution to watch your speed around corners, watch for the many motorcyclists that ride this road, and the 18-wheelers that shouldn't. Along the Little Tennessee River are 3 dams that you will see, the Chilhowee, Calderwood, and Cheoah(this one being famous for the dam scene in the movie "The Fugutive"). After leaving the Dragon(and making a pit stop at Deal's Gap store), we continued the route to Robbinsville, NC and followed the signs for Cherohala Skyway. It runs back into Tennessee for 43 miles. The highest point along the route is 5390 feet and the views are amazing! It comes down from the mountains near Tellico Plains, TN and a sideroad just before reaching the town leads you to an incredible waterfall, Bald River Falls, where the Bald River dumps itself into the Tellico River. A great site that you don't even need to leave your car to see! We then followed Highway 30 from Etowah to McMinnville and then on home.

Tuesday we visited the Nashville Zoo and the Adventure Science Center. There is so much to talk about these places that I might just leave them for another post!

Hopefully I can get around to adding photos very soon!