GRAND RIVERS, between...

 ......the lakes. This is a picturesque little village set on a narrow strip of land in Kentucky between Lakes Kentucky and Barkley. We transition here between the Tennessee River & the Cumberland River through a short canal to make our way to Nashville. We took a tour by horse drawn buggy through the town with a local guide. There is a notable restaurant there called Patti's Settlement - it's notable for 1lb pork chops, 1 inch thick. Not for us. It also has the mile high pie, a meringue confection that Linda is modelling.

A nice gentle way of sightseeing.

That's one person's portion.

Patti's is more than a restaurant, it is a hotel, wedding venue, crazy golf, animals and a garden walk. It's supposed to get really done up at Xmas.

SHILOH (SAVANNAH Tn)

Had a nice lazy day, up late, sit down full breakfast followed by a guided tour of the civil war battlefield at Shiloh. It was quite a bloody affair causing the most casualties from any battle in North America. Initially there were about 90,000 combatants equal Union & Confederate numbers, with the Union receiving 18,000 reinforcements. About 24,000 casualties, dead, wounded & missing in total for both sides. The Union armies were camped by the river expecting to march to Corinth, a major rail & river hub that the Confederates had dug in. However the Confederate army marched undetected to engage them at Shiloh. The battle raged over 2 days fought in fields and forest over a large area. Artillery & gunboats were used. In short the Confederates surprised the Union & drove them back the Pittsburgh Landing with their backs to the river & swamp. The Confederates stopped at dusk thinking they had won and expecting to mop up and finish the next day. During the night 18,000 Union reinforcements turned up, the battle resumed and the Confederates routed. A turning point in the war and the major southern towns on the Mississippi fell shortly after.

It is a National Park with Ranger guides. The visitor centre gives you an overview and then you go on the tour around the large battlefield. The Confederate memorial shows Victory with defeat stealing the laurel wreath 

FLORENCE Al

We've sailed a bit more down the Tennessee river to Florence, apparently it was laid out by an Italian architect who liked his homeland city. It doesn't bear much of a resemblance apart from the number of churches. Having said that, it is a nicely laid out town with wide avenues, green spaces and trees.

Formerly golf, now disc golf.

We took a tour of Helen Keller's birth place. We knew only the basics of her and knew nothing of her tutor, Anne Sullivan, who was key in helping Helen to become the woman she did. Must try and watch The Miracle Worker when we get back home.

This is the water pump that Helen learned her first word. No stopping her after that, she learned quickly it was said she must have had an IQ of 160. The main home is on the left, Helen & Anne lived in their own in the building on the right.

ON THE RIVER - DECATUR

 We made our way down to Chattanooga, wonder what's that's famous for, to board the Symphony. A comfortable modern ship with spacious cabins & balconies. The ship swallows it's passengers whole.

You see that it doesn't need a dock, it just pulls up to the bank and puts out a gangway.

First stop was Decatur where we took a tour to Mooresville, an historic village from the mid 19th century that has 45 inhabitants. It's on their historic register, which incidentally doesn't put many restrictions on what you can do to the houses.

Spot the finger?

We took part in a workshop to learn about flower pressing, dying and using plants to make permanent patterns. They had a smallholding called 1812 farm where they kept sheep for the wool that they used to produce various things for sale in their shop and grew all of the flowers for pressing and dying.

You can the see the flowers behind us and the flower drying room. Apparently mould is a big problem so they try to dry them quickly using dehumidifiers.

These are mine & Lin's efforts, can you guess whose is whose?

This is the chairlift from Skypark I forgot to include the other day.

SMOKY MOUNTAINS

The weather set in today with a vengeance, thunder, lightning, the full works you get to see the smoky as well. The moisture on the forest lays on the canopy and mixes with the plant juices to form a VOC, volatile organic compound that billows smoked mist from the tree tops.

That's the border. You have to show id to get a drink in Tennessee, nothing needed for North Carolina. It's crazy, the time zones are jumping between Eastern and Central every stop we make.

Visited a Cherokee Indian village who told us about their crafts. Despite all the promises and agreements, they were forced off their ancestral land in 1838 and made to trek elsewhere. Many thousands died, they called it the Trail of Tears.

Weather improved dramatically once we got off the mountain and down into Gatlinburg. Back into the 90's. It's like a frontier town for families. It has roller coaster on rails running down the side of the mountain where you sit on an individual sled that you control yourself. Plenty of walking trails, campgrounds - know anybody who would enjoy that? We went up onto the Skypark that you go up in an open ski chair lift. It has a very long wobbly suspension bridge with a glass floor several hundreds of feet up - know anybody who wouldn't like that?

Finished up with a dinner at a nice restaurant and then off to pack.

UP IN THE MOUNTAINS

We were looked after and didn't get into the more severe places you could get into. It's a wilderness, and a few people lose their lives every year. 

There be bears here, what do think the little one said? We had a nice tour with the pink jeeps, which is owned by Dolly. We went to Cades Cove, the visitor centre and then off to lunch again - more food. After lunch we took a walk through the forest to Cataract Falls, a bit underwhelming but enlivened by one of our party going missing. I told you it was dodgy! It took about 40 minutes to find him which made us miss our moonshine tasting. There's no phone or internet coverage up there and it's 5000 feet up so old folks get a bit knackered.

We went back to the hotel for a break & shower, then off to Dolly's resort hotel for dinner. It's a really nice resort place on the lines of Disneyworld. We sat on the porch with cocktails & rocking chairs - what could be nicer. That box contains a Dolly composition that is to be opened & performed on the 100th anniversary of her birth.