Nathan posted on July 02, 2008 04:00
Day One TAT I:
We didn't get on the trail 'till probably 2:00 PM. "Getting up early" proved difficult what with the time difference and shopping for food 'till one in the am. And stopping to buy fireworks this afternoon. Still, we made it some 120 miles today.
We decided at the beginning that we would take pictures at points of interest. This is always a somewhat futile effort--during the points of interest, I'm too interested to think about taking pictures. However, we did stop and take a picture of an old oil drill. I figured it was a point of interest because I've never seen an oil drill in Tennessee. I also figured I could make it more interesting by climbing on top of it for the picture (it was a very small oil drill). Here is an approximate transcript of the ensuing conversation:
Erin: "Hey, hold this for a second, will you?" (Attempting to hand Nathan her camera)
Nathan: "Erin, we are not climbing on the oil drill."
Erin: (sigh)
Nathan: "It's someone else's property. We should respect that."
Erin: (sheepish grin)
Still, I got a picture, which I will attempt to post, along with some other points of interest.
Points of interest that we missed pictures of:
1. An old man, very old, missing his teeth, walking along the side of a dirt road. We asked if he needed a ride. No, he was just walking. Docter says he has to if he wants to live. He admired the Jeep, however.
2. A tavern. This tavern is located on a dirt road in the woods which is accessed by a succession of several other dirt roads, mostly looking like peoples' driveways. Who on earth is their clientele?
3. Several turns which aren't that interesting to describe, but trust me, they were interesting to drive.
We decided that we would stop for the night at 8:00. At about 7:45, we started looking for promising places on the side of the road (said road being Dogwood, a few miles outside of Ozone, TN). We saw a nice-looking house set in the woods with some pleasant-looking fields nearby. And plenty of cars and dogs in the driveway. Don't get the wrong picture, though: new cars and small, cute dogs. Not that we have anything against the old cars and hound dogs, just that I want to paint the appropriate scene for you.
We drove up, and the owners noticed us right away. They came out to meet us, and we (read, Nathan) politely asked if they had any place nearby where we could park our Jeep for the night. The man hesitated for a bit, and I thought he was trying to think of a polite way to tell us to get the heck out of here. After a couple of minutes he said, "I'm just trying to think of the best place to put you. I have 180 acres back there that I just mowed, but this road to access it is just a 4-wheeler road. I think your Jeep will be too wide to get there. Why don't we drive around the outside road, and you can just follow me."
!!!
Well, of course he brought out the family to meet us. We got our water refilled, an invitation to go inside and eat chocolate cake (which we somehow didn't manage to accept), and the offer of his firewood. We in turn showed off the rig, followed Mr. Benson out to the back 40 (where he has converted an old porta-john into a hunting blind by painting it camo and mounting it up on a tower), and set up the tent to show them. "Them" being Mr. Benson, his 12-yr-old daughter, who drove the Geo Tracker out here for us, two other daughters, and the oldest daughter's boyfriend (at least, that was my best estimation of the relationships...).
Mr. Benson is pretty cool. He used to work at Oakridge (those of you from TN know what that entails) where he would convert radioactive waste from a semi-truck load to the size of a shoebox. He got tired of that after a while and bought a couple of convenience stores out here. He's also buying up property in the area, lucky for us.
First day has been better than we could imagine so far. We have cooked a delicious supper out of the back of the Jeep to the call of a whippoorwill and the twinkle of fireflies in the deepening dusk. Nathan hung a lantern from the hatch and reminded me not to walk into it. I should fill you in on that reference some time, but this blog is plenty long, so you'll just have to wait.
Catch you later!
Posted by EHenson at 11:00 AM on July 3, 2008