I named this chapter yesterday in anticipation of the boat and '32 Ford rides. Neither may happen -- we'll see. Last night it rained quite a bit and today it's really gotten cold -- in the low 60's. And now the river is higher, faster, and real muddy. Doesn't look nearly as inviting as it did yesterday.
I did mosey on down the river in my truck yesterday and found some nice photo-ops.
CLICK ANY PICTURE TO GET A LARGER VIEW.
Starting off with the bridges of whatever county. First bridge I came to was a one-lane cement one -- couldn't have crossed it with the RV -- it was that narrow. I had to swing fairly wide and come straight onto it to even make it in the truck.
Next bridge I came to was a great little swinging bridge. The sign says limit 4 people, but I'd feel a little uncomfortable with 4 if they were anywhere near my size. As I walked on out, I noticed the ancient boards and began to wonder if it had been weight-tested to 240 pounds ... LOL.
Went on down further and saw some really beautiful spots. There's something intriguing about a mountain stream -- guess it's because they're so clear and one imagines that the water is really pure since it flows from a spring somewhere upstream. Of course, there's probably alot betwixt the spring and here, so no telling how unpure it actually might be. The vertical picture here gives an idea (if you click to the larger version) of how clear it is. You can see the rocks all the way across the river -- I haven't seen any fish yet though -- they must be under the rocks.
The picture on the right was about the roughest water I saw. There's supposedly a waterfall somewhere along here, but I wasn't able to find it.
As I wandered around the mountains, I came upon this Absolute Auction sign. Sounded neat, so I wandered on in -- even though the open house isn't until Sunday the 19th, I figured I could probably get a pretty good look anyway. Turns out the owner was at the lodge, so we talked for awhile. He's owned and operated the Bradley Mountain Retreat for 16 years and finally decided to move on, so it going to auction it off. It consists of a really beautiful 2560 sq ft lodge with main living quarters plus 4 efficiency rental units. I went inside and he showed me around a little -- really a great place if someone wanted to live in the mountains. Besides the lodge, he has 4 cabins on about 1.5 acres each. He speculated that the cabins would probably go for around $150K. He also said he takes in about $100K per year on the rentals. If someone had about a million or so and wanted to retire to the mountains, this looked like a great choice. CLICK HERE to check out his website. The other picture there is just a view from the end of his driveway -- views got better up in the cabins, which all face this valley. When you get to his website, click on "click here for details" to see some great pictures.
Here I've included a few pictures that I took on the Foothills Parkway just West of Townsend, TN. Although it's always difficult to capture the depth and beauty, I tried. The bottom picture shows the potential beginnings of a forest fire -- see the smoke right in the center of the picture? I didn't know who to call and probably couldn't have given them a very accurate location anyway, so just took a picture. Didn't hear anything later, so I guess it must have been a controlled burn.
Since this chapter is named "A Couple of Great Rides", I thought I'd better end with just that -- a couple of great rides. Here are a couple of ancient Fords, both of which were for sale if you're in the market. As I recall, left is a '29 Ford truck going for $25,500 and right is a '31 Ford convertible going for $39,900. I may have the years wrong, but I'm sure someone will let me know if I do.
Click below to go "Back to Index" or to Chapter 42, with a bunch of really great pictures of some classic cars and hot rods.
41. A Couple of Great Rides
My Travel Log
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