This entry is going to cover three days that we spent with Ken and Sandy. Sharon knew that today (June 2nd) was her sister, Arlene's, birthday. Since she and her husband, Jerry, had driven to La Grange, Kentucky, for their granddaughter's graduation, Sandy had the bright idea of driving up to La Grange to surprise Arlene. It had been many years since Sandy and Arlene had seen each other. So, we drove up to La Grange (4 1/2 hour drive). Arlene was surprised. We had a chance to visit for a while before we all went out for dinner at the Havana Rumba in Louisville. After a couple of hours at the restaurant, it was time for us to get on the road back to Decatur. To make it short, we arrived at our campground at 2 a.m.


The next day, Sandy had to work, so we "laid low". I think the long trip to La Grange took its toll on everyone. After we got up and had breakfast, we worked on the blog for a while. Eventually, we showed our faces to the world. We decided to go into Spring City to explore and go out to the Watts Bar Dam and power plants. We drove into Spring City and drove around and decided to have dinner at Winstead's American Restaurant. After dinner, we took a drive out to a dam that we cross every time that we go over to Ken & Sandy's home. There is a coal and nuclear power plant just south of the dam.



Early the next morning, Sharon woke up hardly able to breathe. She wanted to go to an ER to be checked out by a doctor. She had been suffering from the amount of pollen in the area. So, we drove 30 miles to a hospital in Etowah, TN. I had chosen a hospital that I found on-line that had good reviews. Lots of hospitals, but only 2 with good reviews. It was perfect...nobody was waiting and Sharon was seen immediately. We were relieved that there was no sign of pneumonia. The doctor gave her a cortisone and antibiotic injection and a prescription for an oral antibiotic. On the way back to the campground, we stopped and had breakfast and had the prescription filled at a CVS.

When we arrived at Ken & Sandy's home, we decided to go out to "Fields of the Wood". It is a park that was built in the 1940's and is run by the Church of God. Various districts of the Church of God contributed to the construction. Maintenance is paid for by donations. As we drove into the parking lot, we saw the 10 Commandments laid out on a hillside in white concrete letters. The parking lot is in a valley between two hills. On the opposite hill from the 10 Commandments, there was a viewing platform that also had a four sided statue that explains why the "park" was built. From the platform, we had a clear view of the 10 Commandments. Behind the platform were steps going up the hill with cement markers each with one of the tenets of the Christian church. Further up the hill, there was a simulation of the hill of Golgotha where Jesus was crucified. Adjacent to that was a representation of the empty tomb, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the Sunday after Passover Sabbath.

Since it had been a long day for us, after seeing the Field of the Woods, we headed back to Ken & Sandy's home. We had a nice dinner and we headed back to the campground to get some needed rest.

On our final day with Ken and Sandy, we went over to the Red Clay State Historic Park near Cleveland, TN. This was the last eastern capital of the Cherokee Nation. We went into the history of the "Trail of Tears" extensively in our blog on Cherokee, NC, so I won't go into it again here. However, in this state park, we were able to see how the Cherokee lived ~ quite a change from the images of tepees that I had growing up watching the "Lone Ranger"!


Leaving the Visitors Center, we walked around the park grounds to see a replica of a Cherokee farmstead. As described on the plaque, the farmstead is typical of the Cherokees that adapted to European culture. The basic farmstead consisted of the living quarters (home, barn and corncrib), the cultivated fields and the woodlands. Interestingly, some of the farmsteads had "sleeping rooms" for guests. See the "Visitor's Account" as to the comforts of the "sleeping room".


The final building that we saw was the council meeting house. This is the equivalent of the U.S. Capitol building. The leaders met here over issues affecting the Nation. Near the tribal council house is a deep blue spring. The leaders were served water from the spring when they met for council.


Clouds were starting to move in and there was a light rain. Our final stop was the Blythe Ferry - Cherokee Removal Memorial Park. At the Visitors Center, there was a well-kept flower garden that was beautiful! I couldn't help but take pictures of different color lily plants that were there. Next to the garden were large granite slabs that contained plaques with the names of all the Cherokees (by state) who were relocated. Finally, we walked through the forest to the edge of the Hiwassee River where the boat ferried the Cherokees across the river to continue their long trek to the new western lands.


As we headed back to Ken and Sandy's house, we stopped at the 1976 Centennial Olympic whitewater canoe venue on the Ocoee River. The ladies got out of the car with their umbrellas as it was raining steadily by now. Being early summer, the water in the river was low. Water upstream could be released from the dams for the competition at this venue.


After arriving back at Ken and Sandy's house, we had dinner and met one of their daughters and a granddaughter. It came time for us to leave and get ready to move tomorrow on towards St. Louis.