After loading up some of our antique furniture that we brought from Canada a year ago into a rented U-Haul truck, we headed out for Knoxville. Albeit it was a short drive this time, likely 2 1/2 hours drive east on Interstate 40, it did bring back some memories (both good and bad) of our six-day road trip from Vancouver to Murfreesboro a year ago last December.

Our friend Jean had scheduled with her brother Alan to help me offload these into Jean's house so that eased the burden considerably as Alan's a big guy. My back has done just fine. Just time enough for a shower before our Easter dinner with the Norris family at Lakeside Tavern on Fort Loudon Lake. Dinner was great for the nine of us in attendance. I'm not a big bread guy, but the sourdough bread here was amazing. Deborah had a childhood friend Linda White Rankin who is an accomplished sculptor in the Kingston area so we drove by to see her recent unveiled bronze of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut that was situated front and center at the Farragut Town Hall.

We went back out for Easter brunch on Sunday afternoon to Flemings today with Jean, Elaine, Deborah and Jean's mother Christine. It's been a real pleasure to explore some new restaurants here in the south as opposed to the same old, same old in Canada. After bringing Jean into the 21st century with her own in-house Wi-Fi network, Jean has now seen the light and is quite excited to be able to use her new Dell laptop from the convenience of her lounge chair. Tonight was Double Dog's for dinner - great spot for chicken wings and good old bar food.

After I drop off Jean at work tomorrow we've got the big Chrysler 300 to use for the day so we'll get some odds and ends done from Deb's perspective that are long overdue since our last visit. Our plans are to head up to Maynardville Tuesday to see Deb's brother Jim which is likely about an hour or so north. That'll be it before we head off to Savannah, GA for two days on our way into Florida on Wednesday morning. Six more days to departure from Ft. Lauderdale.