Backroads

A few weeks ago my wife and I took an overnight trip with my brother and his wife just to get away for a few hours. We followed a winding little highway into Tennessee through towns and countrysides that saw battles during the Civil War, and drifted into the little community of Pall Mall (pronounced pell mell by the locals). There is an old grist mill that was built about 1880, and in later years was owned and operated by America's most decorated hero of the First World War, Alvin C. York. Gary Cooper won an academy award for his portrayal of Sgt. York in a 1941 movie about his life. On the other side of the creek that powered the mill, and the opposite side of the road is the house where Sgt. York spent the last years of his life. You can take a scheduled tour of the home but we decided to pass on that. There's also a hiking trail that runs through the woods, across a bridge and up the hill to the cemetery where he is laid to rest. It was windy and chilly that day so we drove around the road instead of hiking the trail to visit his grave. It's a rather impressive grave site, and there's a tall flagpole with the American flag flying above the grave.

We stopped in a very old general store that still was very much in use. They won my heart immediately when I discovered a fresh pot of coffee. Better yet it was free. We browsed for a while and along with the usual cans of beans, loaves of bread and milk, they had numerous craft items. A couple that tickled my fancy was an item they called "The Hillbilly Fish Finder". It looked like a stick of dynamite. The second was a small wooden box with a picture of a chicken and the words "Three Piece Chicken Dinner" on the top. When you opened it up it contained three kernels of corn.

We continued to follow small highways until we reached the north edge of Chattanooga and stopped for the night in a new hotel there. We debated on touring Chattanooga but opted to avoid the masses of humanity a city presents, and chose a system of small highways through little towns for our return trip the next day.

That brother and I are less than two years apart, and were inseparable as children. Then life intervened and we saw little of each other for the past quarter century. Since I moved back to this area we've had several of these little trips together, and lengthy visits to each other's homes. It's nice to see there's such an easy familiarity between us still.