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Monday, January 19, 2009

Sunday Drive

Larry and I stopped by Derek's yesterday afternoon and decided to take the long way home, going left instead of right out of his driveway. The road is narrow and twists through some remote and picturesque scenery--all the more picturesque because it's not trying to be.

Many rock cliffs lined the road, sporting white January beards of ice. There was little snow on the ground at this point, but flakes continued to fall all afternoon, making odd white dots on my photos at times.

A small church (Napier) sat high on a hill, looking as if it has not been used for some time. The view from the opposite side revealed that a new road had been cut to the church and the building was quite well maintained. A small cemetery is hidden behind it.


A log cabin hidden by trees looks as if it is actually a moved-and-renovated old cabin. Someone has done some very good work here.


Back on the ridge, the snow was falling quickly and the ridge road was snow-covered. Down below, we could see the smoke rising from our chimneys, a most comforting welcome as we headed down the hill to warm fires and a nap.



I will have more photos from our drive to post this week, because there was much to see, and much that calls for a return trip and perhaps a hike into the woods to investigate an interesting ruin.

(The road traveled from Gay in Jackson County to Peniel in Roane County (pronounced pin- ile and named for early settlers. Those two names together could be the basis of a bad joke, but back when the communities were named, the words carried different meanings).


8 comments:

  1. Check out those ice sickles - i saw some that were huge this past weekend - some of them looked to be 15 feet long! Imagine a few of them falling toward your head!

    Good pics - a lot of catching up to do over here.

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  2. Beautiful pics of the back roads. May you travel many miles through the back roads for us to see in 2009.

    Deloutre

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  3. What a gorgeous tribute to taking the long way 'round! I loved those photos; thank you for sharing them.

    And thank you for sharing any town-name based jokes. Oh dear! I've sometimes wondered if a town name can affect property values. Hmmm...

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  4. Thank you for the country drive, it was BEE-U-tiful and the best part was that I didn't even need my coat! Stop by my little blog and say, "hello" sometime.

    Hugs from one Mountaineer to another,
    Charlotte

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  5. Oh, Susan! If you only knew what the residents of Gay endure! My son says he's not gay, he just lives in a Gay community. A few-many years ago, the people there voted on whether to change their community's name. They voted to keep it because the name was older than the current meaning of the word. I'm glad they did keep it. It drives me nuts for historical research reasons when people change the names of roads and communities.

    Of course, when my ex-mother-in-law was visiting back in the early 80's she was reading the local paper and looked up to ask: "Is this a really liberal area?" Not really, I said, why? "Well," she replied, "it says here in the paper that the Gay Homemakers are having a meeting."

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  6. I'm going to definitely take that left turn someday. How beautiful! I bet the leaves on the trees would be an awesome sight as well.

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  7. Hey... Didn't I roll a car right there one time???? Mighta suckered and primed some tobacco there once too.... Mighta even ate enough green apples there to beat a quick exit for the house.

    Folks up here commented,"You baled hay on that?"

    Thanks Mom. Just takes ya back, don't it?

    Aaron

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  8. Yes it does. That ridgetop meadow is lovely in pictures, but it's as dangerous as can be--as you know too well.

    You also stepped on a copperhead up there in the tobacco field, remember?

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