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The early Sunday morning skies were bright and inviting. The weather channel was predicting 30% chance of rain. The gal with the brilliantly white dazzling teeth kept saying most of the rain could be expected in the afternoon hours. Between the skies and the gal whose teeth were blinding me, I was fairly optimistic about my chances of keeping dry on this ride! To me, 30% generally means I can avoid rain when I see it in the distance. I understand 30% to mean there are ways to get around the showers!
My original plan was to meander over past Knoxville to the Lake Norris region. I had read on another travel blog about making a loop around the lake. It sounded very much like something I wanted to do. I decided to take I-26 West above Kingsport. I thought I would take 11W over to 25E and head back southwest for a bit till I found another directly westbound small road. Plans always seem to fail when I try to use them for a daily ride like such as this particular Sunday. As I came into the town limits of Gray TN on I-26, I started to get direct hits from a rain shower. Further up in the direction I was intending for myself, the skies only got darker with slanted gray streaks: indicating heavy rain in that region. I hastily got off at the Gray exit and directed my wheel to take TN 75 South.
I traveled some distance on TN-75 without spying anything I wanted to pull off and photograph. It wasn't until I turned onto Clear Springs Rd (C on the map)that barns and older homes invited me to pull off the pavement, stopping to set my camera lens toward the images of broken houses and leaning barns.
IMAGE CAPTION: BARN/CATTLE/GRAZE LAND
A short distance from the barn, still on Clear Springs Road, this abandoned old home presented itself for my lens to capture.
IMAGE CAPTION: HOME IN BLACK AND WHITE
I found many more great barns and homes to capture in my "light box", but none has the texture I wanted to convey like this chimney attached to a log home structure on Jockey Road (between C and D on map). See the way the light and shadow work to give this next photo texture and depth?
IMAGE CAPTION: Textured Chimney
I also am captivated by the indention where the fireplace should be. See it? I wonder how this chimney could possibly be functional. Do you have answers?
This next picture is still on Jockey Road. I was kinda just moseying along, with a car behind me when I noticed this sign warning traffic of farm equipment on the road. I pulled off the road, waited for the car behind me to pass, then I turned around. I posed the Lil Girl in front of the sign with this lovely view beyond it.
IMAGE CAPTION: CAUTION MACHINERY
Later, I found myself on 11E right off Chuckey Hiway. This part of Tennessee has so much history to it. Most of it is small, having little meaning to anyone but the most inquisitive. I know, I've lived in places where I had never once stopped to read the historic markers off the roads and highways. I'm so glad to have finally slowed down enough to read these small and seemingly insignificant notices of history:
IMAGE CAPTION: HENDERSON'S STATION
And this particular historic maker surprised me! Who actually thinks about things such as how a curved surface can and will produce lift? But right here, in Chuckey Tennessee, was born a man who did just that! Thus, because of him, the Wright Brothers got their planes off the ground! (Edward Chalmers Huffaker)
IMAGE CAPTION: FOUNDER OF MODERN AERONAUTICS
I almost missed this barn. I was traveling in the opposite direction this mural was facing. If I hadn't looked back in my mirror to observe where a vehicle was and what it was doing, I'd have missed this. I took the next safe U-turn to capture this barn's mural.
IMAGE CAPTION: BARN IN CHUCKEY TENNESSEE
IMAGE CAPTION: THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
I come into the part of Chuckey I love. It's a cross roads of a sort. Here is where the old train depot is (no longer in operation) as well as an old brick bank building that is no longer functional and on the third corner of the cross roads is Johnson Hardware: boarded up and hollow...all three of the buildings face the rails that once fed this growth of this small town.
IMAGE CAPTION: CHUCKEY CROSS ROADS
Just before I find my way onto Sandbar Road, I found this three story log fort. There is no history marker to comment on this building, therefore I'm not positive of it's antiquity, but, I love it's stone foundation and...well come on, how many of you have seen an actual three story log building before? The walls are caulked with mud, NOT CEMENT like most of the replica structures of this nature.
IMAGE CAPTION: SPORTSTER ON OLD FORT LANE
Friends, this is where I'm going to stop for the time being. I have so many more photos to share with you. Keep your eyes open for the next installment, because I have some really cool things to show you next!
Y'all ride easy...relaxed...and full of curiosity. There is more out there on the sides of our roads to see. Keep your minds and your eyes open, and simply have some fun out here with me. This is sooo much better than zipping around cussing traffic!