Sunset over Lookout Mountain. From our home in McLemore Cove.
Recently, Louise and I have been increasingly missing our home and little farm in northwest Georgia's McLemore Cove.
When we sold our property and moved into a fifth-wheel RV, it seemed like the right thing to do. And, given our ages and the state of Louise's health, it probably was the best decision. After our two years of RVing, we now have a nice home in Knoxville, with family members nearby. But we greatly miss the active, outdoor life we enjoyed for 33 years. If we were there now, I would probably be busy cutting and splitting firewood or doing some of the other, endless things that seemed to need doing on a farm.
I'm sure Knoxville is a place with lots of interesting things to do, but so far, we haven't found them. Or maybe they're not the kinds of things we're interested in doing. Our life here is easy, but uneventful.
We miss having deer in our backyard on an almost daily basis.
Today (Monday), we're going to drive over to the Smokies and prowl around. We'll probably drive the Cades Cove Loop Road again -- we never seem to tire of that -- and maybe, on a March Monday, there will not be much traffic. Maybe we'll even see a bear! If there's time,we will go up to Clingman's Dome, and after that, there's a restaurant in Pigeon Forge that we like. We've been coming to the Smokies since the early 1970s, and have always enjoyed it, except for the times when the traffic has been unbearably dense.
A young bear in a tree on the Cades Cove Loop Road.
Well, we are where we are, and I do believe it's for the best. I'm 87, and Louise will be 80 this coming Saturday. We are grateful for the life we have had, but we do miss it.
I even miss removing the dead trees that fell across Sourwood Lane.
The photos were made with several different cameras over 30 or more years. The sunset sky was photographed with a Pentax 6x7 medium format camera fitted with a Takumar 105mm lens. The film was Fujichrome 100 in 120 size.
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I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
How wonderful that you had such a satisfying life in the Cove. Sounds like you're grieving the loss of it, and that grief is made stark by Knoxville not connecting with you.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I thought you were in Chattanooga. We stopped overnight in Knoxville both ways as we drove to and from South Carolina in January. I would have offered for you and your wife to meet us for coffee or something.
We are indeed grieving the loss of our life in the Cove, Jim. Knoxville is okay, but not conducive, for us at least, to an active, outdoor life.
ReplyDeleteI wish we hard been able to connect. Please let us know if you come this way again.