Another
spring day in East Tennessee… It turned out to be a busy one! We started out by driving over to the AAA
office in Maryville to stock up on maps and Tour Books so I could refine our
trip plans for 2016…
After
loading up with several bags of AAA items…including car trash bags…I decided to
drive east on US Hwy. 321 and then take a back road south in the general
direction of our house. Well, I missed
my turn and we ended up almost in the Smoky Mountains… I decided to jump on the
Foothills Parkway as our alternate route home.
The views are always nice and there is usually very little traffic.
The
Foothills Parkway is a National Parkway, only part of which is completed
despite the fact that construction began back in 1960! Funding for National Parkways has always been
a problem and when coupled with environmental issues, progress on these
projects has always been extremely slow.
The spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway took 5 decades to complete…
Despite
cool temperatures for the day, the Smoky Mountains did indeed have that ‘smoky’
look. The green in this valley helped
enhance the photo.
The portion
of the Foothills Parkway that we were on is called the Chilhowee Mountain
Section. Its 16.8 miles long. The other portion of the Parkway that’s open
is located in Cocke County Tennessee and its 5.7 miles long. Despite the fact that a couple of major
bridges have been completed on the ‘missing’ section of the Parkway, this 16.1
mile missing link still has a long way to go before it will open for visitors…
As we
drove along the Parkway, Laurie spotted this lone male turkey picking his way
through the undergrowth just off the road… She has an eagle eye when it comes
to spotting wildlife!
After driving the Parkway we stopped at our friends and fellow blogger, Big Dude (Larry) and Bev's house for some snacks, a lite lunch and adult libations... (http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/) Then it was back home to reality.
All
play and no work makes me happiest but there comes a time when one has to face
up to basic tasks that must be done! One
of our early spring chores was to clean up our garage and discard or recycle as
much clutter as possible. Laurie and I
also cleaned up our storage room and sorted out about 150 paperback books for the local library’s
spring book sale and fund raiser…
I just
thought that I’d end this posting with a smile worthy photo! This beautiful male red-bellied woodpecker
just loves our feeder on the back deck!
He’s a daily visitor… The squirrels haven’t been too bad about raiding
the feeder this year, although they do succeed once in a while. The latest visitor has been a crow that
somehow holds on while grabbing a bite from one of the suet cakes at the ends
of the feeder.
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
I keep thinking they are about to get that parkway section open, but I guess not.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely drive along the Parkway. After such a great day, I'd have wanted a nap and postpone the cleaning out of the out the garage to another day:)
ReplyDeleteSam
You should come here to Sicily David and help us de-clutter....you can't imagine the mess in my daughter's room!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great little road trip! I mentioned to Bill earlier today that a drive down to the Smokies might be good this summer! I've been de-cluttering also and took many books to a used bookstore nearby. Great woodpecker! We have several here and feed them but they love the trees in the front yard and make their presence known with neighbors walking by and stopping to see them. Have a great weekend! Now maybe our garage should be cleaned out. :-)
ReplyDelete