Bear Time

‘Beware of the bears’ the signs said as we approached the Smokey Mountains area. We had a log cabin, with hot tub in the mountains for a few days. It would make running interesting, and although very hilly you need to stick to the roads.

We were staying near Sevierville, where Dolly Parton comes from. Our log cabin was at the top of a hill and we had good views of the trees. It had a gas bbq so we were able to buy some meat for dinner.  There is a resident squirrel which runs up the trees and onto our roof and back again, at all hours. There are raccoons in the area, we didn’t see anything, but something knocked the trash can over, may be a bear!

This was a relaxing few days, although there was an eight mile arts and craft loop around Gatlinburg which Linda had seen advertised, it’s just down the road she said, 25 miles later we arrived. There were plenty of craft shops for Linda to walk around, enjoying herself, picking up ideas and a few purchases. Fortunately there was a coffee shop for me to wait in. As it was 8 miles you had to drive to the next section, fortunately Linda had selected the shops she wanted to visit so we could just drive to that location.

We stayed in the area till Thursday when we had the long drive back to Nashville. It took over 4 hours, but then gets confusing as it is in a different time zone, so we were earlier than we thought.

On Friday we visited Franklin, which is a historical site from a battle in the civil war in mid nineteen century. It is a town with old fashioned buildings and we had a look around. We then travelled back via Brentwood where a lot of where the country singers live, including Dolly Parton, we saw her local Starbucks🤣

The weather has been good in the mid 90’s, although you only realise that when you go out, as everywhere has air conditioning so you think it’s quite cool.

On Friday night we went to the Grand Old Opry and watched the acts. It was a variety of country music and some were good, others were not. Although I can’t sing I suppose I not a real critic. However, it was one of those items on the to do list. We had previously done the Ryman and now the real place.

You can see some photos here 

FIRST.....

As the Apostle Paul said ‘run in such a way as to get the prize.’ That was my aim at the Mountain Goat Trail parkrun in Sewanwee. I had researched it beforehand and thought a top 5 place was achievable. It is 2000 feet above sea level and the temperature was just under 80 degrees, apart from that just a nice run. The Mountain Goat Trail is a pathway which replaced the railway tracks between local towns in the forest. 

We actually left home after we had arrived - as it was in a different time zone. We left at 8.45am and arrived at 8.30. It was an easy journey with not much traffic although it got warmer the nearer we got. On arrival there were a few people there, another couple from London, who looked like runners and my top 5 placing looked threatened.  Linda was there with her camera and a seat to sit on.

Fourteen people started (although only 11 finished as they had to rush off to another event half way through). I was at the front and headed off, and suddenly there was no-one in front of me, which was quite worrying as I didn’t know where I was going. It was quite easy you followed the path to turn around sign 1, then turned around, ran back past the start to turn around 2 and then back again the other way to turn around 3. It was quite good as you could see where the other people were. I did go out a bit fast at the start and had to slow down as the altitude and heat got to me, but I was still in the lead.

I finished first - the only time I have come first in any race, that I recall, in just over 24 mins, the locals were two minutes behind me. I also came first in my age category and was first male - hat trick! 

You can see an outline of the run here.

The folks were friendly and we joined in the Mountain Goat Cafe afterwards for coffee and an egg sandwich (not goat series on the menu), we weren’t meant to stay long, but then Linda started  talking about her craft with them and that was it…

Eventually we left and it was back to Chattanooga and it was even hotter by now. There is the Incline Railway which goes a mile up Lookout Mountain and we were going to do that, however, it meant queuing in the hot sun for over an hour, so we discounted that idea and went for coffee instead. We then had a scenic drive around the mountain, before coming back to downtown. Like most American towns there is not that much to do downtown, very few shops, but we had a wander around, before going back to the apartment.

On Sunday I was up early and went for a run (Linda was still asleep) and didn’t even know I had gone. I had a nice 5 mile run along the river and across a couple of bridges. I even found a coffee shop in at 4 1/2 miles and tested it, all research for later in the day.

Linda was awake when I got back so we got ready for church, it wasn’t far so we walked there. It was held in a coffee shop, and you got free coffee when you arrived, you also got donuts, but we resisted temptation. It was really informal and everyone sat in chairs or on the sofas. There was time of worship to start with and then we took communion, but the bread and wine aren’t passed round, you go and help yourself from the side. This seemed quite strange, but an interesting way of doing it.

After that the pastor Shannon gave a talk, but today was different, the congregation (around 50) split up into 4 groups and discussed the sermon outline. This was based on the last four weeks sermons, which of course we hadn’t heard. He did say that it wasn’t his job to make Sunday mornings comfortable but to make sure  they were  equipped to do what God wants them to do. In our group we talked about being bold for God and how God uses our weaknesses rather than strengths. This was similar to a Willow Creek podcast we had been listening to on the way down about God uses Moses weaknesses to lead his people out of slavery.

After church we had a wander around the town, visited the coffee shop I had found, before coming back to the apartment and enjoying the warm weather. It has been cloudy today but still warm.

There are some photos here 

Hurricane Florence

God has a sense of humour. Having planned to focus our Harvest service on Noah and the flood, I could have done without living through the real impact of severe weather, even from a distance.

Hurricane Florence was just another storm until we arrived in America, then it became real as we realised that Florence was going to visit the same places we were. This meant all our plans had to be changed.  According to The Times, Florence took the forecasters by surprise as they expected her to swerve round and head back out into the ocean, but she didn’t, this was exceptional - no other hurricane in history has been in that position in the Atlantic and then made landfall in the US.

The holiday did not start well, just as we were preparing to leave the hotel rang to say there was no parking as they had no room, great news when you are flying the next day. This then took a couple of hours to sort out and we ended up in another hotel and would need to take the bus to the airport rather than the pod. 

We finally left around 6.30pm and the motorway was very quiet, so it was a smooth drive and we arrived at the Sheraton Skyline around 8pm. We then had a few problems as the company had only booked 8 days rather than the 11 needed, so I had to sort that out.

Our room was very nice, apart from the loud noise from the function below. It was so loud Linda had to go and speak to the manager, who managed to get it sorted out too.

On Tuesday we had a lie in and then Starbucks for breakfast. We left the hotel just after 10:00 and caught the 423 bus to the airport, it is free as opposed to £9 on the Hoppa. 

We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 5 with plenty of spare time, which was great as we needed to sort out Linda’s ticket, it had the wrong BA executive club number on it. This was not as easy as you would think it. It involved the customer service assistant phoning her colleague 3 desks down for help!

We finally got sorted and went through security and had a look at some of the shops before settling down in the lounge. We continued  monitoring the impact of Hurricane Florence as it is meant to be arriving in Charlotte around the same time we are… 

Our plane was meant to leave at 14.55 but was delayed for various reasons so they put us on another plane which had a different layout and had to manually reseat everyone. The flight was nine hours and was very smooth, it was a Dreamliner aircraft. We had front row seats so Linda could stretch her leg out and walk up and down. Our entertainment system failed about half way through, just as I was getting to the interesting part of the film I was watching and it took about an hour to get fixed.

Nashville is 6 hours behind UK - so we landed about 6.30pm their time, we were quickly off the plane and the first ones at the immigration desk. This was very quick and the official very pleasant. Normally it takes ages to enter, but we had landed, passed immigration, retrieved luggage and picked up our car, all in under an hour - impressive.

We were staying at a Quality Inn and Suites near the airport so we booked in, our room was bigger than my lounge back home. I then checked my email and found out the concert was cancelled, the race was cancelled and the Hurricane was likely to impact on Charlotte. This has really messed up my spreadsheet and plans!

Linda was tired and needed to rest, but I had to stay up and cancel all our plans and identify new hotels and locations to visit. I did go to bed, but couldn’t really sleep and had jet lag so I was up at 3am and continued on planning so I could present Linda with some options over breakfast. We had a cabin in the Smokey Mountains so we had to go in that direction, it is on the edge of the potential fallout from the Hurricane - depending on which way it goes.

After breakfast we left the Hotel and went to have a look around the area. We went to Opry Mills, a shopping centre, had a wander around before heading downtown. We arrived at our hotel, another Quality Hotel, checked in and dropped our bags. There was a shuttle to downtown and we caught that. It took about 5 mins.

We had a wander around downtown, saw some of the sites of Broadway, listened to country music and even went to the Johnny Cash coffee shop. Alan Jackson has a bar in town called AJ’s Good Time Bar, so we visited there, drank coke and listened to the live music.

We were hungry and left there to go to have something to eat, we went to an Italian restaurant owned by Luke Bevan. We shared a pizza before we went back to the hotel.

On Thursday I was up early again (although not so early) and went for a 4 mile run through the town, checking out all the sites. There is a distinct lack of coffee shops in the main area, so I didn’t stop and came back to the hotel. We had breakfast and then caught the shuttle back downtown.

Our plan was to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum and it was a good plan. We were there about two hours ( a record for me looking around a museum). It was interesting tracing the history of county music from its roots. There was Elvis’ gold cadilac to see, but you weren’t allowed to sit in it,  plus lots of clothing and guitars.   Linda enjoyed it and is now better informed. After this we wandered around a few sites, before eventually finding an independent coffee shop so we could refill and Linda rest her knee. Everywhere has free wi-fi so we could do some email and check Facebook.

After this we walked back to Broadway a different way and  visited AJ’s bar again, this time taking the roof top option, it was very hot in the sun drinking our coke.  By now we were  hungry so we went to a bar for a burger, owned by Dierks Bentley. The food was good and enjoyable. After this we went back to the hotel for a rest. Linda went for a swim as instructed by the Physio and I read my book and caught up on updating junior parkrun rotas.

On Friday we were leaving for Chattanooga which is about 132 miles South east of Nashville.  We took the scenic route through Nashville, via Music Row and saw the recording studios and Linda got a few photos. It was then a pleasant drive, although reasonably busy, we did stop for a coffee on route at a mountain town.  We listened to updates on the hurricane and its  impact (can’t give you all the details might ruin my Harvest sermon…).

It is hot here, 92-93 degrees and you need the air conditioning. Chattangoona is in a different time zone so we had to change our watches. We went to Hamilton Place as there were some craft shops Linda could visit and hop around.  We had an Air B n B apartment here and we arrived early evening. It is great, apart from I had to carry the luggage and food down three flights of stairs. We settled in and unpacked all our bags - nice to be able to find things for a change.

You can view the photos here