Have you seen the 1941 movie Sergeant York? Alvin C. York was played by Gary Cooper. Perhaps you haven't seen it multiple times over years because perhaps your husband doesn't watch old movies over and over...
At any rate, this is one of the movies that David watches fairly often and I will even stay in the same room and (some what) watch it with him. I won't take time to explain it all here, hopefully you can catch it sometime. It's based on the story of Alvin York from the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee and his bravery in World War I. His home, store, grist mill and grave site are a Tennessee State Historic Park. We drove up this morning to see it. It was interesting to hear more about the man and his family and some of the things that the movie didn't tell you.
This bed spread/quilt was just so bizarre to me that I had to take a picture of it. It was in one of the bedrooms of the York home.
Grist Mill
We returned to get the camper and stopped just outside the park at the Homesteads Tower museum. The tower holds a 50,000 gallon water tank. In the 1930's at the time of the New Deal during the Great Depression, the land around this site was chosen to be one of 100 projects around the United States to give unemployed families a helping hand. 251 families were chosen. They were taught building and farming skills. They built barns that the families lived in until the houses were built using local forests for the lumber and stone for the houses. The homesteading projects weren't a handout as not only did they build their homes, but they eventually paid full market value for their farms. The tower building was the administrative offices for the project as well as the water tower. Alvin York was one of the superintendents of this project, teaching the homesteaders skills in building and farming.
We went on down the road a bit to Ozone Falls. You can't tell it from this picture, but it is a really tall waterfall. There is a trail down to the pool below and if you are adventurous (like the young girls who were just getting into their car as we were leaving) you can go down and play in the pool under and around the falls. David and I didn't have our bathing suits handy so we decided to forgo that adventure.
We drove on the interstate for essentially the first time today from the falls to our campsite for the next four nights. We drove into Gatlinburg for supper and decided it's quite a zoo. We plan to head out pretty early in the morning to start exploring the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. There is a pretty good chance of rain the next few days, so we'll see how that plays out!
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