>
> > Dandrige is about 40 miles from here, on the other side of Knoxville. Beautiful area. Unfortunately we will be on the road next week, with a few days in Georgia, and a few more down in Middle Tennessee. But keep in touch, as our plans change quickly sometimes and we would love for you to come by. Or watch for us at Dollywood, we might work that in near the end of the week.
> >
> > We are going to do a cool thing tomorrow. We are going to catch "Cats" at the Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville. We have been going to plays over there for decades and they have never done a bad one yet. It's hard to believe it's just "little theatre." I think they are going to import some of the lead parts from New York. I've wanted to see that play for years.
> >
> > I'm sure that you will notice that East Tennessee is somewhat different from LA. For one thing, everybody sounds like me.
> > Howard
>
>
> Tennessee was so, so, so pretty. We had about a 6 hour drive from Cincinnati all the way through Kentucky and into Knoxville. Our condo was five miles up a steep, hilly road with few guardrails. That five mile drive each night and morning took about 25 minutes. We went to a Tennessee Smokies game (they won in the 9th) on July 3rd, where they had a fireworks display and played "Rocky Top" afterwards. It was incredibly cool to be singing along to that song while ON Rocky Top.
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> There were 72 people at the family reunion, which was at a cabin outside of Sevierville up another 3 miles of steep, windy road, on Lake Douglas. A group went Saturday morning to Dolly's water park. We had lunch in Gatlinburg one day -- Calhoun's Barbecue. My dad loved the sauce. I excused myself at the beginning of the meal to give the waitress my credit card, since that was the only way my dad would let me pay for a thing. I saw a cousin I hadn't seen in about 20 years, and fell in love with one who's only 2. ("Can you believe she named that baby Maverick?") Maverick is a living doll.
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> That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
>
> Mousie

Glad you enjoyed it. We have several Calhoun's in the area and all are really good. Barbecue is popular around here.

Good to hear about your "long lost cousin." I guess your family is scattered like mine. I always enjoy seeing relatives that I haven't seen in a long time. At a funeral in Florida recently, I got to see my first cousin, Mary Beth, who I hadn't seen in more than a decade. She is still beautiful and smart and very gracious. She works for an aerospace company not to far from your area.

And yes, Tennessee is unusually beautiful this year due to the abundant rainfall. Usually by this time, the fields are turning brown and gardens and flowers are wilting, but not this year. It's raining right now, so we can expect the green stuff to last a little longer.
Howard