Yesterday, we got the chance to take him up on his offer. First we had a photo op with Pam and Kelly. Shirley (her dad) has a nice place in Clinton TN where he still does some woodworking. A few of his orders (cedar and oak swing benches) were drying.
Shirley was from the hill country about an hour north of Knoxville TN in Anderson County. A lot of coal mining was done back in the 1930's and 10940's. The roads were a little tricky. Especially when we had to pass a coal truck.
A highlight of the trip was visiting the cemetery where Shirley's dad was buried. It was near Moore's Camp up on a remote mountain side. There must have been a couple hundred graves there. After a few minutes we found Ezra Carr's grave (Shirley's dad). He died in a coal mine accident nearby in 1937. His mother's grave (Mollie Seiber) was nearby.
We drove through the area of Devonia, Indian Fork and Moore's Camp where Shirley was born and raised. He joined the Army in 1946 (age 20) and spent three years in Fort Lewis Washington before returning to Tennessee. He married and moved to Dutch Valley TN near Clinton. Pam and Joan lived in the house shown below. Back then it did not have brickwork. Shirely owned over 100 acres of farm land, most of which he cleared. They had farm animals. Pam spent most of her time outside helping her dad on the farm while Joan did a lot of the cleaning and cooking.
We packed sandwiches for lunch and had a great little trip. I took a lot of pictures and will save some for later. When returned Bonita was home (Shirley's wife) and we chatted a little bit about the day and enjoyed some Tennessee hospitality when we returned. 
Our little day trip took us about 90 miles.
We took a quick group shot and said our goodbyes. 
It was a very unique day for us and we all enjoyed it thoroughly.Thanks for checking in on the Roadrunner Chronicles!
A a special thanks to you all that leave a comment and /or email us. We appreciate it greatly!
Hi Randy & Pam. Well no problem from work. I suspect my Norton settings on the home computer are not allowing this window to open. Will ask Jean. Marcelo got into town Monday. Hope to run and see him several times while he is here. The run Saturday with Anne went well and we did a good 6 miles with some hill repeats on the road. My heal hurt some afterwards so I still need to be careful. We are both signed up for the Annapolis 10 Miler on August 30th. A difficult race course with hills, heat and humidity. But - hard shelled crabs after race.
ReplyDeleteShoulder therapy is going great. Hopefully it and heal will be ready for Yosemite backpack trip Sept. 10. Good going with your running. Keep it up. A couple of miles every other day will serve you very well. While not a lot of calories are being burned any run the cumulative number is enormous and the cardio benifits amazing. You guys DO GOOD! Gil
Hi Randy - great post and nice pics. You are showing up again on my blog list of new postings so that's great news!
ReplyDeleteHello Randy. This is from home computer> My Ablock was causing the problem. More thunderstorms here.
ReplyDeleteRandy and Pam...I loved reading this post. What a great place to come from Pam. I've got lots of questions to ask you next time I see you.
ReplyDeleteGil...I'm signed up to run the Annapolis 10 miler also. Let's try to meet up that day.