The White Oak is a wonderful stately tree, which is what I believe I have captured here, at sunset on the farm of my mom and step-dad, that does not drop its leaves when young. The leaves turning a deep red in the fall adds its special beauty in the progressive change in the fall landscape from the plains down through Tennessee through the Cumberland Gap.
I spend a lot of time in that area, not only on business, but because my cousin lives there; you know, the one with the yarn shop (Sunny Side Yarns dot com)? I quit trying to differentiate the wife of my cousin and just named her "my cousin" for a couple of reasons. Not only have they been married for about 28 years; she says "Successfully because he is gone to sea (merchant marines) several months of the year and not many wives can ditch their husbands for that long". Also not because she and I favor one another in looks more than her husband does; our mothers were sisters, but because she is Family of the Heart. Those people who are not officially related genetically but seem predisposed to be your family when you meet them.
The path to her door from my house can be done mostly on highways down to Knoxville and turn left, but, I prefer to take the route which goes through Middlesboro, KY. I did not know until I looked up facts about the Cumberland Gap this morning, that Middlesboro was made when a meteor smashed to the earth leaving the crater that is the only place in the world where coal is mined inside of an impact crater. Middlesboro being on this or the East side of the Clinch Mountains, is probably (thank you Wikipedia) what allowed wagon passage to occur in the first place.
The first white man to find the trail in 1750 was a physician explorer named Thomas Walker. Daniel Boone and his pack widened it, making it traversable to pioneers where parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia meet. The Cumberland Gap tunnel was completed in 1996 and restored the original trail, and, there is a park there. Some day I will stop long enough to visit that, but, I did want to bring along some pictures to show you how wide the valley is. I had a shot earlier in the month of the TVA lakes and dams in this area and today, I wanted to show you the actual tunnel.
When you think of the great works in our nation, this is one of them. How do they do all that engineering work and concrete to get the tunnel to do what it does without us thinking about it as we breeze through the cool darkness and out to the bright light at the other end?
Well, thank you for sharing your Saturday morning with me. I have had my second cup of coffee, the frost is glistening on the back yard. I hope to do the last of the weeding, cleaning tools and putting things away today. Yesterday, there was a few roses on my Knock-Out variety bush and a few of my favorite purple zinnias that did not have leaves bleached out by the first frost, about ten days ago.
There is a pot of seafood chowder that I am going to enjoy with two friends this afternoon and we just want to soak up the moments of fall.
Hope you can too!
