On the road this morning we drove by a minor TA (traffic accident). Each gent involved was busy on his cell phone. One was probably calling his trucking company and the other his insurance agent. It all looked very civil.

The roadsides have to be mowed when there’s grass growing. There are different machines that do different types of areas depending on the terrain. Jorge wishes he had a lawn big enough to own each type of machine. Dreamer!

We headed to Readyville TN to the Ferrel Hollow Farm. It is a horse sanctuary for retired draft horses but that’s not why Ellen came.

Last year Ellen and her friend, Dolores, took a driving trip to Asheville NC and visited the lovely art gallery at the Grove Park Inn. They saw a very unusual rocking chair made of wooden blocks. They thought it was beautiful and probably exceedingly uncomfortable. Of course they tried it out. Surprise! Ellen thought it was the most comfortable chair ever. She put the artist’s name on her iPhone. During the year she thought about the chair a lot as she worked on furniture arrangements for the new home she will move into in December. She contacted Alan Daigre, the artist. We visited his studio today at this farm. Alan is delightful and two of his custom-made chairs will grace her new home!

Then we were off on one of our most pleasant drives of the trip through the back roads of Tennessee. Ellen drove (she wouldn’t give up the wheel) and Jorge had a photo opportunity around every bend (he didn’t want to take the wheel). It bore no resemblance to an interstate highway. No trucks, no traffic, no rushing to get around slow-pokes. Once we did get back on Interstate 40 Ellen found a neat attraction to visit: A big pink elehphant! Click on the elephant to enlarge the picture.

We also landed in Knoxville to see the Sunsphere tower which is a left-over of the 1982 World Fair. We’ll go to the top another day. There was a fountain there and you know the weather had changed because the children were running through it.

Click on each of these pictures to enlage.