LATE AFTERNOON ON THE WATER
A month has passed since we began our journey; quite hard to believe.This morning we explored Nashville before splitting town. We found a cheesy touristy area of town and then we discovered a cute little area of town lasting all of about 3 blocks that had a bunch of stores, places to eat, and a really great used bookstore. We scored on two W. Somerset Maugham books which we're both super excited about. After trying to eat lunch at a recommended restaurant that was closed again, we grabbed a bite elsewhere, which was not great but not awful, and headed south.
We're staying in Ranger, Georgia which is about 40 minutes south of Chattanooga, on the southern border of Tennessee. The drive was a few hours long and we managed to arrive at River View Farms with daylight to spare! Wes and Charlotte and their three year old son Graham live here, along with over 100 hogs, numerous cows, and a lot of land for veggies. They have graciously opened their home to us and we spent the evening playing with Graham and getting to know Wes & Charlotte a bit better. Wes's family has been farming in this area for a long time, but they had been using conventional farming techniques until 2000. Wes now farms both organically and biodynamically. His father also now farms organically but one of his brothers does not.
We'll be here for a few days trying to help out in any way possible (hopefully not having to slaughter pigs) and there is talk of us helping to build a greenhouse. There was a tornado that hit this area this past December that destroyed some of their barns, so we will also be doing some repair work to the barns and/or fences.
One of the greatest parts of this trip thus far has been staying with many types of people and all of them welcoming us in so warmly. Our accommodations have varied greatly: a cabin to ourselves in the woods, a nice yet unfurnished house, a dirty house with three 21 year old male indoor cigarette smokers, a nice, quiet homestead with Jeff, a southern mansion owned by doctors at Vanderbilt, and now the most modern house we've stayed in. Wes and Charlotte have very generously given us a huge blow up mattress (Graham inflated it--and it's literally 2 feet tall!) in a spare room and have made us feel right at home. We even get phone and internet service here. Just because the place has indoor plumbing doesn't make it the lap of luxury, but it kind of feels that way.
Hi to New Jersey's version of where is Waldo aka the Pattap's now? Hard to keep up with you two - but no one can ever say that you aren't "go with the flow" motivated. Wishing you ongoing safe travels and the continued luxury of internet, cell service & indoor plumbing (which doesn't seem like too big a request to add to the "wish list"). XXOO-Love, Aunt Randy &....
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