Tornadoes hit Apison, Ringgold, Ooltewah

The EPB trucks out with new utility poles and crews.

This was a mobile home that was totally destroyed.

Notice the house across the field that wasn't damaged at all.

Behind this pile of wood was a basement with nothing covering it. The entire brick house above was blown away, and the four people in it survived and were there going through the basement rubble.

This driveway was covered with too much for our little chain saw team.

That's a mattress wedged between the fallen trees.

Wednesday, April 27, will not soon be forgotten in the TN Valley. The tornado that did the most damage was about half a mile wide. The total length of the path was 35 miles.

"The area hit hardest appears to be between East Brainerd Road and Ringgold. Law enforcement agencies have blocked all roads into that area. Thirteen search and rescue teams comprised of volunteers from the community, led by members of the Hamilton County Sheriff Department, went into the area Thursday morning. Rescue efforts are being handled by the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department.

Mr. Allen said, “The top priority right now is to find and assist any live victims in the area. Second priority is clearing the roads and restoring power. Citizens will be allowed to enter the area as soon as it is released by the Sheriff’s Department.”

Authorities said the tornado that hit Apison and then Ringgold roared up after devastating Tuscaloosa, Ala., and continued on all the way to North Carolina." It was maybe 3 miles as the crow flies from our house.

We worked with 11 others and two sheriffs on one of the 13 search and rescue teams on London Lane in Apison. It was very sad to see the utter destruction.

Easter Trains and Rains!

On Good Friday we drove up to Portland to visit Ryan and Carrie for the weekend. Sabbath afternoon we toured the countryside, seeing some of Ryan's favorite tennis courts and discovering a few new ones. We stopped at Cedar Creek Park for a walk around the lake.

It was Squirrel City at Moss Wright Park. We wished we'd counted them all. I've never seen so many squirrels in one area anywhere!

The little blond kindergartner that Ryan calls "Baseball" was at the park watching his brother play. That's him pointing out his coach to a friend. Baseball's mom (in red) told Ryan he ought to coach the little leaguers.

And then he saw another one of his students, a fifth grader.

We enjoyed several games of Ticket to Ride while it rained outside, no, POURED outside.

A tornado warning even chased us down to safety in the boys' dean's apartment.

Next time we're there, our little granddaughter will join us in the fun!

Shower Time

We had a baby shower at Jaclyn's Sunday morning, April 10.

Carrie's aunt and grandma from Calhoun

It was fun to see Lori

Don and JP came, Carrie's former principal at Highland

This little girl will be well dressed!

The sweet seersucker dress from Grandma TJ

A beautiful crocheted blanket from Kerre Conerly

Aunt Tonda and Grandma Dut's goodie bag was full!

Thanks, Jaclyn and Stephanie!

Norris Dam State Park

On Friday, April 1, instead of going to school we took a personal day and long weekend and headed to Lake City, TN just north of Knoxville to camp at Norris Dam State Park for our first time. We'd hoped to get together with Amy and Jeremy this weekend at Claytor Lake - we hope another time that will work out.

We really enjoyed the trails along the Clinch River.

This was one tree Randy didn't want to bring home

The 18th century gristmill that was opriginally constructed in 1798. Upstairs is a gift shop and the lady still feeds corn into it to make cornmeal, etc.

This threshing barn was reconstructed here on the same creek. It has a lot of old farm implements on display inside on two levels.

The first Saturday in April they have wildflower hikes guided by botanists. The park boasts one of the "most diverse wildflower concentrations in the region." There were five different guides to choose between - and it ended up each one had about 7 or 8 people in their group on the 3-mile hike. Our guide has his Ph.D. in botany and retired from TVA, and still does contract work at the park on such hikes. He was so interesting and funny.

The purple trillium were beautiful! The yellow ones aren't as striking, but I'll include a picture below.

trout lily

We don't remember what these were called - I didn't get around to blogging soon enough. The flower is down in the ground beside the plant and beatles love them.

Spring Beauty - one of the easier names to remember - -

These little delicate white bell-shaped flowers are called wind flowers. It was fun to watch them spreading their seeds as the wind blew them. Flowers that are pollinated by the wind aren't as flashy since they don't have to attract insects to pollinate them he told us.

The winding road in the park down to the west campground was lined with gorgeous redbud trees. We learned that teachers get a discount at TN State Parks - $16 rather than $20/nite to camp.

We camped at the last site on the loop and had nobody anywhere near us. Except for the raucous thunder storm, wind and rain Friday night, it was a very peaceful weekend.

A girl on the hike we took Sabbath told us we had to go see Savage Gardens just five minutes from the park. It's privately owned but they have a marked trail that they welcome the public to use. There are lots of the same wildflowers there.

The Lenoir Museum - Will Lenoir donated a lot of the museum contents. "He collected for 60 years with a desire that the rapidly changing times not wipe out an appreciation of the hard work and ingenuity that were a part of the everyday life that was disappearing. It wasn't only the item, but also the stories of the people behind them he card about. He enjoyed sharing his stories with Museum visitors until his death at 97." It's free to the public in the fall and spring!

These old waffle irons caught our eye - I had to watch Randy so he wouldn't try to take one home. He's a waffle iron collector it seems. We must have 6!

This shoe collection was really neat. I wonder how long before mine will be museum-worthy.

This was a "footpath" but nobody chased us off and we loved biking it so much that we biked the two mile loop along the river twice on Sabbath.

Back at the campground Sabbath evening at sunset. It went from t-shirt weather to hat and gloves weather quickly. The fire felt good.

This is what camping is all about - R & R! It was our first time out this spring and we enjoyed it to the hilt.
after biking and hiking Sabbath afternoon