Leaving Georgia, we head towards my cousins’ home in the hills of Tennessee. This is the log cabin experience, the full Eco-lodge facility. Feeding the goats and chickens happens twice a day, my cousins grow their own food, make their own cheeses and live in this idyllic up woods hideaway, close to grandchildren and not too close to town.
They don’t have a house alarm, but they do have a Great Pyrenees, to keep foxes, snakes and strangers away from the goats and chickens. This dog is the size of a bear. He takes his job as guardian to the family and animals very seriously. Once he gets to know you, he doesn’t bite, or so they promised us.
We had several highlights to this portion of our journey, sitting on the porch and listening to the goats bleat, was almost a zen moment. You really relax here and enjoy the conversation. Discussions of politics are not allowed, so we were all calm and happy.
We did go down the mountain and visit civilization because there was the excitement of a vintage car show. I could almost do a full blog on these gorgeous old cars that lined the streets in the center of town.
It was great to stroll around the historic district and seeing beautiful old mansions, just a few hundred years old and still stately.
Everyone would agree that the most fun we had been the watermelon eating contest. Several young men ate a tenth of their weight in watermelon. Watermelon seeds were somehow distributed all over the yard and the boys. Getting together with cousins was a highlight of my childhood. Seeing all these cousins play brings back memories of making ice cream, eating watermelon and running outdoors in the yard with the dog.
