Road Trip 2018 - Day Twenty Two, Eastern Tennessee Wandering

Like all of our trips,we start out thinking, "OMG we have only gone so long...we have so much more time to fill." And then before we know it we're saying, "OMG we've only got ___ days left!" We are at the one week mark before we return and we are making our way gradually westward.

Today we were meandering through Eastern Tennessee. We had a number of small towns we'd looked up as potentially interesting.

Dayton

Home of the...

 The Courthouse

The prime actors

Captain Spouse as head of the away mission engages with the universal translator with one of the local species

Signs of Rotary everywhere

Courthouse seen from Park

We stopped for ice cream but unfortunately it wasn't very good

But the girl who served us was very nice...even if she (as a home schooled student) did not know that the Dalton High mascot is the Fighting Catamounts!

A hot dog from the Hot Diggity Dog stand was equally disappointing

Generally speaking since we left the Louisiana/Creole culture influenced areas (including the Gulf Coast of Mississippi), the quality of food has dropped substantially. Later in the day we tried fried chicken from a reputed good spot that was exceedingly disappointing.

On to Pikeville!

As we drove into town I caught sight of building that seemed completely out of place

It looked like some kind of English Manor house

And on the front lawn, an event, a wedding, was being set up

We were concerned that we would not be allowed to take pictures

But we asked politely and were told to go ahead and shoot away

As I was doing so, I struck up a conversation with some of the guys working 

They proceeded to tell me this incredible story of the building having been built in the 1930's. They didn't know exactly who the owner was or where the money came from or why they decided on building such a flamboyant place in this locale. But they said that the builder's family was still here. The building was sold some 30 years ago to a family out of Florida. They never did anything with the interior but they keep heating/cooling and a dehumidifier going so the place doesn't deteriorate.

Then the guy on the right said,

"I think we might be able to get in"

We were

It was really dark but I was still able to get these pictures

What a cool experience!

We did more wandering around Pikeville

There was a neat church but my pictures did not turn out that well

It had some cool windows that I wish we could have seen from inside

Captain Spouse then put us on a course to make up for lost time

"Scottie, bring us to warp"

"My name is de-I Captain"

"We need more speed Scottie!"

"My name is de-I Captain!"

"No more speed...more speed Scottie!!!"

"I dinna think the Eldership kin take it Cap'n...and MY NAME IS DE-I!"

"Argh, now look at what y'done Cap'n. We've gone back in time and all they have is farm animals"

Despite the space/time disturbance, we made it back to 21st century Tennessee and the city of McMinnville, town of church spires

The United Methodist

First Presbyterian 

Church of Christ

One gets the distinct impression that all the churches got together at the same time and to save money they hired an architect to create a single design all three could use!

There was a converted gas station that used the old brand name 'Pure' to develop their own brand for an interior decorating firm

Really? A restaurant that specialized in a canned beef stew?

Civil War references always

I thought it very cool that United Methodist has a 'Drive Thru' prayer window

More from McMinnville

Punctuated with the famous McMinnville water tower