ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!

We are thinking of adopting "On The Road Again" by Willie Nelson, as our theme song.  This is Cookeville, Tn, population about 31,000.  If you live in Pikeville (population ~1800) you think this is the big city.  Look!!!!! real restaurants!  We came to this big city 2 times this week (Monday to get our car serviced, and Friday for a Zone Conference).  It is 66 miles from Pikeville to Cookeville, and it takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes to drive it.  But....there are real restaurants....did I mention that?  Plus, they have a really nice Walmart. 

On Wednesday we went to Crossville (about 30 miles) to meet with the Bishop who gave us names and instructions on the people who need help there.  We did meet one woman that day.  We had the wrong address originally, but another girl recognized us and helped us.  This woman lived way out in the country in a house that I was so happy I didn't have to go into to.  She is about 50 years old and I think her boyfriend is about 80 years old.  It was rather spooky when I imagined snuggling up to him.  But he had a sweet spirit.

This next picture is Pikeville's answer for a restaurant if you don't want to go to McDonalds or Subway.  It is called "Los Panchos".  If you can't read the sign it says that if it is your birthday you get a free meal.  Well, Wednesday was Elder (Darryl) Dunn's birthday so we took them up on it.  On their menu they had chimichangas....which we both thought looked good.  If you deep fry something, how many germs could it have?  We explained to the waitress that we were from Tucson where the chimi was invented, so it had better be good.  I think that made her nervous.  She came back half way through the meal to check on what we thought.  I told it was good, except that it had no resemblance to a chimi.  If it went into the deep fryer, it was for under 2 seconds.  The inside was more like a fajita.  Well, Darryl got a really great birthday gift this year......he didn't get sick.....but I did. 

 Thursday was the official beginning of the Hwy 127 Yard Sale, although most were set up days earlier.  These are several general pics of the event.  All along Highway 127 (from Ohio to Alabama) people set up these tents, awnings, or just laid their goods on the ground.  They were usually at least 3 rows deep, and sometimes blocks long.  People just pulled their cars to the side of the road, or found a close field to park in and went and shopped.  It was unbelievable how many of these places there were.  Also, so unbelievable how much junk some people hauled out.  The pic of the fruit & vegs was very common.  They had apples, tomatoes (red and green for frying), corn, cucumbers, boiled peanuts etc.  The picture on the bottom is of metal flamingos and chickens.  Those chickens were unbelievably tall.  On the bottom right is a pic of the porta-potties.....I didn't use one.

There was so much glassware.....I couldn't believe how many people were willing to save all of this junk, pack it up and put it on display.  You would think it would be dirt cheap....it wasn't.  Walmart has a better deal on new glassware. 

Have you ever wondered where your silverware goes when it disappears?

I had to remind Elder Dunn how long it would take him to drive this back to Tucson. 

Okay, I did buy something.  This is a Jewelry Case.  It stands 38" tall.  It was $40.  I'm not sure how we are going to get it home (maybe on one of those tractors.)

The Hwy 127 yard sale was fun until it started to rain.  There was some fast movement going on.  It sure made traffic along Highway 127 a nightmare because these people really get wacky when they see a bargain. 

This is Parker Holland.  We met him at the Yard Sale.  He is 80 years old and was born here in Pikeville, Tn, as was his father.  He is a delightful gentleman who has such a southern accent that he was pretty hard to understand.  He told us that he used to be a clogger, but had to give it up due to his age.  He even danced on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.   

Tennessee is full of colorful people.  They are all very friendly and boy do they love to talk, almost as much as they love to fry.  There were several booths that were selling fried pies, but unfortunately we never got close to one. 

One thing I want to mention is that people not only set up their displays along the highway, they also hauled things out of the homes and displayed them in their front yards in he city of Pikeville.  I guess it was just a general understanding that this was the time for yard sales wherever you are. 

Well, that was about the most exciting event of this week.  We did manage to get lost on the mountain again.  It has been raining quite a bit, and there is a lot of cloud cover.....that doesn't help the GPS situation.  We were on our way to help the Earl's do some weed wacking on their property.  He is the man who is hoping for a heart transplant soon.  We finally got there, but by that time they had run out of gas and it was raining.  But we had a great visit with them.  Part of the problem of finding places is caused by the fact that people have removed so may of the road signs.  If the GPS is working we can see the name of the street on our phones, but otherwise it is always a guess. It is very perplexing to this city girl.