Vacation - Part I (deep in the hills and hollers of Tennessee)

We had an uneventful drive down to Tennessee and made really good time. I took this picture shortly after we got off the Interstate and onto some state roads in Kentucky.



We got into town around 6:00 and called Aunt Elaine and Uncle LeeRoy and they met us in town at the only place you can really eat, Doris's Diner (or was it Cafe?). Everybody had something fried and it was good! We headed back to the house, visited for a while and then turned in early.

Next morning, having coffee out on the screened in porch, we saw these beauties!


This picture cannot do these beauties justice. They were absolutely amazing. There are 3 one quart containers hanging just outside the screened in area and they are filled up every morning. By evening they are empty and if you watch this video you will see why!


There were more than 20 hummingbirds diving in and out between these three feeders. Each feeder can feed up to 10 birds and more than once, at least two feeders were full. I have never seen anything like this before anywhere. Amazing. I could have sat out on that porch all day and watched them. But, of course, we didn't! We had lots of other stuff to do!

Like checking out all the beautiful butterflies!




And then we had to go visit Kobe. He's a big sweetie!!


And Lady and Bobby were on the porch. Lady didn't feel like posing (plus she never sat still long enough to get a good picture or would start walking toward you if she saw you get the camera ready).

Bobby is the kitty. He's called Bobby because he's a bob-tail (actually he's got no tail).

From there we mosied over to LeeRoy's shop where Howard kept himself busy until late in the afternoon painting a parrot.


LeeRoy makes these and sells them at the Flea Market on Sundays and Howard worked very hard on his. I don't have a picture of the finished project yet but I'll take one soon. Then LeeRoy asked if I wanted to take a walk down the road a bit. The road isn't that long so we got Lady on the leash and headed out. We hadn't taken 20 steps down the road and LeeRoy wasn't really looking at the road when I yelled, STOP, WATCH OUT!! because this thing was right in the middle of the road, just sittin' there!

After I took this picture it slithered away over to this tree where it proceeded to do this!

LeeRoy said it was a rat snake or what they call a chicken snake. This guy could have eaten a chicken easily. He was huge but LeeRoy insisted he was harmless. I have to admit, he gave me the creeps, really creepy.

Later in the afternoon we were finally able to do the thing I really wanted to do while we were there! Go out on the lake! Auntie can't get out in the sun anymore (too many skin cancers) so she has to wait until later in the afternoon.

Here we are heading out.


Me (I know, my eyes are closed but it was the best picture of us), Auntie & Uncle LeeRoy.


This guy hung out with us while we ate our dinner. Apparently people feed them so they hang around. Look how smooth the water is!





The sun was just starting to set and the lake was beautiful!

We had a wonderful afternoon.
And we got home just in time to capture this beautiful sunset,


the best one we saw all week, even in Florida, which I'll explain later...