Yesterday I was Patient

Part of our mission for visiting Tennessee is to explore possible places to retire. To that end, we visited Piney Creek Air-park, a short hop in the airplane outside of Nashville. Piney Creek features a beautiful paved runway cut in to the trees on a wooded Plateau. One of the impressive things about Tennessee is there are trees as far as you can see in any direction. And hills. The entire state is one continuous, rolling range of hills, lakes, ponds, rivers, and canyons that I understand are called Coves.

Joe is one of the partners at Piney Ridge Air-park. He greeted us warmly, and took us on a tour of the three houses which constitute the beginning of the small community, showed us future plans for the development, and took us on a short drive to town. It was all very pleasant, picturesque, and quite rural. We thanked him for the tour, then climbed in the plane, ready to take off for Oak Ridge, where we planned to spend the next few days.

As we rolled down the runway, the engine sputtered, coughed and backfired, and when Roy pulled back on the throttle, the propeller stopped turning. We were both Very Glad we were not yet in the air. Joe and another fellow had been watching out take off. They came over immediately to offer assistance. The fellows towed the plane to a hangar, and called Wayne, the local Guy Who Fixes EveryThing, to come over and offer assistance. 

Before long there were 5 or 6 guys in the hangar, all lending a hand. Joe handed out bottles of water, then took me to the local corner market/deli/restaurant to get sandwiches. When we returned to the hangar, he showed me where the fishing poles were, and told me about the Big Bass that lives in the pond off the rear deck of the hangar. I inquired enough about the engine to know that Roy and N174RT were in good hands, and I retreated to a deck chair with my kindle and a fishing pole. Did I mention is is HOT here? So hot you can barely move hot. Spend all day with a film of sweat on you hot. Do nothing but sit in a chair with a Supersize cup of iced sweet tea and read all day hot.

The pond behind the hangar with the Big Bass

I SERIOUSLY missed the northwest, my daughter, my boat, my garden, during this time. It did not feel like vacation. But what is one to do? All of the fellows helping with the plane were over-the-top incredibly nice, friendly, warm and welcoming, and they provided unwavering help in sorting out the issue with the plane. Its hard to be pouty in such circumstances. By the time Roy finished a test flight and was feeling good about continuing on, the sun was starting to go down. Wayne operated several small cabins nearby, all of which were full, but offered for us to stay with his Mother, whose house was on the property with the cabins. 

Marianne, our hostess, was delightful. She is 80 years old sharp as a tack. Loves to fly. And makes wonderful creamed corn. And blueberry pie. If that was not enough, the blueberry pie was served with Roy's favorite - Blue Bell Ice Cream. The three of us sat on the screened-in front porch, eating pie and ice cream, and Marianne told us about her years operating a chicken farm and raising cattle on the property. She sold the cattle and stopped raising poultry when her husband passed, then Wayne, who she readily attests CAN fix everything, built the small cabins and put in a RV park on the property. It is a wonderful place for cabins, as it has a small lake, and a spectacular view of a valley and misty mountains beyond. 

In addition to drinking sweet tea, reading, fishing, enjoying the warmth and hospitality of our hosts, I also took pictures of bugs:

Cricket on the deck

Butterfly in the hangar

And listened to the twangy rich way that people talk here, like the gentlemen we chatted with outside the local grocer, where you can buy breakfast cereal and chicken feed.

And in the morning, stretched out my yoga mat, and breathed in the salty, woodsy, marshy, moist air from the pond, and the misty ridges draped in green beyond.