How I spent my Sunday

Yesterday I went to Knoxville and picked up my mother and my aunt and took them down through Pigeon Forge and Sevierville for food and shopping and ended the trip with a drive through Cades Cove. For me any trip to Sevierville always begins with a stop at the Smoky Mountain Knife Works.

Cades Cove is a beautiful valley in the Smoky Mountains which was settled by white pioneers in the late 1700's.

Today it is a large open air museum. It has been preserved as it would have looked in the 1800's.

Hunting has not been allowed for a long time so the wildlife have little fear of humans.

The quality of these pictures is not terribly good because they were shot from a moving car.

This is the Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church.

I always imagined primitive baptists wearing skins and using stone tools, but that isn't what they mean by primitive.

The red sign warns people that it is a crime to feed, touch or disturb the wildlife.

The "don't feed the animal" signs are everywhere. They don't want the deer to become dependant on handouts from humans.

There are a number of structures surviving from the old days.

I would think that the size of some of these houses would indicate prosperous farms.

Note the lack of windows to let in the cold.

My aunt thought it would have been terrible to have to have lived in such a small cabin. I agree, but since this was a storage shed I don't think living there was an issue.

I would not have enjoyed living without electricity or indoor plumbing. And having to plow fields with a mule rather than a tractor would have not been much fun either, but you couldn't ask for a more beautiful setting.

As I said, beautiful.

Cades Cove was a functioning farm community into the 20th century. This barn would be about the newest structure still standing.

The Cades Cove store is located at the entrance/exit to the loop road. It has restrooms and sells cold drinks and snacks. One thing you would have once found in a store in a major tourist attraction like this would have been a large selection of film for your camera. Now there are only a few rolls tucked away behing the counter.

Digital has killed 35mm.

Spring is here

The pear trees in the back yard are in bloom so spring is truly here. I haven't posted any photographs for a good long while. This is because I haven't taken any in a good long while. I promise to do better now that things are greening up and blooming again.

HWT Christmas Gift Guide

When I first started seeing people snapping pictures with small digital cameras I was skeptical. How good could those pictures be anyway? What I had seen of the pictures they took did not overly impress me. But that was back in the days when the cameras were in the neighborhood of 1 megapixel.

Then I saw a friend's 5.0 megapixel camera and was very impressed with the quality of the photographs it took. Not only did they look great but they didn't need to be developed and they could be uploaded directly to the 'net. AND you didn't need to buy film.

I bought a 5.1 megapixel camera and never looked back. I like my Cannon .35 MM. I like handling film and I like all the things you can do with a quality SLR. But I find myself using it less and less as the sheer convience of the digital becomes addictive.

Now cameras that have better picture quality are coming on the market and are becoming affordable. Like this one:

Olympus Stylus 740 7.1MP Digital Camera with Digital Image Stabilized 5x Optical Zoom

This has an MSRP of $349.95 but Amazon.com has them for $257.87.

If this is too rich for your blood then consider this:

Canon PowerShot A550 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

This has an MSRP of $249.99 but Amazon.com has them for $131.00. 7.1 megapixel produces a very good picture. My camera is a 5.1 and regular readers of this blog have seen dozens of pictures taken with it.

Back safe and sound

It was a beautiful day with perfect weather so everybody was outside. Some were playing chess in the park.



While others were busy solving the problems of the world.

The street musicians were out too.

Some of these guys are very good.

I tipped this guy extra for the photograph becuase he was playing John Mellencamp rather than Bob Dylan.

On the left is the spire of the Methodist Church and the right is the Presbyterian Church.




This fellow saw me holding the camera and called out, "you want to take a picture of a black man?" I did.




Downtown Asheville reminds many people of Greenwich Village, however you will not go too far without being reminded that you are in the South.



It's on my list of things to try.



You are also not allowed to forget that Asheville is a moonbat town. If they don't make any money how do they pay the rent?



Looking down Patton Ave. toward Pack Square.






Looking down Lexington Ave. Back in the 70's this is where the prostitutes would stroll. Then the business owners wanted to revitalize the area and the police were ordered to clean the area up. It worked. I haven't seen a street prostitute in downtown Asheville for years. There are, however, now about nine "escort services" operating in the Asheville area now.








From Pack Square looking down Patton Ave. toward the county office building and county court house.









Looking up Broadway toward Pack Square.

Looking down Broadway away from Pack Square.

It was lunchtime and I didn't have any breakfast so I kept finding myself drawn to the sidewalk cafes. This is Carmel's Restaurant and Bar. Last time I posted any pictures of the area it was Anthony's Caribbean Cafe. Restaurants come and go with some regularity.

Sweet as honey baby from a bee. Too bad this makes me think of Tupelo, Mississippi, which makes me think of Trent "Judas" Lott. Then the black rage swallows me and I don't remember too good.

Mayfel's (above and below) has a good lunch.

As does Muffeletas, where you can also get beignets.

I've always wanted to try the Lobster Trap, being fond of lobster and all.

When the weather is nice these windows slide back giving the front dining area an alfresco feel.

The obelisk is the (Zebulon) Vance Memorial. The tall building in the background is the Jackson Building.




Of course any trip to downtown Asheville would be wasted if it didn't end up at Jack of The Wood for a pint of their fine house brew, Green Man Ale.






Ah, my reward for . . . Well I got my underwear on under my clothes this morning!





Of course even a town as nice as Asheville looks better from behind a pint of fine porter.

See, what did I tell you!

The Candy Barrel

I had to travel through beautiful Valle Crucis on Friday so I stopped at the Candy Barrel at the Mast General Store Annex.

Valle Crucis (Valley of the Cross) was named by the Spanish explorers who were the first White Men to visit these mountains. They came looking for the Fountain of Youth.

Not only a large selection, but stuff you don't find most places. Like candy cigarettes (they have to get them from France cause no one in America makes them any more).

Yumyumeatumup.

A hurricane remnant blew through a few years ago and flooded the first floor of the building. All the merchandise was a total loss.

If you look in the upper left corner you will see the chocolate band-aids.

Of course they also have the obligatory toys and other souvenir items.

Do you all remember the bag-o-gold bubblegum? That was right up there with the candy coins.

Some of those jawbreakers are the size of softballs.

You grab a basket and fill it up. They weigh your candy and charge you by the pound at the register.

No actual bears were harmed in the decoration of this store.