Bell Buckle, a whistle-stop town known for its annual RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival (and accompanying it, a grueling 10-mile race). It was a hop-skip from her part of Murfreesboro. As the town prepared to close shop for Sunday, we ate comfort food at the café and ice cream at the picturesque antique store and ice cream parlor. An elderly couple ran the counter, and we wandered the small commercial block that covered the restaurants, antique stores as well as the town hall. Even the small neighborhood behind it stood out thanks to the wild pastel colors brightening most of the century-old homes. A few block away we passed the Webb School, an ultra-exclusive boarding school that drew wealthy students from around the world.
Later in July, on a day when the car temperature read 104, we headed north to The Land Between the Lakes, the giant inland peninsula formed between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The government bought out a group of farmers half a century ago, and turned into recreation land between the commercial barges that plied the deep-channeled rivers.
We started with the bison and elk prairie. The elk hid on the forest fringes, virtually blending into the broken stumps and thick limbs. The bison wallowed on the banks of a shallow lake. A few females lingered in the tan waters. A lone bull stood in the trees and another sat among the herd.
On a loop walk around a small lake, the wildlife was just as rich. A handful of snakes breezed across the path in the muddy flats away from the boardwalk. Butterflies supplied most of the color. I’m sure something venomous crossed our path, but they fled before we could identify them. The last 200 yards lost all shade and dropped us under a vicious July afternoon sun.
This is just a glimpse. I’ve never been one to air too much on the blog, and I won’t start now.
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