Well after a great visit with Doug and his family we are on our way to Georgia to visit my other brother, Mark, who just happens to be Doug's twin. We had a great drive on some blue roads - I-40 east to I-75 south to Cleveland, TN - and then lots of red roads across the southern part of Tennessee, North Carolina, and then going south into Georgia. We caught US 64/74 out of Cleveland, TN and followed that a few miles past Murphy, NC where we headed south into Georgia on Georgia 17/75 to Helen, GA. The ride, through the Cherokee National Forest, was spectacular even if a bit windy in places. US 64/74 followed along the Ocoee river system that was the host of the kayaking events for the 1996 Olympics.
Once into Georgia we drove over a mountain and then down the other side in a series of sharp turns followed by a hairpin turn and then back to simply a sharp turn. Fortunately the grade wasn't very steep and we were able to enjoy the ride. There were lots of passing lanes and turn outs so we were able to let cars by us if they started to stack up behind us. We found the RV park Mark had located for us and got settled without any difficulty. That evening Mark and his family, wife Sandi and kids Brandt & Emily, came over for dinner and a visit. We enjoyed catching up a bit and hearing about how things were going with them. After dinner we started a campfire and continued the discussion outside with the fire and 60 Minutes to entertain us.
On Monday Mark took the afternoon off to spend some more time with us so we had lunch at a nice Italian place in Clarksville. Tippy and I were driving around trying to find a grocery store and I spoke with Mark a couple of times on the phone. We had decided to meet in Helen at a restaurant we would choose. The last call to Mark was to find out how long it would take for him to get to Helen since we didn't know where his office was located. He said his office was located in Clarksville, where we were at that time, and that is how we got together in Clarksville.
Mark took us to a local Ingels market for some shopping, to his office at the Scoville company for a plant tour, and then came back to the RV park with us to spend the afternoon and evening with us. It was great to see Mark and his family and we hope to stay in touch a little better in the future. The plant tour at Scoville was very interesting and informative. Much of their work is now done in China and they continue to downsize their operations here in the US. The process of making the different types of snaps and grippers from raw material is a;ll done by machines that seem to make an endless number of items from a roll of wire or metal that is fed into the machine. The sheer volume is impressive!
The pictures above are from our drive from Tennessee to Georgia and from mark's visit. Enjoy and be safe.
