Cousins In the Creek

La took this photograph of Sarah and Grace enjoying the creek at our cabin in Estill Springs earlier this month.

Clerks Conference

I spent the week at the Tennessee Court Clerks Conference at Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns, Tennessee, which is about an hour west of Nashville. On the drive I passed acres of fields of lost corn crop that had been burned by the sun this summer. Usually I see deer, and sometimes turkey, at the state park, but all I saw this time were Canada geese on Acorn Lake from my room.

I've been a part of the conference for two years now, and I have had the pleasure to have attended several events at the Inn and Conference Center at Montgomery Bell. The rooms at the inn are comfortable, and the conference center is very nice. Some of the rooms have wi-fi, but the one I stayed in this time did not. I saw several people on laptops in the lobby, but I didn't bring mine upstairs to try to get online. The staff there is very accommodating, and the food at the restaurant, which overlooks the lake, is really good and has been voted by locals as one of their favorite restaurants.

I have camped at the campground in the park several times when we lived in Nashville, and it is a really nice place to camp. There is a great canoe access point on the nearby Harpeth River where there is a great bend in the river. You can put your canoe in, ride downstream through the bend, and take your boat back out just a short walk from where you put in. There used to be a canoe rental business there called Pizza Shack, and they would rent you a canoe and sell you a pizza to take back to your campsite for supper after you were done on the river.

If you like history, there is plenty of it nearby. Montgomery Bell, the Iron Master of the Harpeth, bought a foundry from James Robertson, one of the founders of Nashville and friend of John Sevier during his days in the Watagua settlement in the mountains of East Tennessee near what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. From the river you can see where Bell had a hole blasted through the river at the aforementioned bend as part of his iron works. There is a trail in the park, the Ore Pit Trail, where you can walk through the area where Bell's men dug for iron ore in the early 1800's. The first Cumberland Presbyterian Church is also on the park property and is still used for services.

Snapshots From the Camp

My sister, Laura, took this picture facing downstream of Taylor Creek, which flows through our property in Estill Springs. There's nothing compared to the feeling of sitting on a lawn chair in the middle of that creek with your feet in the cold spring water.

Mom poses with her granddaughters in the living room of the cabin.

Sarah and Grace survey the family property from the front porch.

The girls gathered flowers for their mothers and grandmother, and these purple blooms Grace is holding were particularly pretty.

Sarah and Grace strike a pose in the top bunk of the bunk bed at the cabin. Grandmother designed the king-sized bunk bed and had it built to order when the cabin was built. My sisters and I used to love to play up on the top bunk when we were little, too.

On Location at Hillsboro High School

According to the Tennessean, a film crew was out in front of Sherry's alma mater, Hillsboro High School, yesterday, and the name on the school was changed to Middle Bend High for the filming, which was for a new Nicole Kidman flick. Nashville encourages filmaking, and Kidman lives there at times with her husband, Keith Urban, so it sounds like a good fit.



I wonder if the Inukshuk statue will appear in the film.

Pig and Pie

Pig and Pie, a Nashville barbecue joint that inhabited the food court at Bellevue Center Mall prior to the mall's untimely death, has opened a restaurant at 336 White Bridge Road, which isn't far from Sherry's mom's house. I read a review on the place in the Nashville Scene, and the headline characterizes the quality as "uneven," though the review overall is fairly positive. The restaurant is in the little white house that used to be the home of a Persian restaurant, Hot Kebabs. We've eaten at Hot Kebabs before, and I'm sorry to learn that it has closed. I bet Pig and Pie does well there, though.

Family Rivalry: Hillwood High Versus Hillsboro High

Hillwood High School

My stepsons, Jake and Joey, attend Hillwood High School, and their mother attended Hillsboro High School. The two teams meet at Hillwood's stadium tomorrow night to open high school football season. Sherry is off tomorrow, and plans to travel to Nashville to attend with the boys. This morning she asked if she could borrow my T-shirt that says, "Embarrassing my children, just another service I offer." The boys are understandably concerned.