King of the Wild Frontieeeeeeeeeeeerrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

Noel's hometown is very close to the birthplace of that Great American, Davy Crockett - he of coon-skin hat fame, questionably violent relations with Native Americans, known as an excellent rifleman, who served in the U.S. Congress despite having only 6 months of formal education, and who died valiantly at the Alamo. Don't forget that part. Never forget that part.

(Also, does everything suddenly have some tie to Texas? Weird)

(On a mostly-unrelated note, my crockpot is named after said hero of early America: Davy Crockpot. Yes, I am a dork. But so's my sister - her's is Betty Crocker. Moving on.)

So the other day we decided to pay ol' Davy's birthplace a visit. It's a very small little cabin on the banks of the Nolichuckey River and is really quite darling:

Cozy! The inside has a lovely dining room:



And Davy's bed (with requisite bear skin on the wall - nice homey touch):



There was a monster fireplace in there too:



Also? All of this was one room. We talked about how tiny it was, until we realized that..um....we live in 230 sq ft ourselves. So. This teensy cabin would actually be a step UP in size for us. heh. (Gives you some perspective on the size of our little house on wheels, doesn't it?)


WARNING: ARTSY-FARTSINESS AHEAD.









(The sepia seems to make it seem old-timey-er, doesn't it?)

There was a nice campground and park at the birthplace too, including a pool where Noel, as a fresh-faced youth, showed off for the ladies by performing acrobatic feats of daring-do off of the diving boards. Ah...those were the days. Hee hee. (He's going to kill me when he reads this).

Off to the side, they had a lovely walking trail that we traipsed up, despite the fact that I was wearing a floor-length dress. Pioneer-style, that's the only way to hike! We got some nice pictures of the Nolichuckey River from there:





There was a pretty (although shaky) bridge:



The bridge spanned a pretty pile of rocks:



And LOOK: definite signs of spring!



And moss! (We all know how much I love moss):



Spring in the mountains is so lovely - you really get a sense of Winter being gone and Spring arriving, because everything is gray and dead-looking all winter. The little green buds on the trees show up so brightly against the dark gray bark. So pretty!

So thanks, Davy, for the tour of your ol' stompin' grounds. It sure was a nice day!