Blaine, TN
We had quite the full and busy Saturday today. In between working from home, helping Ryan and Sean with their lawnmowing jobs, grocery shopping, and visiting my aunt, we found time to take a road trip to Luttrell and Blaine, Tennessee.
We didn’t set out for either place, we just got in the car and drove. We started up Tazewell Pike from Fountain City and rode it all the way to Highway 61 in Luttrell. Luttrell, and the nearby community of Corryton, claim music legend Chet Atkins and more recent country star Kenny Chesney as native sons. From Luttrell, Highway 61 intersects with Highway 11E, which runs east into Grainger County and the town of Blaine. Along the way, you pass through the shadow of House Mountain, and the park that shares its name. It is a hidden gem of hiking trails and nature scenes only 15 minutes from downtown Knoxville.
Two things strike you as you meander along the well maintained but curvy highway. One is the gorgeous country scenery of rural East Tennessee, the true hill country where real people live, farm, and raise livestock. Our youngest son Dale, who claims the go cart tracks and tourist traps of Pigeon Forge as his second home, could not get over the natural beauty of a landscape without neon billboards and endless traffic. It seems as though everyone in Blaine owns horses and has acres of pastureland. The people you meet are genuinely nice, helpful folks who seem to draw a strength and calmness from the land itself.
Patriotic Road Trailer
The second thing you notice is the patriotism of East Tennesseans in the country. Everywhere you look, you see the Stars and Stripes proudly flying from rooftops and porches, from the grandest new brick mansion to the old clapboard farmhouses and mobile homes. As I explained to Dale, this is a place where people have to rely on each other. Unlike living in the city, there is no fire station two blocks away, no police car around the corner, no trash pickup every week. Whatever needs done, people do it for themselves, or with help from their neighbors. Above it all, Old Glory soars in her majesty, reflecting the pride of freedom from a self- reliant community.
The big event in Grainger County this weekend is the annual Tomato Festival. In the last 20 or so years, Grainger County tomatoes have become famous around the world for their fresh off the vine taste. Grainger County tomatoes are ranked with Vidalia onions and South Carolina peaches as unique examples of fresh produce superior to that grown in other places. The tomato farmers in Blaine and Rutledge have prospered as a result.
Horses in Blaine, Tennessee
Those of our neighbors in Knoxville, or anyone traveling through East Tennessee, should take the time to see the quiet, peaceful countryside of Grainger County. It is worth the short drive to see real country and meet real country people.
Comments