There was a little bit of rain overnight but it stopped just about the time we got up. It has been mostly overcast today with temperatures in the high 50s.
We had no agenda today, mainly cross country driving and viewing the country side. It’s the day after Thanksgiving and things are quiet.
We returned our levelers to our neighbours with a half dozen of my home baked chocolate chip cookies as thanks.
I had found a quilt shop in Pikeville, a charming little town not far from where we started out. It was closed but was cute enough to photograph.
The Piggly Wiggly in Pikeville was open however. We needed milk and fresh vegetables. I also indulged in a slightly aged pecan pie probably prepared prior to Thanksgiving. Other southern foods we have eaten are bbq particularly pulled pork and wings. I have not yet had the pleasure of trying Moon Pies with RC Cola or boiled peanuts (which we should have bought in NC).
Geography today took us down off the Cumberland Plateau where we had been last night and through Tennessee River valleys again with hills on either side. The time zone changed back to Eastern Time just the other side of Knoxville. It won’t get dark quite so early tonight. But early enough.
Just before we headed up into the park, we passed Oak Ridge, TN.
The Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge
Several massive Manhattan Project facilities at Oak Ridge enriched uranium for use in Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Today the story of the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge includes historic sites, community centers and museums, and highly-secured nuclear research facilities operated by the US Department of Energy.
In 1946, X-10 began producing peacetime radioisotopes for use in industry, agriculture, medicine and research. The pile was permanently shut down in 1963 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and a National Historic Chemical Landmark in 2008. The reactor has also been recently renovated and is often included in tours provided by ORNL to visitors.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Our campsite tonight is at Norris Dam State Park. The dam itself is part of the TVA network of dams. We have been crisscrossing this network on the trip having first come across it near Paducah, KY several years ago on a previous trip in a previous Roadtrek.
TVA was created in 1933, one of the “alphabet soup” projects championed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a way to get a flagging country back on its feet during the Great Depression.
The corporation’s purpose was succinctly expressed in the preamble to the Tennessee Valley Authority Act:
“To improve the navigability and to provide for the flood control of the Tennessee River; to provide for reforestation and the proper use of marginal lands in the Tennessee Valley; to provide for the agricultural and industrial development of said valley; to provide for the national defense by the creation of a corporation for the operation of Government properties at and near Muscle Shoals in the State of Alabama, and for other purposes
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric company. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. While owned by the federal government, TVA receives no taxpayer funding and operates similarly to a private for-profit company. It is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and is the sixth largest power supplier and largest public utility in the country.
Our campsite is situated on the height of land in this area, quite a climb. In fact most of our campsites have been at the top of something on this trip including our Air BnB. Our WV trip was good training for TN although the roads are much better in TN.
Our reserved campsite was too short for our vehicle and also had a broken picnic table. We couldn’t find the campground host and the offices are closed for Thanksgiving so we just took one we liked that didn’t appear to be reserved. The one we chose is backwards to the norm ie the services and picnic table are on the wrong side so we fronted in instead of backing in. It feels strange. But it’s level at least!
Cooking outside again for an early dinner before dark.
Louise and Brian McLeod Travel Blog 
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