Fall in Tennesse

We wanted to see really great colors this fall and Tennessee was a wonderful choice. We decided on Dickson, Tennessee, partly for the foliage and partly because it is a town named after my ancestors. Don't hold me to this, but I believe my grandfather was the great nephew of the founder. It was founded in 1899 and it is a wonderful little town. It was kind of strange to see your name on practically everything! It gave me a sense of family pride. Very neat, I would definitely go back. Who knows, maybe even find some long lost relative.
We stayed in a great National Park outside of Dickson called Montgomery Bell. It had awesome hiking trails from one to twenty miles in length. It was actually raining the day we went hiking with the kids but all of the trees worked as a "canopy" for us and kept us from getting wet. That was really neat. There were many holes along the way where miners used to mine for ore, some small, some very large. One of the neatest thing we found on our hike was an old church and parishioner's home. If I remember correctly, it was the first in Tennessee. Everything was just beautiful with stone pathways and wooden bridges that crossed over creeks. It was so serene that I toyed with the idea of wanting to live like this in an old two room cabin. But, I came to my senses when I thought of things like bathrooms and Wal-mart! There was so much history there, but unfortunately, we didn't stay long enough to research it.
One our way home we stayed on the Mississippi River at a place called Tom Sawyer's. It was right on the Mississippi and we could sit and watch the tug boat push huge barges up and down the Mississippi. It was fun for the kids because they are fans of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. I think that is one of the best things about traveling, the kids can really relate to books and characters (fictional and non-fictional) and it just brings things to life for them (and me!).