On Friday morning we had a delicious breakfast at “The Dripolator” Coffee House with Stew’s parents and Derek. The coffee was awesome, and the broccoli-cheese cornbread put Starbucks pastries to shame, but “The Dripolator” has got to be the most bizarre coffee shop name I’ve ever heard of – sounds more like a lame horror movie than laid-back coffee shop to me! Personally, though, I’d prefer the title “Little Coffee Shop of Horrors.”
We got on the road to Huntsville, Alabama by 11:00 am, meeting our time goals in order to maintain our itinerary and arrive in Huntsville for supper. You can call us anything you want just don’t call us…while we’re eating. The drive proved beautiful: we passed through the Smokey Mountains on the way down, and they just might have been as pretty as the Virginia Blue Ridge.
A highlight of the drive was our visit to the Smokey Mountain Knife Works, the largest knife emporium in the world. It also boasts a knife museum, where we saw knives from every century and every continent. Of course, the Lord of the Rings replicas struck the two of us fantasy nerds as pretty enticing as well. We tried to keep the visit quick and vowed not to spend any money. We succeeded at both, despite incredibly enticing offers of awesome knives at cheap prices. Stew found an excellent knife designed for emergency personnel marked down to $5 and it had an etched image of Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the blade. He managed to resist buying it, using all of his willpower. He later cried about it. We left quickly from the shop in order to maintain our schedule. Unfortunately, we left a little too quickly, as the GPS had apparently fallen out of the door, leaving us without directions. Stew had to turn around shortly thereafter to return to the stop in hopes of finding not only his same parking spot, but an uncrushed and unstolen GPS. Luck was with us for this endeavor, if not everything else.
Another highlight was this bumpersticker seen on a car driving through Tennessee: “I’ll keep my guns, freedom, and money….you can keep the change.” At that point, Stew and I knew for sure that we weren’t in Kansas anymore/yet.
We showed up in Huntsville to meet Tori’s cousins the Baxleys just in time for supper. The tomato bake was absolutely delicious – thank you Katie!! It was super exciting for Tori to meet her Tennessee family for the first time, and she hopes to see them soon at a family reunion down the line! After supper we got to spend some quality time over a few beers with Joseph and Elizabeth, two of Katie’s children. It turns out that, beyond the accents, we’re pretty similar -definitely related. We’re hoping to get together for a real party in DC sometime after our journey!
Saturday morning started off early with poundcake, strawberries, and whipped cream. Katie might not have ever met Tori before, but she must have done some research because Tori thinks that’s about the best breakfast there ever could be. Once we were good and hopped up on all that sugar, we all jumped in the minivan for a tour of Snow/Read/Moorehead family monuments. Ron, Katie’s husband, stalwartly took us on a complete tour of the Tennesee-Alabama border. We were both impressed with his seemingly endless patience for wrong turns on winding roads and steely calm despite all adversity. To no great surprise, Katie was an excellent tour guide, and Tori left feeling more educated about her family history than she ever thought possible. We also learned where Tori gets her inability to remember where she puts things…
We got to visit the mill that Tori’s great great Grandfather, Ed Snow, owned and operated, and we found out that Tori’s daddy played there as a child. Upon visiting the family cemeteries and old farms, Tori discovered that she has some really far-out family names that might get passed along the line: Barsheba, Jacynthia, Hitius, Emmadelia, Darvis…the list goes on. We had thought the whole unique baby name thing was a just the latest Hollywood craze, but it turns out the tradition started with the Snows!
Later, we got to meet Aunt Louisa who lives in Lynchburg, TN. “Lynchburg,” you may be sayin, “Isn’t that in Virginia?” Why yes. Yes, it is. There is apparently also one in Tennessee. This one, for all of those that thought the aforementioned question, is also more famous. “More famous than Lynchburg, VA? Why never. Liberty College? Hello?” These rhetorical questions should cease because Jack Daniels Distillery is a trump card. Tori’s family is in fact closely related to the creation of this superior Tennessee Bourbon. Mr. Moorhead created the whiskey with Jack Daniels and was an early partner in the creation of this divine beverage, but eventually erased his name from all records when he married a religious woman and gave up on being a liquor maker. Definitely a bummer for his current descendents, but as long as the stories live, so shall their livers. We did not get to tour the distillery due to time constraints, but we drove past Mr. Daniel’s house. Unsurprisingly, everything in Lynchburg, TN is named for Jack Daniel, right down to the children’s clothing store.
All in all, it was a great experience to reconnect with Tori’s cousins down South and learn about Tori’s Southern heritage. Who knew a Jewish girl from DC could also be a United Sister of the Confederacy? Who knew the Clifford’s had a prior Jewish line? While Tori’s Catholic/Jewish heritage technically makes her Cashew, due to her recent reconnection with her Southern heritage, she’ll have to pronounce it “cashuh.”
Although all our sightseeing caused us to get a pretty late start on the road to Memphis, it was totally worth it. Many, many thanks to the Baxleys for taking such good care of us!
p.s.: If anyone is interested in Pride and Prejudice, Southern family stories, romance, or intrigue, be sure to check out Katie Baxley’s book on Amazon! It’s The Cumberland Plateau: A Pride and Prejudice Modern Sequel. Tori’s started it already, and can’t put it down.