We left the home of our friend Nancy in Asheville after a very nice stay.
As we headed to the parkway it was overcast and misting. We were not sure how the views would be, but we got lucky with the sun occasionally breaking through and getting panoramas like this.
There is a definite reason they are called the Blueridge Mountains.
As you can see from the second picture the colors are changing. Two days later the change was even more dramatic.
We stopped at Cherokee, the home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and toured their museum.
It is very well done and by the end you have a good start in understanding the history of the Cherokee, after they start to encounter the Europeans .
The rains started that evening and continued throughout the night.
Driving through the patches of fog drifting in, while on the parkway was very dramatic and beautiful.
The next day, we drove East into Tennessee and are staying just outside Chattanooga ,or as some say “Nooga”.
Quite a nice city so far.
We drive to an outer part of the it you and get on a free electric bus to get around.
Seems as if the drivers know all the passengers and it makes for a “small town feel” in the middle of a city.
In the civil war,”nooga” was a pivotal place because who ever controlled the city controlled the Mississippi River, and the major rail lines through much of the south.
Finally in 1863, Grant was given command and he took the city. It was a major turning point in the war.
The river runs through the middle of the city so there Is a north and south sides.
The first day we were on the north side.
The day before there had been the 5 bridges marathon so we say a number of people limping around.
Below is one of the window displays.
Check out the runners names!
some of the streets were decorated with these directions.
Or as Nerd Duncan would have called it in the 70’s
Paul’s mad dancing. Might still be so in the 2019’s
Just wouldn’t be complete without this one.
We visited the Hunter museum of art.
I really liked this piece out of Aluminum
The next day we went to a place called Songbirds
combination night club and guitar museum.
Not just any guitar museum, one room alone, called the vault was insured for $250 Million.
This amp was not even in the vault, it was in an outside room. It’s called a Dumble Amp. Hand made. You bring your guitars and you play for Mr Dumble.
He listens to you ,then decides how he is going to build your amp, based on the music you play and how you play.
oh, the price tag if you have to ask……..$90,000.00
No I did not misplace the decimal point.
This was a guitar that Jimi Hendrix saw George Harrison playing and decided he had to have one also. It’s a behemoth, weighing in at about 12 lbs.
Now for the story of 2 sisters
These guitars belonged to two sisters, one right handed and the other left handed. The guitar on the right is 1 of 13 ever made by Leo Fender in a certain year. These were custom made for the sisters.
The collector finds out about it and buys it from the family after the lady had died.
As he’s walking out the door the daughter says you might want to talk to my aunt because she has the left handed twin to it.
So he looks up the aunt and talks to her to get her to sell it. she’s having none of it.
She wants to keep it in her family and doesn’t want it to be sold and resold.
He’s offering 10’s of thousands of dollars.Nope
So for three years he sends her Christmas cards ,each time asking her to reconsider.Nope
He then explains that he has a museum,
and that he will keep it next to her sisters guitar in perpetuity. Nope
Months pass when she calls him,saying she’s interested IF, he will do as he said and keep them in the case next to each other.
He grabs tons of cash and heads over.
The deal is made, he started to hand over cash,and she stops him.
“I said I don’t want any money”
He leaves with the guitar, and here they rest next to each other.
One last thing, when he went to the sister’s house, he had $100,000.00 on him.
In the last drawer he showed us, these were in there
These are the 1st two prototypes built by Leo Fender, of the Fender Telecaster, called The Broadcaster ,until Leo Fender lost a copyright law suit to Gretchen.
Did you know that Leo Fender was not a guitarist?
Ya do now.
Until later.
Paul
Pau's Travels 