.... and the rains came.

Our heat wave finally has been broken as rain has returned to the plateau. But the rain was ushered in by high winds that dulled the joy of its arrival. The first victim noticed was the truck belonging to the chef at the Harrow Road Cafe.

A large branch broke off a nearby tree and almost perfectly centered itself on the truck's cab.

Although six years old, the truck had been pampered and cared for. Now he waits for the insurance company to make the repair or replace decision.

Several trees and branches were felled around Rugby. This is a large Black Walnut tree that stood next to Ruralia, one of the historic houses. Fortunately it fell away from the house and missed both the shed and a new sign at the entrance to Boyle Woods.

The picture below shows it standing next to Ruralia, just outside the fence to the right.

The winds have now ceased and for the past 24 hours we've enjoyed nearly continuous periods of gentle to soaking rains. Things are already starting to green up. Hope it wasn't too late to save the sweet corn crop!

Top Secret!

The State of Tennessee's tourism office has developed a number of driving trips across the state. The newest one is in our area. The Top Secret Trail has the subtitle " Proton Beams to Utopian Dreams," which captures the two places I have lived in Tennessee:

Oak Ridge,

and Rugby. The trails also visits many of the spots readers have seen here over the past 18 months. Such as,

LaFollette,

Harriman,

 Museum of Appalachia,

Oliver Springs,

Norris Dam,

and Livingston. We'll see more spots on the Top Secret Trail in the coming weeks, and maybe we'll venture onto the White Lightning Trail that traces the paths of bootleggers running moonshine out of the mountains down to the cities. (Actually, we have already, but that's for later.)