3-4-17  on to Knoxville:

It was a short St. Louis visit this time.  Only 4 full days.  But we packed alot into that.  I went swimming twice and volleyball once.  It sure was nice getting a chance to play volleyball again!  Ken visited a couple of his buddies who were in rehab centers right now.  We also made it to dinner with a couple we haven't dined with in years, as well as ate at Ken's brother's restaurant and had a nice visit with him, and went to dinner with Faith's dad and his new wife.  Lots of good eatin' and great visitin'!  We had thought about staying a couple more days, but decided to head to Knoxville on Sat. so we could spend Sat. night and all day Sunday visiting with Tim and Faith.  Another reason for wanting to go on this trip!
So we were off by about 8:30 am.  We had planned to meet up with David and Jane for breakfast in Mt. Vernon on our way through.  But just like last time, our plans were foiled by his foster kids.  Last time it was the run-a-way boy who he had to go to court about.  This time he was at the hospital with the new boy.  He's a large 18 year old senior in high school who thought it was a good idea to let a bully punch him to prove that he can take a punch.  The punch broke the kids jaw in 2 places and the stress caused his heart to have some problems.  He wasn't released in time for David and Jane to join us, so we stopped and had breakfast by ourselves, then continued on.
Here we are crossing over to Illinois on the newer I-70 bridge.  At least you don't have to go downtown to cross the river anymore.

 Another view of St. Louis from the new bridge.

 soon we were into farmlands again.

 seems like in Illinois the barns and house are all clustered together into little communes.

 I love looking for churches, too.

 but there seem to be more barns then churches.

 Good bye Superman---and Illinois.  This is the last exit before Paducah.

 now the barns start getting farther away from the houses.

 on to Tennessee and the beginning of the mountains near Nashville.

 Since we didn't spend a long time visiting with my brother, I suggested we go check out a waterfall that was suppose to be about 5 miles off I-40 about 1 1/2 hours from Knoxville.  Looks like they do some rock quarrying there.

 It was a pleasant drive from the interstate to the falls.

 within about 15 minutes we were there and walking the path to see if there was any water in the falls.  with the drought this winter, Tim mentioned a lot of the falls had dried up and he had never heard of this one (Ozone Falls).

 I was pleasantly surprised to see there was lots of water here.

 upstream

 downstream

 But it was sort of scary trying to get a good look at the falls. 

 No viewing platform, or railing---just a cliff. 

 There was a path down to the bottom and it didn't look too long, but we were determined to get to the "kids'" place before 6 so we continued on.

 Ken made comment about the Pure gas station signs here and there.  I don't remember that company and I'm pretty old!

 Along our way back to I-40, we saw another waterfall.  So naturally I made ken stop so I could take some more pictures.

 Knoxville is pretty much what I'd call the beginning of the South---more trees coming to life.

 We know we're close when we see all the smokestacks. 

 Interesting clouds here, too.  The picture doesn't do them justice.

 I was surprised at how many daffodils were blooming randomly all over by the side of the highways here.

 The final highway and the mountains they get to see everyday (when it's clear) on their ways to and from work.  Not a bad view!

We got there about 5:45 and enjoyed a great dinner and visit with them before calling it a day.