Driving Down A Gorgeous Maryville, TN Country Road

Hey guys!! Today was dry and sunny enough to take you down Tuckaleechee Pike. It was another gorgeous drive and I found out where Lambert Golf Course was located. I hope you enjoy the drive!!
We In Tennessee Merch tee.pub/lic/h-D...

[@curlyque2717]

I met Lamar Alexander on the streets of DC around 1991. He passed me on the sidewalk just a few blocks from the White House. He was education secretary then. I yelled at him, walked up to him and stretched out my hand to shake his hand and told him who I was and that i just moved to the area from his hometown of Maryville. We talked a few minutes. It was kinda cool. Nice guy but shorter than i expected. He did a lot for education in TN when he was governor.

[@weintennessee3716]

That's very cool!! I love reading all these stories!

[@tinaturner3624]

If you go up last that road by dollar general and keep going around you would be near Colter Road is the road I lived on with my parents over 30 years ago beautiful community ❤

[@CoinBallKurt]

Christmas lights need to be down by now.

[@weintennessee3716]

I would have to agree

[@022100bmlotus]

Mitch, I wonder if you will combine some of this footage with the other seasons, and show us the same area with 4 seasons:) Nice day Mitch. Warmer weather headed your way.

[@weintennessee3716]

That's a pretty good ide! I have the footage to do it too! I'll just have to see if it's the same area.

[@michaelcooley4553]

Just past the golf course you passed the old Porter High School, one of several small rural schools including Townsend and Walland that were merged into Heritage High School. Porter despite being small, was a girl's basketball powerhouse and won several small division State Championships. Walland HS won a couple of football titles, the last in 1975 just before the merger. I recommend a visit to Becky's Grill just a little further south. It's very homey and has a bit of a shrine to the 75 Walland State Champs. Where your video ends, there is often a large American flag flying near the car wash. This area was the site of a pro Union demonstration in the early days of the Civil War. The story is that mountaineers quilted a enormous flag and displayed it there as a warning to Confederate incursions into the High country. There is a beautiful story, though it may be apocryphal, that a Captain White, tasked by Confederate General Zollicofer to disarm pro Union citizens, was warned by a circuit preacher who spent time in the back country "not to disturb the flag". Captain White ordered his Confederate troops to salute the flag "of their birth" thus avoiding a planned ambush in the Little River Gorge if he had disturbed the flag. I first heard that story on NPR about 30 years ago. Tuckaleechee Pike continues on the road behind Heritage HS and follows the Little River into Townsend and Tuckalechee Cove. Very popular bicycle route.

[@curlyque2717]

I know that bike ride. Very nice.

[@michaelcooley4553]

Lamar lives just a few miles south of this video in the Millers Cove area. Lamar walked across the entire state of Tennessee from Mountain City to Memphis when he ran for Governor. He replaced the extremely corrupt Ray Blanton administration and brought back some respect to the office after a period of scandal. The automotive industry in Tennessee blossomed during his tenure. Lamar with the assistance of celebrity Tennesseans like Alex Haley, initiated a Tennessee Homecoming event in 1986 that was very popular. There was speculation that he would run for the Presidency in 88, but a family dinner conversation towards the end of his second Gubernatorial term made him reflect on time he had missed out on with his younger children and he chose to move his family to Australia for a couple years for a family adventure. He did run for the Republican nomination in 96, walking across Iowa. I think his folksy campaign style which worked in Tennessee, seemed a bit contrived on the national stage and Bob Doles WW2 war record carried him to the nomination.

[@weintennessee3716]

That's awesome to still have him around with all that history! Thank you!

[@DanielSchuch]

Ir you make a right you will go to Townsend.

[@angiew4544]

Hi Mitch, just thinking if you do this drive again in 3 months everything will look completely different.

[@weintennessee3716]

Oh yeah absolutely!!