A lot of Tennessee towns are named after Revolutionary War heroes that I have never heard of.

Like Nashville’s namesake, Francis Nash, Murfreesboro’s namesake, Hardy Murfree, was another Revolutionary War hero that I had never heard of. For a city of 133,000, Murfreesboro had a small-town feel. Not as robust as Franklin’s touristy downtown, Murfreesboro’s downtown square was more laid back.

The two things that struck me were: 1) the nicest restored buildings in the downtown were laywer’s offices, and there were quite a few. Litigation must sling fast and furious in Murfreesboro, and it must be lucrative. 2) The downtown square is ringed with tons of large churches with interesting architecture. All claimed to be historic, even if they were built just 50 years ago.

Murfreesboro was the original capital of Tennessee before being moved to Nashville.

Honoring the Confederate Soldiers.

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! Here is where I have to draw the line. Nathan Bedford Forest was a bad man, and dedicating the County building to him is plain wrong.

Forest never led an army. He never tasted victory in an important battle. He was a gorilla fighter. He led a band of raiders that harassed Union supply lines. These raids were daring and a thorn in the side of Union logistics, but they had no effect on the war’s outcome. OK, not so horrific yet.

Here is where it goes downhill. He was responsible for the Fort Pillow massacre where hundreds of Black solders were killed after they surrendered. Following the war, Forest was a founding member of the KKK and served as a grand wizard at a time that the KKK had an awful lot of blood on its hands.

The county is named after, you guessed it, another Revolutionary War hero that I had never heard of.

Law office.

Nice building in the middle is a Law office.

While not gorgeously restored, the building does have some character.

Puckett’s is a nice restaurant and music venue. On top of the sign is a guitar headstock. On the bottom is a fork.

Inside Puckett’s.

I had a high school buddy, Dick Newby, that moved to Tennessee to build and repair string instruments. I never knew exactly where in Tennessee. Sadly, he passed away in his 40s.This store reminded me of him.

Baptist Church.

Methodist Church.

This church is being repurposed into some kind of a Community Building.

This bar intrigued me. It sponsors axe throwing tournaments. I have never seen this before.

A nice painting I saw in a store window.

My sister, Diane, who lives in Germany, got us hooked on sparkling water. Aldi sells their brand of sparkling water in 12-pack cans for $2.79. We usually add a couple of squirts of black cherry concentrated flavor enhancer, but I like it unflavored if I am completely parched and the water is chilled to near absolute zero.

I googled Aldi. There are three of them in Murfreesboro. On our way to the closest one, we noticed all the new neighborhoods going up. Vast new housing tracts, supported by brand new franchise restaurants and strip malls, were springing out of the ground like flowers in May. It is Americana in that radiant clean “new” phase. Too bad that in 20 years it will probably begin showing lots of old-age wrinkles. I am proud to report that leaving Aldi was a lot cheaper than leaving the black hole.

When we returned to our campground, we hit the nature trails. A campground named, Cedars of Lebanon, should have thick stands of big old-growth cedar trees. Nope, there are a handful of young skinny cedars, but not much to brag about. Perhaps we didn’t hit the right trail.

What Cedars did have was sinkholes - lots of them. There were big ones, round one, long skinny ones, deep ones, shallow ones, ones with caves, others with overhanging ledges, ones with trees trying to grow on top of solid rock, etc. We banged out about 3 1/2 miles before suppertime.

Lots of limestone = lots of sinkholes.

After our third day of chili, we still have a little bit left over for tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong. I love chili. Stretching a giant batch of chili for three or four days is a wonderful proposition to me. Tomorrow we pack up and head for the Smokey Mountains. We are psyched.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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