Author: Elsa

During the trip from the funeral home to the cemetery all cars we
passed stopped and waited for the whole funeral procession to pass.
Not one car kept driving. It was very touching to see everyone stop
what they were doing for a couple minutes as we drove on by. However
it became a little less touching to me when some of the drivers took
advantage of the time by lighting up their cigarettes. I can't imagine
any anxious Yankee (including myself) stopping that long to let a
funeral procession go by.

After being at a wake for several hours the adults start going a little batty. The kids had definitely lost their minds by the time seven o’clock rolled along. The girls had taken over the place, literally. Dahlia formed an all girl’s club you could only enter by knowing the passwords “ice cream” or “sausage”. Poor Jack had travelled from Dallas that morning with only a small cat nap for the day. He held up incredibly well. I was so glad to finally meet him.

I had to take a picture of one of Grandma's quilts up close. This one
lay on top of her casket under the flowers. The flowers were beautiful
but the quilt really stood out to me. She sewed everything by hand on
her quilts. My hands start aching just thinking about it. I am still
waiting to hand stitch a hem on the valance in the kitchen I made 2
months ago.

Claude Gaynelle Seals would be happy with all the people that came to
her wake to say goodbye. It is a shame that the main star of a wake
can't really appreciate the event. Who knows maybe she did get to
watch from the bleacher seats? She was the second youngest in a line
of 13 brothers and sisters. She was the last one alive of the
thirteen. They really needed to have a large family tree posted in the
entrance of the funeral home with names and pictures. There would be
good Southern names on that tree like "Peachy", "Tee", "Effie",
"Oma"and "Curnel". People kept coming up to me trying to figure out
where I fit in. I really should have had a button saying "in-law" on it.

There is always time for games in the Fleck family. Before heading to
the wake the cousins worked in a card game. Notice how everyone has an
iPhone on their cards to prevent them from blowing away.

Our group pretty much took over the Hampton Inn in Tullahoma, TN.
During the day we hung out by the small pool in the back of the hotel.
Bub trapped a red hornet under a cup for Monti out by the pool. That
hornet was pretty pissed when he finally got out. He sent his buddies
flying after Monti all around the pool. No hornet or human was injured.

After dinner we took a walk around the Normandy Dam. The dam was built
for flood control in 1976 and it is the largest TVA dam that doesn't
generate power. It looks like it is a hot spot for fishing. My shoes
were horrible for climbing up those rocks.

When we arrived in Winchester, TN for lunch we realized Tennessee was
on Central Standard Time and we were an hour early. This gave us time
to shop at Hammer's, a general store on the town square. The first
floor was full of clothes and material that looked like they had been
sitting there for 10 years. The second floor had a huge toy area that
just kept going. The little girls found some treasures to buy up there
including a make your own jigsaw puzzle kit. Joe and Maggie reminisced
about shopping at Hammer's when they were kids. Both of them agreed
that not much had changed in over 20 years.

Inside the cave it was 60 degrees but with 100% humidity so it felt
like a balmy 70 degrees. It was a half mile walk through the cave to
get to the falls. As you approached the falls the breeze through the
cave would get stronger. The cave was nicely lit which made it the
perfect first spelunking experience for Monti and Dahlia. Dahlia was
scared she was going to be forced to go underwater in the cave like
the scene in the Planet Earth Cave DVD we have watched so many times.

There were some great cave formations in the cave. The people who
operated the tours in the cave had named and labeled several of the
formations with names like "steak and potatoes" and "tobacco leaves"
which in general was rather annoying. On Friday nights they turn all
the lights off in the caves. People travel to the falls using only
lanterns. If that isn't scary enough during the month of October they
open a different section of the Ruby Falls Cave up to the public for a
Haunted Cavern tour.