BEAUTIFUL, SPECTACULAR DOUGLAS LAKE

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Wow!  If anyone ever dreamed of owning that marvelous home on the lake;  ya better hurry on down to Douglas Lake while there are still a few lots to be had.  Imagine, if you can, the unbelievable views you can have from your kitchen window each and every morning.  Enjoy owning your own boat house at the edge of your property where access to your boat is only a hop, skip and a jump across your well manicured lawn.  Oh;  just the thought of it makes my legs shake!  You can enjoy uplifting visions in front of your getaway home every morning just like the one below:

Oh;  don't be concerned by the slightly low water level.  TVA drops the level just a touch each Fall.  What's a few inches of water matter when you can live right smack dab on the lake.  Oh, Wow!

Alright;  I'm poking a little fun at the lake.  The photos in this entry are of the Nolichucky River where it flows into Douglas lake.  All the brown you see in the photos will be under water sometime in March.  Right now it looks like the Sahara Desert with an irrigation ditch running through it.  The silo's are where farms used to be.  The structures were bulldozed down by TVA just prior filling the lake.  Foundations and concrete structures were evidently left standing.  Old 25E roadway can be seen exposed running past the old silo.

I don't believe I could live in a place where I had to look at views like this on a daily basis.  I'd think it would affect my ability to maintain a cheery attitude on a daily basis.  I wonder if any official agency ever thought about testing people from this area to see where their attitudes fall on the attitude scale as compared to people who spend their lives surrounded by beautiful scenes.  Wonder if there is an Attitude Scale?  The water will come back.  It always does.

The first place I ever fished out of a boat in Tennessee

When I turned off the main road onto this gravel road; something looked familiar.  I had bought a 17' bass boat one morning eight years ago and drove here with it, based on a recommendation by the salesman, to put it in the water for the first time.  I haven't been back since.  Judging from what I see right now;  I probably won't be back again anytime soon.

You can see the high water mark on the bridge piers.  In a couple more months the water will be back up there.

If you focus on that light strip of shoreline way out there on the right you'll notice a bird or two at rest on the gorgeous, pristine beach.  A closer view is below:

Bonaparte's Gulls

Something caught my eye that sort of amazed me.  It was a simple bridge pier, or support.

Looks just like an old bridge support.  Look how the support itself is supported.  I can't believe this construction would hold a concrete bridge with traffic.

I remember smirking when I walked up to this monster.  Thick, reinforced concrete designed to bear the weight of the world supported by tooth picks.  I've seen it all now.

  Wonder if the engineer who designed this little piece of craftsmanship designed any of the dams on the Little Tennessee River?

 You can plainly see where the other bridge supports were located.  TVA no doubt knocked those down to augment river travel.  They're professional knockerdowners.   Remember;  this will all be under water sometime in March or April.

This end of Douglas Lake is very near the mountains and should be a nice piece of water to work on in the Summer months.  Right now, however, it's definitely not friendly water.  There is a pretty swift flow going on.

Not for my canoe

I got Falcor back in the truck and we headed on up the road to see where it went.  Look what we found below:

The gate was open.  Humm!  This is a public road--I think.

I definitely had the feeling we shouldn't be here but, we were on a main country road.  We proceeded around a bend and there was a great house.

I could see me living here.  I would guess there's enough room inside that place to house about a hundred dogs comfortably.  What a party that would be!  This was a great old place but, it lacked the flavor of yesteryear.  It was the construction.  The place was obviously renovated as every part was new in appearance.  That was the problem.  The brick work and style were too perfect and modern.  The wood parts were prefab in appearance or plastic.  Note the brick posts on each side of the sidewalk in the next photo.

That's just not how they used to do it in the old days.  Stacked field stone or hand cut flat rock would have been the way to go.  If the entire house is viewed as a whole; there's far too much brick.  It needs stone and wood.  I wrote a note about my opinions and left it in the too modern looking mailbox.  I know the owners will thank me.
I drove on past the house and the road dead ended.  Amazing!  We were about ten miles from Route 25E on this side road and not one sign indicating "Dead End."   This guy even had a gate on a public road, it seems.  Beats me!

The wind was up and it was blustery cold out.  We headed home.  I looked forward to seeing my family.  I hope tomorrow warms up a bit as I'm scheduled to float the boat on this mud hole tomorrow afternoon.  We'll see.  Hope your New Year started out great!  See ya in awhile......