Travel Through the Back Door

When we travel, we use Rick Steve's philosophy of "traveling through the back doors". For those of you who do not know Rick Steve's, he writes the most informed guidebooks and has the greatest travel shows on PBS. Check him out at www.ricksteves.com. Since it is likely we will be moving next summer due to grad school, we have decided to explore our own area and adopted that philosophy to TN. You never know what is going to happen or what you may see. Here is what we did this past weekend...

We decided to head south with a full tank of gas and $10 in our pocket. The first stop was Starbuck's, of course, but then we were off. We exited I24 at Monteagle/Sewanee. Collin hikes the Firey Gizzard in that area, but I had never been. We stopped at a little art gallery on our way to Sewanee. The lady at the counter took to our boys right away. They were in awe over some hand blown glass that glowed in the dark. After experimenting with it awhile, she gave them each an ornament for the tree made out of it. I am happy to report they are still intact. On the road again...we drove past a sign that said St. Andrew's School. Being the curious folk we are, we stopped. It was an Episcopal Boarding School for 6-12 grade. The church bells were ringing so we got out to investigate. Turns out there were about 12 people standing in line to ring the bells. We were asked if we wanted to join in. What do you think we did? Yep, here are the pictures...


Turns out, we were participants in an 85 year old tradition held at the school. During WW1 a group of ladies gathered up a bunch of money to buy and send chocolate to the troops. Well by the time they had enough money, the war ended. They didn't know what to do with the money. They had heard of a new church being built that was in need of bells. They decided to donate the money on the condition that every Armistice Day they would ring the bells for 11 minutes at 11:11am in honor of the troops. How great is that! After the bells had been rung, we ate chocolate!

The church was beautiful. While we were in there, a senior at the school who plays the organ happened to be in there. He played the pipe organ for us. Nothing warms my heart for worship like a pipe organ does...except maybe chant. He asked Collin if he wanted to play, so what do you think happened next? (my husband is not shy!)


We traveled down the road a bit and came to The University of the South. Holy Cow! This place is gorgeous! Reminded me a bit of Oxford, only newer. It is "owned" by 12 or 13 Episcopal dioceses in different states. Here are some pics of the buildings...




We had lunch in a park and let the boys play...

Here is All Saints Chapel....






Isn't it beautiful! It made me long for our church's old building. Granted, I don't need beauty and icons to worship, but to me, it adds something.

Anyhow, the day was serendipitous. I wonder where our next "adventure" will lead us...