We left Lebanon in the morning and headed east on I-40. The leaf color, along the Interstate was very bright.
With only 170 miles between Lebanon and Knoxville, we decided to take a scenic detour off I-40 and drive the final 60 miles through some of the Tennessee back country. Our GPS indicated we would only add 36 minutes to the trip with this detour. We expected it would take us longer. We left Interstate 40 at exit 320 (Genesis Road) near Crossville, Tennessee, and headed north on Tennessee 298 toward Wartburg. We were quite surprised by the gasoline station at that exit.
Buc-ee's, a Texas based chain has been rapidly expanding (The Winchester, Kentucky, Sun says "spreading like Kudzu") in the southeast United States. The Crossville unit has 120 pumps and serves up a variety of barbecue sandwiches and other treats. Unlike a Pilot or Flying J, Buc-ee's doesn't allow 16-wheelers. Their latest Tennessee installation, in Sevierville, reportedly has 20 fast EV charging stations in addition to their 120 pumps. Linda captured an image as we drove past.
Genesis road took us on a beautiful winding route through the western foothills of the Cumberland mountains near the Obed Wild and Scenic River.
About halfway along our scenic detour, we approached the tiny town of Lancing on the Nashville Highway (TN 62). I was intrigued by a sign pointing toward Production Tool & Die, just a couple of miles up Shady Grove Road near the Shady Grove Church. We decide to go take a look.
Soon we had arrived at the intersection of Melvin Howard Road, G. Howard Road, and Shady Grove Rd. After reading some of the signage at this intersection we thought that we should visit the nearby Shady Grove Church, and we did so.
Returning to the intersection, we headed up Melvin Howard Rd. to the machine shop. Note that a single phone number serves both the machine shop and Melvin's Hay business.
Melvin was sitting outside the shop on his tractor and said that his wife was inside and would give us a tour of the facility. Naturally, we accepted and did a quick walk-through where we found a nice facility with a couple of employees at work on the machines. There are several rural machine shops here in Morgan County, presumably serving the needs of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the numerous high-tech small businesses that surround it.
Production Tool & Die has a website with a photo of the shop's exterior as well as interiors.
The view from the top of the hill back toward Lancing displayed great fall color. This Tennessee hilltop would be a perfect spot for anyone that could work remotely.
Since we were headed toward Wartburg, we expected to, perhaps, find a Lutheran community. While the town does have German origins, we never did see a Lutheran Church but passed numerous small churches. These are all found near Lancing, Wartburg and Oak Ridge:
- Saint Ann Catholic Church
- Oak Grove Church
- The Assembly of the Church
- Shady Grove Church
- Living Waters Church
- Liberty Baptist Church
- Beechfork Holiness Church
- Union Baptist Church
- Milestone Church
- Coalfield Seventh-day Adventist Church
- Middle Creek Baptist Church
- Big Mountain Church
- Kellytown Baptist Church
- Beech Park Baptist Church
After returning to the Nashville Highway, we stopped a couple of miles east of Lancing to take a picture of the signage at The Assembly of The Church.
It was clear that the pastor here has a point of view on infant baptism and is willing to stand by it.
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