Summer Tour

O' Smokey: 81' VW diesel— so far so good.

1st Destination: Knoxville

Timed my arrival in Knoxville to coincide with my cousin Mark’s annual 4th of July block party. This is the 10th. I’ve been invited every year. About time I made one.

Travel: Ol’ Smokey

Drove one of the back ways over the mountains— up through Boone and over to Johnson City. It was pretty and pleasant and took about as long as going the expressway with a lot less traffic.

The primary motivation for the route is that my 81′ VW pick up is not a good mountain climber. Beyond a certain grade, I must just drop down to 2nd gear and burn a lot of oil and I didn’t want to get run over by a semi-truck on the main route.

Music: Karaoke

Chicken Wing Cook-Off: 1st & 2nd Place

At my cousin Mark’s house in Knoxville, I learned that they weren’t having a band this year. Instead, the plan was to try karaoke. He showed me a tiny home karaoke machine that they planned to use.

I said ‘No. That won’t do.” Told Mark we needed a PA and volunteered to handle it. The PA came from All Occasions Rental and I used my own karaoke software and 10k songs left over from my American Legion project in Sanford a couple years ago.

The weather was perfect and the karaoke was a big hit. Everyone liked it better than having a band.

Folks arriving for fireworks