More friends to visit near Chattanooga

After the dealership finished the alignment on the Jeep, and after our breakfast / lunch with Kim and Lisa and the grand-girls, we headed out to a Harvest Hosts location for the night with plans to visit with friends Wayne and Nancy who have moved from the Phoenix area to Ooltewah, north of Chattanooga. We got a little later start than we had planned so arrived a little later at the Harvest Host location, but still got to visit Wayne and Nancy's new home and go out to dinner with them. Unfortunately, no pictures of Wayne and Nancy, and none of the Harvest Hosts location - though we did find it to be very comfortable.

I posted about us joining Harvest Hosts (https://harvesthosts.com/) earlier this year (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/05/moving-to-our-first-harvest-hosts.html) -- I think they started by enlisting wineries as places for RVs to stop -- though we've stopped at farms, museums, a VFW, distillery, and bowling alley, we had not yet stayed at a winery or vineyard, until Tuesday night! We stayed at Silver Springs Vineyard (https://silverspringsvineyards.com/) - a new vineyard / winery with a Greek heritage and a Greek Cafe onsite. We went over to the cafe and gift shop Tuesday afternoon to get some of their products (including baklava!) and then went back on Wednesday morning when they opened to get a Gyro plate (Gyro meat with Mediterranean salad) that we carried along with us to eat for lunch.

We are taking a route that looks somewhat like one that would be associated with a drunken sailor (look at our map here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1ASCd8fOrsuteVurNuNDtCv9WNNimXzIl), but I didn't realize that we'd be entering Georgia (and then entering back into Tennessee soon after) on this part of the trip!

Soon after we crossed back into Tennessee, we crossed this lake made from the damming of the Tennessee River -- Nickajack Lake (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickajack_Lake) and then stopped at a rest area on an island within the lake.

This car with a huge nail through the trunk was there on display with the message, "Drive Drunk, Get Nailed"

After eating our Gyro salads, we walked around a little bit - looking back up the hill at Gracie...

... and at one of the trees that still had pretty yellow leaves!

Looking down toward the lake...

It was very pretty and peaceful. Since we had a shorter drive planned for Wednesday, we stopped for a couple of hours for lunch, naps (for Carl and Miss Kitty), and some walking around.

We headed on toward Murfreesboro where we plan to meet friends for breakfast on Thursday morning... 

And... since I'm posting this on Thursday morning, 12/2... Happy 22 Month-versary to us!