Day 30 + 12 = 42 - the school of hard Knoxville [att. to John Murray]

Feeling considerably better this morning, and first of all I have to thank Patrick enormously for taking up the cudgel and beating me over the head stepping into the breach when I was feeling so rotten. Nitpicking about spelling and grammar aside (which Patrick himself has acknowledged) I think he has done a fabulous job and has quite the flair for it. Sadly, now that I have admitted to feeling improved I cannot persuade him to continue.

As with most of our time here with Pam and Alex it was a slow start to the day. This is deliberate and an added bonus of landing on the good and kindly Osmands' door. Obviously the main aim is to catch up with family, but it has come at an opportune time in the trip to afford us a bit of down-time, especially for the kids (??!!). We have appreciated this greatly, and it has been lovely to spend time with the O's, particularly Pam, as Alex has had the good sense to escape to work during the day.

Isabel still feeling under the weather, so Julianne stayed home with her and read her the classic tale 'The Little Prince' as we had booked tickets for a performance of a theatrical adaptation of the story this evening in the hope that Isabel wold be feeling better by then - fortunately she was, but I shall get to that in due course.

Pam took Patrick and me to a nearby wildlife sanctuary, the Ijams (pron. I-yams) Nature Center (sic.), where we took a leisurely stroll along the boardwalk along the banks of the Tennessee River, and tried to determine which way the river was flowing - I'm not sure we ended up working it out, but the walk itself was very pleasant. Apart from the mosquitoes - it sounds corny, but in places the air was thick with them - most bothersome, and had to resort to using a leafy branch to discourage them. Sadly, as is the case with the Murray [the river, not the John], there is an unfortunate preponderance of introduced carp. It may well be that John also has an unfortunate preponderance of introduced carp, but if it is so, then he is hiding it well and it does not seem to be interfering with his ability to lead a healthy and productive life, which is more than can be said for the river. I wish both of them well.

Then, as part of the center (sic.) but separate from the sanctuary, we drove to a disused quarry and walked up to the Ross marble quarry loop. More mosquitoes. Patrick caught a glimpse of what was probably (based on his excellent description of it being like a crocodile with a turtle shell) a snapping turtle chowing down on a dead fish, before our presence startled it and it disappeared into the deep - or it may have only been six inches down, as the water was horribly murky. Went back later, but this time more quietly, and Patrick may have captured this elusive creature on film, which, sadly I still can't upload - I suspect it is a software problem, and it is too late in the trip to bother trying to fix it, so you will have to wait for the slide show - currently looking at close to two thousand photos, but remember there is still L.A. to get through, so we will hopefully be giving three thousand a good nudge.

Quiet afternoon. Early dinner and out to see the Clarence Brown Theatre's amateur production of 'The Little Prince'. An excellent production, with some superb acting, good acting all round, wonderful sets, and overall a faithful adaptation of the original book. But more importantly, both Patrick and Isabel stated independently of each other "...much better than Spiderman" - a glowing testimonial for a story which highlights the dangers of becoming dehydrated in the desert and subsequently hallucinating - a salutary warning for all travellers.

Oops - happy birthday Cheryl. Hopefully you will either re-read this entry [not sure why you would! but still] and forgive our inattentiveness, or else you haven't got to it yet, which means you will realise that I forgot on the day and I will look unnecessarily forgetful. Or of course there is the third option - you've already read it, noted that I forgot your birthday, and have now vowed to never speak to us again. Or the fourth option, whereby......oh, what the heck, we just hope you had a lovely day.