CozyNet Blog

Trip to Tennessee

I've made it back from my trip to Tennessee and glad to report that it all went well. I should probably reiterate that I went to Tennessee with a friend of mine and two of his older kids to a farm festival. This was primarily to assist with some of the members in my church that were there as vendors and such, but I did get to explore and enjoy my time. We went out in my small car in a single day which was a little cramped in the back, but that didn't bother me since I was in the front driving. ;^)

At first I packed too much stuff trying to plan things out, but had to leave some things behind, such as one of my fans. Fortunately the weather and climate in Tennessee is drier than Texas so I didn't need it anyway. I can imagine some people think of Texas as being a dry desert, but it's actually a humid and hot climate (at least in the central regions.) I did bring my neck fan to keep air blowing on my face which worked out well enough.

I also got a little sun burnt, but it was very lite and I probably needed the sun light anyway. I did bring an umbrella, but it was too large and clumsy, getting in peoples way. There were quite a lot of people there too, along with food trucks, vendor booths, live demonstrations, seminars, and music bands.

I took a few pictures of the trip to share, but I'm kind of terrible at remembering to take pictures or to bring my camera with me. The following picture of the vendor tents doesn't really do it much justice because this was just one of many lanes.

There were some nice tractors there too and a neat old truck.

Barns and gardens are cool too.

I also got to try out a weaving loom in the fiber crafts demonstration to make a small 6x5" woven coaster pad. I forgot to take a picture of the coaster pad I made, but it turned out alright. The contraption was delicate with peddles that were not so ideal for outdoor shoes, but I got it to work!

Weaving at a loom

Now prior to the farm festival, we went up to a place called Muddy Pond which allegedly is a place of several Amish and Mennonite communities. It's a really neat place, but we were there to meet up specifically with a friend and didn't have much time to explore the area.

Anyhow, I took a few pictures while there of the Sorghum Mill which is only in operation when it's Sorghum processing season.

I've censored some parts of the images for privacy reasons because I don't want pictures of my friends kids floating around the web.

The Sorghum is pressed up a nearby hill and runs down some pipes into the mill where it runs into these heated channels to cook. Outside is a large furnace for heating the channels and inside is supposed to be a guy with a paddle that pushes the Sorghum syrup along to the end where it's collected.

I also took a few pictures of a neat leather shop full of leather belts and harnesses.

On the trip back to Texas we stopped by the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Memphis. It's more or less a theme park meets Bass Pro Shop with a restaurant at the top. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me when we were there and only got a few pictures of going up the elevator to the top. The place is huge and we didn't really have the luxury of time to explore it since we were trying to make it back to Texas that night.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Date: 2026-06-10