Posted on 03/03/2009 2:46:28 PM PST by MHGinTN
Okay Freepers in the East Tennessee/Western North Carolina/ Southeastern VA Area, were gonna have a picnic! Time to gather, meet one another, and become a potential network in the coming months if needed. [ Its also fun to have a picnic in the Spring before the insects get going too strongly. ]
My family has a nice picnic area with entertainment pavillion in Boones Creek (the Tri-Cities area) and I am inviting you freeper folks to gather there on April 18th for food and conversation. Im not even asking yall to bring anything to the picnic, unless you have something special you like to drink. Im providing sandwich fixins, fried chicken, potato salad, slaw, chips, unsweetened tea (sweet and low and sugar will be available to add to taste), bottled water, and Coca Cola. There will be clean ice in a cooler, and plastic cups, paper plates and napkins and plastic utensils all the stuff of picnicking.
Plan on eating around 2 PM, but arrive before noon and chat it up. The picnic area has room for primitive camping (no electric or water hook ups), a separate parking area, and a fire pit to enjoy for those who wish to stick around into the late evening. If you let me know in advance youre coming, I can unlock the area for overnighters on Friday evening, and feel free to stay until Sunday if you clean up after yourselves. I have one gas lantern for evening in the pavilion at the picnic grounds, so if youre arriving Friday and want to bring a lantern for use after dark, thats about all you need bring to have a good time.
It is sometime chilly in the evenings in mid-April, so bring a sweater or coat to use if needed. There is a johnny house and I will park my little moho at the grounds with a bathroom on board and a generator if evening need arises. Freeper bert (from Kingsport) will be posting pix of the grounds, showing the pavilion and the mosh pit. Please let us know (bert or me) if you intend to join in so I can plan food accordingly. If you intend to camp Friday or Saturday (or both), please let me know a week ahead.
If you do a google map search on 290 Crouch Road, Gray TN 37659, you will get a view of where the picnic grounds are located. Generally, highway 36 runs from Johnson City to Kingsport. If coming from the Johnson City direction (toward Kingsport), turn right at the light at Zaks Furniture (Boones Creek Road crossing HY 36) onto Pickens Bridge Road (Boones Creek Road turns into Pickens Bridge Road at the light going northeast). Pickens bridge Road goes down a long hill then makes an abrupt left up a steep hill, past a Baptist church on a hairpin right curve and straightens out. In the straightaway Crouch Road turns off to the left and is named Flowerville Road going right take the left on Crouch Road. About a mile from Pickens Bridge Road you will pass a restored historic log house on the right (the Jesse Crouch historic home site), the picnic grounds are just down the road on the right, across from a large log house and log cottage, on the right up the hill. The picnic grounds are in Marys Bottom, with a spring branch running through it.
If coming along highway 36 from the Kingsport direction (toward Johnson City), turn left at Zaks and follow the above directions. Interstate 81 has a highway 36 exit near Kingsport that is approximately ten miles from Zaks furniture, going toward Johnson city. If you follow Interstate 81 and take Interstate 26 toward Asheville, there is a Boones Creek Road exit. This is the Boones Creek Road which ends at the light at Zaks Furniture if you go right off of the Boones Creek Road exit from interstate 26.
If anyone needs more involved directions or more detailed info, freepmail me and Ill give you my phone number to call. Bert says freepers are always lookin for a reason to take a trip. Well, here it is! Were havin a picnic for freepers.
My pop was from TN.....Paris to be specific.
Someday I will visit.....
Best FRegards,
Round up the family and a tent or two and come on!
I’ll put up a sign or two at strategic turn points off the old JC/Kingsport road.
Sounds good to me. Must be two threads running. I looked back over the posts for the directions that were written down for me, maybe I overlooked them on this thread. I will go back and check again.
Thanks much!
Thats okay, its (directions)in Freepmail....forgot! LOL!
do you know steveo?
No, I don’t believe I know steveo. Does he live in Bristol?
I just wrote Nellie Mae to ask if she was going and I could perhaps meet her on 394 at the shopping center. That is, if she hasn’t made other plans. I am waiting to hear from her now.
The picnic is on the left (in 'Mary's Bottom') just past the restored Jesse Crouch log home which sits on the right one mile from Pickens Bridge Road, along Crouch Road).
Come hungry, I dont have room at home for leftovers. Food served at 2PM, but snacks and drinks will be at the pavillion from around eleven when Ben comes to hang the freeper flags. If you have a sign fromt he Tea Parties, bring it!
Have fun. It looks like it will be a beautiful day for a picnic. Wish I could be there. While you’re eating, I will be taking my first section of the CPA exam. The picnic sounds more enjoyable.
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