Today was the day of our big tour of the Walton’s Museum and Earl Hamner’s childhood house. As I said before this is been a place I wanted to visit ever since I found out it really existed.
I first told my wife that the entire tour looked like it would take about a half hour. I was wrong. The real reason for being wrong is that there are just some many pictures to see of the old cast and some scenes from the shows, you just had to stop and look.
Then we paid for a open tour of Earl Hamner’s childhood home. I could not have driven this far and not take a walk through the house. I has been restored by a local women who bought it for $122,000.00 and then looks like show put another $100,000 into it to complete the restore. We were impressed that they just hand you the key and say take as much time as you like. Very nice place to visit.
Here is a picture of me sitting at the very desk and in the very room as Earl did when he created his first book that started the Walton’s series. Thanks to Earl Hamner and the entire Walton cast for all of the year’s of memories with my father and my own family.
I know this is going to sound kind of funny; but waking to the Mountains seems to feel like the air is fresher and somehow cleaner. It feels like nature has a way of cleansing her self.
All of those years watching Walton’s Mountain and hearing the narrator talking about waking up in the mountains just somehow hits home now that I have experienced it for my self. I did however watch the ground closely while shooting some pictures this morning in fear of rattel snakes.
This is a shot that I grabbed from behind our road side Inn. I will be shooting more today as we make our way to the museum.
Driving to visit Walton’s Mountain felt like one of the longest trips we have ever went on, even though we have went much further in the past. I think it was all of the two lane roads that we were on for hours. Then you can make life even worse when you get behind a big rig going up hills at a snails pace.
What was really funny is that we went to the wrong hotel. Try that one on sometime. I walked into the hotel and asked if they had my reservation? It was funny to see the puzzled look on the clerks face. I was told that the hotel I was looking for is another hour and a half away, what a shock to the both of us.
We drove and found where we are suppose to be staying. My wife said she wished that we would have stayed where we thought we were suppose to be. The hotel we are in is clean, has no whirl pool bath, and has no pool, but we did bring our suites! Anyway that is the price I have to pay to be closer to Walton’s Mountain Museum. I have been wanting to come here for years and now we are finally on the mountain.
