Historic Rugby, Tennessee

The weather cooperated with us really well today for our visit to Historic Rugby. It got to over 70 degrees!! Boy, was that nice. Anyway, it took us about an hour and half to get to Rugby from our campground. We took the scenic route instead of the highway. It's always fun to see the surrounding area. We almost missed Rugby as we drove by! It was not the "town" I thought it was going to be. I thought it was a fully functioning town. And although people do live there, there is no commerce, so to speak.

The town consists of the 26 remaining original buildings from the establishment of the town in 1880. Its founder, Thomas Hughes, came to America to found a town where second sons could come and work since that was not acceptable in England. Second sons had very little future in England at that time. Hughes' mother came over in 1881 along with his 18 year old niece, Emily. Mrs. Hughes lived in Rugby until her death in 1887. Emily became very interested in photography and is responsible for many of the photographs found in the schoolhouse museum. The Episcopal church is still in used today. It is a beautifully kept building. The library is name for Thomas Hughes and was established a couple of years after the town, in 1882. The final picture I've posted here is of Hughes' home, named Kingstone Lisle.

There are other buildings in town that private owners have purchased to live as well as some that have been turned into Bed & Breakfast inns.

We also took a walk on one of the trails that leads down to the local river. We followed the trail to the "Gentlemen's Swimming Hole." Apparently, this was where the men in town would go to swim since it was taboo for men and women to sunbathe together back then. Let me tell you, it was quite a walk. Supposedly it was only .4 of a mile, but it seemed much longer - especially coming back up!!! Got my exercise for the day!

Just a little more history of our country. The more we travel, the more I am amazed at the widely varied history we have. And we are having so much fun learning about it!

When we got back to the campground today, we had a nice surprise. One of the couples from Ramblin' Pines checked in here this afternoon! Roger & Melissa lived at Ramblin' Pines since March. Randy & Roger played golf together a couple of times and Roger took over Randy's duties when we left. We had never met Melissa because she was still working full-time while they were there. We got caught up with them this evening. That was fun!

We leave Tennessee tomorrow morning to continue our journey to southern Alabama. We'll stop for the night tomorrow in Alpine, AL which is near Talledega. It's close enough to Birmingham that we'll be able to meet our friends, Dan & Debbie, for dinner. I'm excited about that! Seeing Dan & Debbie, I mean, not dinner. Although, dinner is always good, too! :) We'll get to Summerdale, our final destination for this trip, on Friday afternoon.

Until the next time . . . take care of one another. Drop us a line once in a while.