The visiting dog was a barking mess all night. I’m tired today. I’m also kind of pissed that the dog is going to be here for “a couple of weeks” and the cats are hiding in the garage. I know, last time, the cats eventually were like “fuck it” and came in the house and made their peace with the dog. And I know that will happen again.
But I still don’t like this part.
Tiny Cat Pants 
Completely unrelated to the post, but hey. ;)
Have you read “Jacksonland” by Steve Inskeep? I’m reading it slowly these days and it’s really interesting. I’m glad that I’ve read some of your historical posts for context since I know almost nothing about Tennessee. Am I right that the Tennessee River flows north out of Alabama and turns and drains into the Ohio? Anyway, the book is a different kind of followup to the previous book I read, “The Men Who United the States” by Simon Winchester. I’m fitting lots of loose pieces together in the process.
I haven’t read it yet. I need to, though, because people seem to like it. The Tennessee River basically makes a giant U. It starts up near Knoxville (this fact, like everything in Tennessee, is subject to some bickering), curves down south into Chattanooga (that’s why people who were traveling by river from Knoxville to Nashville were all the time getting kidnapped by Indians at Nickajack, which was roughly where Chattanooga is now), and then swoops into Alabama, where, after Muscle Shoals, it takes a hard turn north and comes almost straight up back through Tennessee.
The thing about the Tennessee is that it was always a RIVER whereas, for whatever reason, the Cumberland has been more like a lake with occasional ambitions. So, people would go down the Tennessee, cut upstream at the Ohio and then come back up the Cumberland to Nashville. The Tennessee had narrows and rapids and some falls (and even a whirlpool near Raccoon Mountain, I think), whereas the Cumberland was pretty easy to navigate.
The Cherokee and the Creek lived along the Tennessee, so coming that way was dangerous, but my sense was that it was still considered less dangerous than the land crossing.
Is this becoming “the story of how I got my other dog”?
That you’re not the first person to ask me that fills me with feelings of chagrin and terror.